I think could read the New York Times for a hundred years and not come across anything as well-written as this gem of a blog post by Joyce Cohen, who writes The Hunt column in the Times. I love her column — but this is better. It’s about something I don’t even care about, New York real estate.
By incredible coincidence, Nicholas Kristof’ s most recent blog entry (April 17, 2007) is also better, in my opinion, than essentially everything that appears in the Times (or any other paper). Kristof reprints a letter to him from a student that makes an extremely important point about Africa coverage in the Times (and, probably, all other Western newspapers): It is unceasingly focussed on failure. I wonder why.
It is the quality of the writing that impressed me, not the content. The writing was warm, relaxed, evocative, and appreciative.
In contrast, the student letter that Kristof quotes is not especially well-written — I’d give it an A-. I’d give the thought behind it an A+. I found it extremely interesting.
As I am not a subscriber to Times Select, nor can I afford to be, I have no way of knowing whether I agree with you or not Seth. My question; is there anything that gives access to this material like the Permalinks to ordinary NYT articles?
Sorry. I should have paid more attention to my sister, who had the same complaint. I have posted most of it.
https://sethroberts.org/2007/04/23/what-loren-berlin-a-student-at-the-university-of-north-carolina-wrote-nicholas-kristof/
Thank you. You’re right. It is a wonderful piece of writing. And as someone who works for an organization that is trying to imrpove the lives of poor people around the world — not just Africa — I can fully agree. Good news has almost no value. Never has had. Never will have. People want strife and despair and cruelty and wrong, not for themselves, but to read with their breakfast muffin.