These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:
- Lizza on Obama | The New Yorker — “Obama, who is not without an ego, regarded himself as just as gifted as his top strategists in the art and practice of politics. Patrick Gaspard, the campaign’s political director, said that when, in early 2007, he interviewed for a job with Obama and Plouffe, Obama said that he liked being surrounded by people who expressed strong opinions, but he also said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”
- The Mini Depression and the Maximum-Strength Remedy | Robert Reich — “The real problem is on the demand side of the economy…
Introductory economic courses explain that aggregate demand is made up of four things, expressed as C+I+G+exports. C is consumers. Consumers are cutting back on everything other than necessities. Because their spending accounts for 70 percent of the nation’s economic activity and is the flywheel for the rest of the economy, the precipitous drop in consumer spending is causing the rest of the economy to shut down.
I is investment. Absent consumer spending, businesses are not going to invest.
Exports won’t help much because the rest of the world is sliding into deep recession, too. That leaves G, which, of course, is government.”
- Paul Dacre’s speech to the Society of Editors | Journalism.co.uk — “Sensation sells papers. Editors are troublemakers who invariably fall out with the authorities. Editors can’t get too close to anyone. Too often those who befriend them, do it for one of two reasons: they want to get something into the paper or, more likely, keep it out. A good editor has to be an outsider. Being an outsider can be very lonely.”
- Budget blowout heaps pressure on BBC news foreign news | Broadcast — “According to insiders, the far-reaching budget cuts introduced last year by director general Mark Thompson under the Fewer, Bigger, Better strategy have been exacerbated in the foreign news department by a spate of major stories overseas, such as the Beijing Olympics and the US election. The budget has also been stretched by the weakening pound.”
- Weighing the words | Financial Mail — Can You Trust The Media? review: “His penetrating and largely critical survey concludes that to remain well informed, society needs to understand the media’s limitations and its boundaries, and make information as freely available as possible.”
- Freedom’s Curse | The Atlantic — Steven Pinker: “[G]iven how language is interwoven with thought…any ban on words will lead to absurdities. Take Carlin’s monologue. Carlin mentioned the word fuck not to describe sexual activities, nor to shock his audience. He mentioned it to show how people use taboo words and to advance the argument that the government should not regulate them. The ruling that restricted his language restricted public criticism of the ruling itself—mocking the very rationale for free speech.”