[HN Gopher] Janet Malcolm has died ___________________________________________________________________ Janet Malcolm has died Author : samclemens Score : 35 points Date : 2021-06-17 23:59 UTC (23 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com) | Barrin92 wrote: | I think probably one of the more relevant parts of her legacy is | the assessment of journalism | | _> "One of the through lines in her work was a merciless view of | journalism, never mind that she was one of its most prominent | practitioners."Human frailty continues to be the currency in | which it trades," she wrote in "Iphigenia in Forest Hills: | Anatomy of a Murder Trial" (2011). "Malice remains its animating | impulse."_ | | I actually think this is how journalism ought to be. I | occassionaly think of Hunter S. Thompson's obituary of Nixon in | which he described how one had to get subjective and leave behind | the standards of so called 'objective' journalism to get to the | truth. I think this kind of competitive malice is no worse than | say, the malice in business to outcompete. | | What I personally don't like is not that kind of inquisitive | writing but a moralistic attitude denying it. If journalists | pursue this kind of writing they should hold themselves to that | same standard, but they should nonetheless not shy away from | controversy. One place where I think it's really relevant today | is tech. You have companies like a16z trying to produce these | soft propaganda alternative media outlets in response to 'toxic' | journalists, but I side firmly with the journalists here _even if | part of journalistic writing is notoriety and fame or 'malice'_, | they just ought to admit it. I'm often kind of sad to see how | uncritically people, in particular here on HN, eat up these calls | for civility, which is simply power trying not to be questioned. | mycologos wrote: | > I think this kind of competitive malice is no worse than say, | the malice in business to outcompete. | | I think it matters that the goals of journalism are ostensibly | different from the goals of business. The goal of business is | to get people to buy something, maybe with some sideline in | getting them to keep doing it over a long time. The goal of | journalism is, I think, to show people important things that | are happening. Optimizing engagement/acquiring customers is the | goal for business, optimizing readership isn't _supposed to be_ | the goal for journalism. If it is, you run into, well, the | things people complain about in modern journalism (and not-so- | modern yellow journalism). And I think journalists whose | primary goal is notoriety are more likely to optimize for | controversy and readership, not showing people important | things. | | That's sort of orthogonal to "civility", I guess. But I | question the idea that adversarial journalism is the way to go. | My understanding is that good journalists have excellent people | skills and can write critically and truthfully while | cultivating relationships in an area that enable them to keep | understanding what's happening in that area. Probably the | number of journalists who are genuinely able to do this is not | high, but we should hope for more of them. | morelisp wrote: | I think we're probably best off with both Hunter S. Thompson | and Walter Cronkite, but I'd much rather have - and think | society would be better informed and pointed in a better | direction by - two Thompsons and no Cronkites than the other | way around. | blowski wrote: | I feel some of the same discomfort that you feel with modern | journalism. Some (not all) calls for "civility" seem to be code | for "if you disagree with me you're being uncivil". Completely | objective, unbiased journalism is impossible for all but the | most banal of stories. | | And yet somehow the idea of all journalism being a form of | individuals' perspectives of situations seems equally | disquieting. With the hand of outstanding writers this | blatantly personal journalism produces writing of the highest | quality. But lesser writers - I'm thinking of the likes of | Tucker Carlson and Owen Jones - it becomes nothing more than | second-rate preaching at the Sunday pulpit. Nothing new is | said, nobody learns anything. It's just stories that make a | certain audience feel good. | 52-6F-62 wrote: | I don't know that we'll escape that completely. I mean, for | every true spiritual guide there are charlatans, for every | shop owner there are thieves, for every great artist their | imitators. | morelisp wrote: | I too miss Valleywag. | Jun8 wrote: | Responses and reminiscences from several writers on her passing: | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/books/page-tu... | | When I first came across it I loved her article "Forty One False | Starts" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/11/forty-one- | fals... | tpmx wrote: | It's sad that people die when they get old. | saltmeister wrote: | who | neonate wrote: | https://archive.is/MEu7M ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-18 23:01 UTC)