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Sunday, July 24, 2005
UD: Sliver of a Sliver Richard Posner comments on blogs, newspapers, and reading habits in the New York Times: The argument that competition increases polarization assumes that liberals want to read liberal newspapers and conservatives conservative ones. Natural as that assumption is, it conflicts with one of the points on which left and right agree - that people consume news and opinion in order to become well informed about public issues. Were this true, liberals would read conservative newspapers, and conservatives liberal newspapers, just as scientists test their hypotheses by confronting them with data that may refute them. UD does indeed read Dissent, The Economist, The Nation, The Village Voice, City Journal, left/right, left/right, left/right…. Owning no tv, she doesn’t do the CNN and Fox thing. And predictable ideologues of left and right do not interest her. But does she cover the political spectrum in her reading because she’s inviting challenges to her biases? No. She actually does enjoy “being in a state of doubt.” The other weird thing about her is that she thinks writing well covers a variety a sins. A writer might be saying all sorts of crap, but if she’s saying it beautifully, UD will go along for the ride. |