Comments on: Flat Earth Views http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2008/02/29/flat-earth-views/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:58:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: john kelly http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2008/02/29/flat-earth-views/#comment-3807 john kelly Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:15:35 +0000 http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2008/02/29/flat-earth-views/#comment-3807 Thanks for giving the Lanchester piece the attention it deserves, Tom. It's refreshingly concise (for the LRB!), as befits Nick's readable and sanguine book. Can't say it hasn't been said before, though - Cf. Orwell, Gissing, Waugh for starters. It's true that more is less: the so-called news in general consists of a smaller and smellier pool of stagnant non-stories cooked up by people who don't care or who have an interest in Newspeak 'the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year'. We work on really tight budgets (I should know), but don't tend to use PR contacts, much less newswires or press releases, partly because we're a monthly, partly because they are generally howlingly awful and mainly because we're icily aloof, elitist and cynical. And nobody buys us lunch. For what it's worth, I urge good writers (and readers) to question everything and accept nothing at face value, up to and including Prospect: it's the least we can expect and keeps us sharp. If you like conspiracy theories, the world's full of interesting news, so when the skateboarding parrot becomes the main event, you can be sure something's happening elsewhere that you're not hearing about - or if you don't like conspiracy theories, it's holiday season and the hacks and flaks and MPs are off in their second homes. Thanks for giving the Lanchester piece the attention it deserves, Tom. It’s refreshingly concise (for the LRB!), as befits Nick’s readable and sanguine book. Can’t say it hasn’t been said before, though - Cf. Orwell, Gissing, Waugh for starters. It’s true that more is less: the so-called news in general consists of a smaller and smellier pool of stagnant non-stories cooked up by people who don’t care or who have an interest in Newspeak ‘the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year’. We work on really tight budgets (I should know), but don’t tend to use PR contacts, much less newswires or press releases, partly because we’re a monthly, partly because they are generally howlingly awful and mainly because we’re icily aloof, elitist and cynical. And nobody buys us lunch.

For what it’s worth, I urge good writers (and readers) to question everything and accept nothing at face value, up to and including Prospect: it’s the least we can expect and keeps us sharp. If you like conspiracy theories, the world’s full of interesting news, so when the skateboarding parrot becomes the main event, you can be sure something’s happening elsewhere that you’re not hearing about - or if you don’t like conspiracy theories, it’s holiday season and the hacks and flaks and MPs are off in their second homes.

]]> By: Daniel Taghioff http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2008/02/29/flat-earth-views/#comment-3779 Daniel Taghioff Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:45:59 +0000 http://blog.prospectblogs.com/2008/02/29/flat-earth-views/#comment-3779 Yes, and interestingly there is some evidence of crossover. The Guardian BAE investigation posted a lot of its evidence on the web, and members of the blogo-sphere went out and tracked down further evidence based on these leads and fed them back. This kind of Wiki-Journalism broke one of the most potent political stories of recent years. It is a model that the media in general could learn from. Maybe this blog should be used more to generate leads for stories? This would allow journalism to get far more feral. Yes, and interestingly there is some evidence of crossover. The Guardian BAE investigation posted a lot of its evidence on the web, and members of the blogo-sphere went out and tracked down further evidence based on these leads and fed them back.

This kind of Wiki-Journalism broke one of the most potent political stories of recent years. It is a model that the media in general could learn from. Maybe this blog should be used more to generate leads for stories? This would allow journalism to get far more feral.

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