Soccer Dad

The daily kristof

Nicholas Kristof laments "the Daily Me" the tendency of people to seek out only news that makes them comfortable, not news that informs them. For example, Kristof isn't free from such failings either.

Let me get one thing out of the way: I'm sometimes guilty myself of selective truth-seeking on the Web. The blog I turn to for insight into Middle East news is often Professor Juan Cole's, because he's smart, well-informed and sensible -- in other words, I often agree with his take. I'm less likely to peruse the blog of Daniel Pipes, another Middle East expert who is smart and well-informed -- but who strikes me as less sensible, partly because I often disagree with him.

Well don't worry, I expect that most of his media colleagues prefer Cole to Pipes. And, in fact, one of the institutions where this "daily me" is most apparent is in the MSM, where dissent is rarely tolerated. I used to get different papers in my life. I don't anymore. I do get my news online. It's because I've found that the media instead of reporting news, spins it. There's little difference between the news and opinion pages. News analyses, which are simply reclassified opinion essays appear on front pages now. I can take a news story and analyze what's reported just as well as any J-school graduate. In fact most bloggers I read are equally capable of doing so. The media have made themselves irrelevant by getting away from reporting and getting into advocacy.