I do a fair amount of NYT-bashing; I guess it comes with the territory. But the Times is still a terrific paper, and I come across fascinating news stories all the time there. Here are two recent efforts I thought were first-rate: Donald G. McNeil Jr. helps us understand how policy, research, and health intersect; and Noam Cohen gives some well-deserved publicity to the invaluable iCasualties.
More good stuff:
1. I keep meaning to comment on this one, and never get to it, so I guess I'll surrender and just link to Matt Yglesias on "The Wonk in a Time of Partisanship." Interesting. Not sure he's right, but very interesting.
2. Monica Potts, on food and farming.
3. Wikileaks? Try Heather Hurlburt.
4. I still think that Ross Douthat is a better blogger than columnist, but he's getting better at the latter, I think; his effort on partisanship was quite good.
5. Paul Krugman explains why a workable consensus among economists collapsed.
6. The great reporter and brother David S. Bernstein is on the generation beat, now tracking Gen Xers in the new Congress. Meanwhile, David Weigel continues to track (what I see as) the strength of the GOP party network.
7. Paul Waldman on listening to politicians.
8. Ed Kilgore says what has to be said about the possibility of a primary challenge to Obama. Also, Adam Server notes the absence of Rahm.
9. A little Beck-bashing from Lauri Lebo. By the way -- do people under 30 think of It's A Wonderful Life as the movie that's constantly on every channel for five weeks every year? I suppose not.
10. The snark level of Alex Pareene's series on hacks was quite impressive, to the extent that it was a bit dated -- but as far as I'm concerned his #1 choice justified the whole series. Even better was Kevin Drum on columnists.
A Christmas Story is shown far more ubiquitously than It's a Wonderful Life, so that would hold title as "the movie that's constantly on."
ReplyDeletePaul Waldman on listening to politicians.
ReplyDeleteBob Somerby works so hard, and still the Gore/internet meme gets uncritically repeated on liberal websites.
Ed Kilgore says what has to be said about the possibility of a primary challenge to Obama.
ReplyDeleteReally? Kilgore's conclusion may be correct - I think it's too soon to tell - but his arguments seem pretty weak to me.
The interactive graph Kilgore links to is way cool. Comparing Obama and LBJ on Democratic job approval over time gives a different picture from Kilgore's single data point.