… Steve Roberts is trashing books he hasn’t read, he probably shouldn’t do that. Not a good message to send to his students.
… Steve Roberts is trashing books he hasn’t read, he probably shouldn’t do that. Not a good message to send to his students.
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October 7th, 2011 at 11:38AM
“Probably” shouldn’t do that?
October 7th, 2011 at 2:30PM
There’s been some serious inside the Beltway trashing of McGinnis on the book, much of it before publication. I find him spot on when criticizing the media’s lack of vetting Palin in the first place and then protecting her because of the way she drives readership. She’s been their cash cow for the last three years, even if people read about her in order to fuel their dislike of her. And Roberts is just one more in the middle of it. He’s teaching ethics????
October 9th, 2011 at 2:14PM
Joe McGinnis on media ethics? That’s pretty funny, too. If the media had any ethics, he’d have been laughed out of the profession when he tried to torpedo a competing book by distributing drafts.
But I don’t accept the whole “must have read/seen/experienced to comment” principle. For a formal review, sure; it’s a professional responsibility. But nobody has the time or energy or need to read everything themselves — that’s why we write reviews, to save each other time — and sometimes you can get more than enough data about a story, argument, etc., from knowledgeable people that informed commentary is reasonable.
October 9th, 2011 at 3:43PM
Jonathan: But just because McGinnis, and his book, are so controversial, and because the book is so much read, Roberts had an obligation, before mouthing off about it in an authoritative way in front of millions of people, to read it. He’s a taking head, a political expert. Do you want movie critics on tv who say I haven’t seen the film but I’ve heard it’s crap?