It’s not that here aren’t stories to tell either. Let’s take the most famous example: Robert Johnson. The current theory about his death is that he died because the husband of a woman he was hustling got angry and served him whiskey laced with strychnine. Supposedly, it took him three days of wailing agony before he finally died. Now if that ain’t fertile dramatic material I don’t know what is.
There have been good documentaries…
I remember listening to it. The cassette version because I wasn't allowed to play with the vinyl. I was five. I think I fell in love with "Pretty Young Thing" after listening only once. I wondered why such a great song was buried so deep into the album. But they…
Guess what?
The Wire is fiction—and even though Simon was a journalist in Baltimore, his version of what happened then is just one story among many. Not precisely a Stop the presses! moment.
In fact, the biggest reason good fiction like The Wire works so well is that it is selective, sorting through all the facts to give one part of the story its narrative pop.
Good…
I suspect that, on a given night, the Stones could still be the greatest rock band in the world. Oh, who am I kidding? Most nights these days, they might not even be the best rock band in town.
But a man can dream, can't he?
Hat tip to George Weber.
Basically, Rosen argues, it's because "the gang of 500" chooses to do things "the way they've been done." Thus, you get the same tropes over and over again—and, if they happen to be spectacularly wrong, it's because the people didn't act logically.
Hmmm. Maybe pundits, like baseball players, should post their stats.
What I find so perplexing about herd journalism is how much it means that every contest has a single, easy-to-follow story line. With 500 people covering…
"One two three up, one two three up, one two three up."
"Good work."
I remembered restless nights after long days at Suntan Lake, somewhere in childhood New Jersey, days spent struggling through the waves…
Hat tip to John Marks, who observes: "What is most wonderful about it is that there are a lot of people in the audience who recognize the tune in three notes—admittedly, though, the three notes are perhaps the most distinctive broken arpeggio in classic-rock history."
When I moved to New York, I met many chess players who had played Fischer or played in tournaments where…