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USSMidway's avatar

To all those criticizing MT for picking an individual to profile whose pathetic excuse for “journalism” is a case study that illustrates a larger point, note this is exactly the kind of thing NPR/NYT/WAPO/CNN do every day. They develop a narrative that makes them feel virtuous, hunt for an individual whose story can be shown to demonstrate the narrative in real life, as though it serves as proof of their worldview, and expect us to believe this is “Evidence”. The test, for me, is whether generalizing from the case to the wider world is rational and from a scientific point of view, reproducible across larger data sets in similar settings.

MT has made the case already that this person is not an isolated case, but rather a common phenotype in modern “journalism”. So he passes that bar IMHO, with much greater credibility than the MSM entities who are on a mission to change the world.

Stern spends his days pouring gasoline on the divisive bonfires consuming the culture, getting the transgressive thrill that comes from the same place that drives vandalism and pyromania. He chooses to do so in public, and evinces no cognitive dissonance that would reveal any self-awareness of his vacuity. So no pity is due this cretinous parasite. Live by the sword....

What I do think would be useful, and responsive to some of the criticism, is further exploration of the ecosystem that drives and rewards such people. Stern has supervising editors somewhere at the Daily Beast; who are they and why do they hire and promote such weak thinkers? How do advertisers square their inexplicable desire to appear as sponsors of this trash with their corporate image? How does it make their employees or customers feel that they are spending shareholder assets funding this useless tripe?

Going back to his training, how do the overpaid hacks at Columbia where he was indoctrinated with this perspective justify their existence? How do the “thought leaders” in the field, like Jay Rosen at NYU (PressThink) understand their role in creating a US version of Pravda? Let’s follow the breadcrumbs from Stern, whose career has become a public embarrassment, to those up the food chain who trained and motivated him to be such a waste of space. I think it is time to “punch up”, to use the frame of the critics here.

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Jay's avatar

It's truly disgusting that "journalism" has come to this. Keep calling them out, Michael. They're destroying/have destroyed a once (semi) noble profession.

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