The occupational hazards of opinion journalism include certain intellectual and moral bad habits. Logical fallacies offer tempting shortcuts through difficult arguments. Blind spots for procedural abuses suddenly afflict us when it’s our guys making the rules. Preaching to the converted, though lazy and ultimately self-defeating, is rewarded in the short term by the amen chorus. . . . how hard it is to avoid the “shrillness, mean-spiritedness, and insincerity” that characterize so much contemporary opinion writing. I would add that in my experience, the more frequently you write, the harder it is to avoid becoming a caricature of yourself.
18 October 2010
Quote of the day - note to self
Stephen Spruiell writes in NRO
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It's a struggle and, as an online journalist, it's made even harder by the fact that you can see precisely how much more you're rewarded - in terms of traffic - for sensationalism than straight reporting.
ReplyDeleteMy posts with the most reads have all been (justified) attacks on individuals. You want reads, write gossip. Look at Guido F.
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