Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Douthat's Debut

I'm not sure I agree with the Ross Douthat's first column at the NY Times (here are two opposing opinions on it), but I'm quite certain he has already surpassed in a mere 750 words the legacy of his predecessor. Which really says more about said predecessor than Douthat. 

One encouraging detail is that the column will only run once a week. The column format often is like a poorly lit room with lots of crazy shadows; everyone looks slightly uglier in it than they should. Sometimes a big idea meriting several thousand words is crammed down into too few words; more often an author's take on a piece of news consists of one original paragraph, and he (or she) spends six or eight more summarizing the episode and rehashing others' opinions. It seems to me that columns that run only once a week do a better job avoiding the latter pitfall.

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