Harper's has just posted-in what reads to me as a big extending of the middle finger to the New York Times, in light of this morning's Times piece on Harper's- Renata Adler's fantastic "A Court of No Appeal," from 2000, which addresses her interactions with the Times in specific and also the idea of a media contretemps in general. It is a must-read if you have never had the pleasure.
I'm sorta bemused by the whim-whams you get from Renata Adler, Choire. (nb: I am a man-ho for Pauline Kael but that has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING, I swear.)
Mind you, I don't mean this in the sense of "Renata Adler? Ugh, why HER?" I mean it more like...well...me, personally, I feel exposed when I try to give props to the intellectuals who inspire me. (People outside of a few rock critics [and Kael, obv.].)
I love that Adler piece, and it is a good reminder that Times reporters have always been an insufferable lot, not just the current batch. I got into an argument with one recently about math, or more precisely, her inability to do basic statistics, and her editors' unwillingness to correct her error even though it was horribly misleading and inarguably wrong. And yet, as Adler says, they fall all over themselves to issue a correction that "The bride's father's given name is Randal, not Randall". Paper of record, indeed.
An earlier version of this obituary misstated the location of the Groton School and the name of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Yes, that. And every Alessandra Stanley piece, of course.
Whopping, wow SO good.
Hooooo boy. After reading that piece I think I need a nap and my hair is all disheveled like I just had a sex romp. Renat-ooh-la-la!
That Gray Lady, she's such a bitch.
fuck, that was really good.
Good catch. (What did you do, Choire, comb the Harper's site to see what they would come up with today?) -- What's worse, the kind of arrogant stuff described in that article? Or some reporter who fabricates stuff and gets away with it for a while? (I vote for the former as worse than the latter.)
That is one badass takedown
I need a cigarette. Any of you lard-asses want to join me?
I chatted with a New York Times journalist once. He didn't seem too bright, and I'm pretty sure he was on coke.
His name was Jayson Blair.
By then, I was long past soiling my hands with the ink of the Times.
Also, some call it a "pay wall".
I like to refer to it as a "coffin lid".
I need to read the response in Harpers from November 2000 before commenting further.