Tom
Michael Pollak wrote:
> jf noonan <jfn1 at msc.com> said:
>
> > This really pisses me off. I can actually remember where I was
> > sitting when I read that column and the story has stuck in my
> > mind and every time I think of the LP I think of their 'bad'
> > position on abortion. Somebody said something the other day
> > about "poorly sourced Cockburn crap" or some such -- well here's
> > an example.
>
> To be fair to Alex, it isn't one his egregious examples. On Doug's radio
> on Thursday, Adolph Reed said that he's been hearing this canard for years
> -- it seems to have been in general belief throughout the left long before
> Alex wrote his article and it didn't occur to Alex it wasn't true. So, as
> the thread title says, it was a case of passing along hearsay as
> reporting. But it isn't as bad as when Alex reports something as a fact
> that no one but he thinks is true -- the charge that things are "thinly
> sourced."
>
> When Alex is in top form, he's great as a commentator, not as a reporter.
> He believes everything should be written forcefully to produce maximum
> effect. The risk of overstatement or even misstatement doesn't seem to
> bother him as much as the risk that his writing will make no one do a
> double take. Where he's really shined in recent years IMHO is on topics
> that have been written to death, like Monica or Kosovo, where the facts
> are not in doubt and where style is the difference. And where it's a
> pleasure to have someone stoke your flagging outrage back to full heat.
>
> Michael
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com