Category Archives: Media

I Too Speak English ‘Goodly’

Business, English, Journalism, libertarianism, Media, Outsourcing

The Orange County Register is trying a new way to cut costs:

[O]utsourcing to India. Mindworks Global Media will copy edit some of the papers stories for a one-month trial starting next week. And a community newspaper owned by the O.C. Register’s parent company–it didn’t name which one–will outsource page layout to Mindworks, which is based outside New Delhi. …
Copyeditors do a lot more than spell checking; they also take on syntax and grammatical issues, thinking about local idioms and sayings.
Is that outsourcable? Chief copyeditors at places like the New York Times and New Yorker are revered. If that part of the newsroom is sent overseas, what’s next, reporting?

As a matter of interest, I had offered my weekly column, “Return to Reason,” to the Orange County Register. I had proposed to undercut any of the crappy syndicated columns the paper features. I had promised to suitably tone down and tailor the tenor of the column too.

You’d think a libertarian paper would give preference over its editorial pages to a few of America’s underappreciated libertarian writers. Or, at the very least, choose to “reinvent itself” with something interesting, instead of the banal, boring, oft-immoral columns that are distributed to hundreds of newspapers across the country.

(I even submitted a shortened version of the fiercely libertarian “They’re Coming For Your Kids,” whose passion and reason only writer William N. Grigg approached. I’m sure he too would not mind replacing the syndicated Larry Elder in the OCR.)

But, I was lucky to get a reply. Courtesy is scarce among the American editorial-page establishment. On the odd occasions my column was published, it was expected to be gratis.

I’m a little tied up now with writing obligations—columns and book—but hey, OCR, if India disappoints, I’m an ace editor. I speak and write English goodly; exceptionally goodly. I’ll both outperform and undercut Delhi.

I Too Speak English 'Goodly'

Business, English, Journalism, libertarianism, Media, Outsourcing

The Orange County Register is trying a new way to cut costs:

[O]utsourcing to India. Mindworks Global Media will copy edit some of the papers stories for a one-month trial starting next week. And a community newspaper owned by the O.C. Register’s parent company–it didn’t name which one–will outsource page layout to Mindworks, which is based outside New Delhi. …
Copyeditors do a lot more than spell checking; they also take on syntax and grammatical issues, thinking about local idioms and sayings.
Is that outsourcable? Chief copyeditors at places like the New York Times and New Yorker are revered. If that part of the newsroom is sent overseas, what’s next, reporting?

As a matter of interest, I had offered my weekly column, “Return to Reason,” to the Orange County Register. I had proposed to undercut any of the crappy syndicated columns the paper features. I had promised to suitably tone down and tailor the tenor of the column too.

You’d think a libertarian paper would give preference over its editorial pages to a few of America’s underappreciated libertarian writers. Or, at the very least, choose to “reinvent itself” with something interesting, instead of the banal, boring, oft-immoral columns that are distributed to hundreds of newspapers across the country.

(I even submitted a shortened version of the fiercely libertarian “They’re Coming For Your Kids,” whose passion and reason only writer William N. Grigg approached. I’m sure he too would not mind replacing the syndicated Larry Elder in the OCR.)

But, I was lucky to get a reply. Courtesy is scarce among the American editorial-page establishment. On the odd occasions my column was published, it was expected to be gratis.

I’m a little tied up now with writing obligations—columns and book—but hey, OCR, if India disappoints, I’m an ace editor. I speak and write English goodly; exceptionally goodly. I’ll both outperform and undercut Delhi.

Gonad-less Girls At TNR Gun For Jim Webb

Barack Obama, Democrats, Elections 2008, Media

The New Republic smeared rightist Ron Paul. Now it has turned its attentions to Virginian Senator Jim Webb, whose name has been mentioned as a possible VP for Obama. Webb is no lefty.

Richard Just’s windy piece is pure crud. The man needs the discipline of a good editor. (He is the editor!) And how girlie is it to open with the exasperated, “I’m amazed.” This is a manipulative strategy to prime the reader for outrage. If only popular writers were a little less banal; would that an original idea popped into their noggins now and then.

(I’m psychologizing here—something I avoid–but I can’t help think that Webb’s unabashed manliness irks the new breed of “girlie boys.” Webb has defended his country and can defend his family. Juxtaposed to a guy who can handle guns—Omigod!—we have boys accoutered in trendy eyewear who carry on in fussy falsettos. Webb is fierce and passionate, and simply does not resonate with the “whatever” generation.)

I’ve tracked Webb’s recent political moves in a few blogs. (Here, here and here.) I like him. We had a personal exchange during the ramp-up to war. Webb would send me his pieces against the invasion, and voice his approval of my own WND ones. The man has the kind of ethics the gonad-less girls at TNR ought to envy and emulate.

Also curious is the emphasis in the Just piece on Webb’s worldview. Touching is the sudden concern about philosophy among the liberal left. Where was the “in-depth” worldview evaluation when it came to Obama’s adopted philosophy of two decades? I refer to the Black Liberation Theology preached at the church in which Obama worshipped for 20 years.

Navel-Gazing Nation?

America, Journalism, Media, The Zeitgeist

The coverage of Tim Russert’s untimely death is obscene. Can you imagine the BBC lamenting for days on end the passing of one of their broadcasters, or even the head of the BBC network? Never. It would not happen. You’d hear a curt, solemn announcement to the effect that, “Our colleague has passed away tragically. We mourn his death and extend our condolences to his family. Now to the news of the day.”

This pathological coverage, once again, is of a piece with the childish, self-centered, deeply silly American media, which knows not what its proper mandate is. Has such impropriety afflicted the national psyche? You tell me. I suspect most Americans are preoccupied with other matters. I hope so.

Mature, normal people know when to grieve, how publically, how loudly, and how long. When the president of the US pauses, on an official visit abroad, to declare to the world how sad he is about the death of a man his audience doesn’t know—you know what a naval-gazing nation we’ve become.

This kind of coverage applies with spades to the elections: Since 2007, cable networks have focused exclusively on the elections to the exclusion of most other new and certainly world news.

As I asked in “Elections Fatigue”: “America’s pathological, election-time self-absorption makes a mockery of the idea that the US is suited to lead the world. Shouldn’t a world leader take an interest in the world?”

I suspect that Mr. Russert would have been appalled by the choice of broadcasting his colleagues have made.