[lbo-talk] CounterPunch 8/25/07: "The Great Financial Crisis...

[Jeffrey Fisher]

On 8/27/07, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> >
> > What is the point of putting up ten articles a day? Not to sound like
> > an old fart or anything, but do quantity and novelty totally trump
> > quality?
>
> It's a cafeteria not a gourmet restaurant. The readers of the site make
> the selection they need. The editors of the site have better things to
> do than make fine, measured judgments of what to put on the site, what
> not to.
>
> A classical principle of criticism and hermeneutics: a text is judged by
> the purpose which generates the decorum of the given text. Texts range
> from scribbled notes on bits of paper to (whatever high point you
> choose). A note passed to a neighbor at a lecture is not to be judged as
> one would an issue of PMLA or a volume of MECW.
>
> It would be destructive if all left publications (paper or electronic)
> followed the same principles of selection and editing.

This and your previous post illustrate, it looks like to me, an attitude I
almost remarked on earlier, but I decided not to be inflammatory. There's
this sort of sense that any left publication that looks professional is
precisely already a sell-out. A waste of resources. And so, any such
publication claiming to be "left" is always already not. It seems to me
analogous to arguing that music with some production value is, well,
sold-out.

I am not sure, but I think this is mistaken. First, because part of the
point is that there is credibility--outside purist circles--in having taken
care in the presentation of your material. It demonstrates seriousness. But
perhaps I overestimate this? Second, because--and I think this was evident
in the thread you referenced--so much of what's valuable about the Economist
and FT is precisely *not* "fine-grained economic analysis," but general news
coverage.

Not to be inflammatory, but I'm having a hard time here not getting my back
up about demanding quality and attention to detail out of left publications
(cf. bitch's comments on design), and good paper would be nice, too.

j