Friday, March 27, 2009

Not clicking

Can anybody think of a good reason I should care what David Brooks thinks about Afghanistan? I can't either, except maybe to mock his column and that's too easy. It's not worth the time and it just encourages the NYT to post more of his useless tripe.

The newspaper industry is trying to find a working model for an internet based product that generates income. They've fallen for the myth that traffic matters most. While it's a certainly a factor, hits don't equate influence, credibility or quality of content. But as long as they believe this, and they all do, not clicking and especially not linking, is the only way to send them a message.

I haven't read MoDo, Noonan or Brooks among many other overpaid pundits in a long time. I don't read Politico anymore. I wait for someone else with better analytical skills to cover the low points of the piece. I don't feel like I've missed anything.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

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2 Comments:

Blogger Brian Krenz said...

I have to respectfully disagree.

Sometimes Brooks and others like him dish out some of the stupidest stuff I've ever read.

But not always. Sometimes they contribute ideas with which I disagree, but which are based on decent reasoning. I can't write off those articles even if I want to - reasonable ideas are reasonable ideas, and they should be respected.

Still other times, they contribute flat out good ideas. It's rare, but I think it still happens.

I thought Brooks' column today was good. And encouraging.

Maybe I'm just desperate to seek common ground typically absent-minded conservatives, but I try to give credit whenever I can - even if it goes to someone I generally disagree with.

12:07:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Sorry Brian. Brooks is one the worst entitled class Villagers with his fake "voice of the people" schtick. We're talking about a guy who pontificated on Obama's inability to connect with "teh little people" he knows so well because he wouldn't fit in at the salad bar at Appelbees. Of course, a real man of the people would know that Applebees doesn't have a salad bar.

He makes up stuff like talking to imaginary cab drivers all the time. Chances are he never left his hotel room and six days in Kabul can't possibly be that informative unless he actually went out trekking the countryside without an armed escort and spoke to the people in their native language. I doubt he did that.

Ill-advised hope is what got us mucked up in Iraq for so long. False hope won't *win* in Afghanistan. I'm no longer reading anyone who has been consistently wrong and never owns up to their mistakes.

You're free of course to do as you will. Please let me know if he's proven right about anything.

1:12:00 PM  

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