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Faction and fakes, trust and distrust
The director Peter Kosminsky was once a documentary maker. In 1988 he made a film called Afghantsi, about the Red Army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The film won all sorts of awards, but what I loved about it were the sequences cut to a haunting piece of brilliantly chosen Afghan music. I resolved to track it…
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Young people and the news
Young people and the news. Harvard’s Shorenstein Centre has a metrics-based jeremiad out, with just that title. (In case you feel like it’s déjà vu all over again, I’ve posted on this before.) Hand-wringing over young people and the news is simply a displaced generational concern for their lack of the right stuff. We don’t…
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Ever wondered why the news doesn’t makes sense?
Because it doesn’t have to, that’s why. And if you don’t believe me – here is the Saturday Review from 1861: What does it matter if the Times, which is the organ of so many of us, contradicts itself and changes sides from day to day? Do not most people contradict themselves? Is the opinion…
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Essential maintenance
Been having a couple of problems with some of the hacks on this page going south…normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.