"The symptoms of this malady, named after the longtime editor of Harper’s, Lewis H. Lapham (now of Lapham’s Quarterly), include an elevated, orotund, deeply ironic prose style that, in severe cases, reveals almost nothing about what the topic is or what the author wishes to say about it except for a general sense of superiority to everyone and everything around." READ MORE

Michael Kinsley, Time-firee and bombed LA Times editorial page editor and current Washington Post opinionator, turns his eye to the ridiculousness that is the New York Times correction page. "Who can take facts seriously after reading the daily 'Corrections' column in the New York Times? Although the purpose of this column is to demonstrate the Times's rectitude about taking facts seriously, the facts it corrects are generally so bizarre or trivial and its tone so schoolmarmish that the effect is to make the whole pursuit of factual accuracy seem ridiculous." And where have we read all this before, except much better? READ MORE

"What, for example, is this graphic on the letters page? Why, for that matter, is there still a letters page? It's the first page of content you come to. Five one-paragraph comments on the issue published two weeks ago–room for little more than a thumbs up or down. On the Internet, thousands of people have their say immediately and at length. And then a self-parody: 'Your thoughts on swine flu' -the cover story two weeks ago–"in six words." Hali McGrath of Berkeley, California, submitted, 'Blah, blah, swine flu, blah blah.' And Newsweek published it." The Newsweek redesign: Michael Kinsley-formerly of Time, previously the editor of the New Republic, briefly the editor of the LA Times editorial page, founder of Slate (now under the same roof as Newsweek in the Washington Post's information/test-prep conglomerate), blah, blah, etc., is not a fan.