{"id":333,"date":"2008-07-03T07:36:27","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T14:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/?p=333"},"modified":"2008-07-03T21:02:56","modified_gmt":"2008-07-04T04:02:56","slug":"dont-you-want-somebody-to-teach-dont-you-need-somebody-to-teach-you-better-find-somebody-to-teach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/dont-you-want-somebody-to-teach-dont-you-need-somebody-to-teach-you-better-find-somebody-to-teach\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t You Want Somebody To Teach, Don’t You Need Somebody To Teach, You Better Find Somebody To Teach"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/b>kay, it is simply more trend reporting from the Times — perhaps Bill Keller should simply step aside for Anna Wintour. <\/a> Otoh, David Horowitz also would be out of work. So it’s a mixed thing for them — especially in this current economy. Does the Times really have any choice in the age of Politico? What else can the Times do? It lost the battle for commodity 24 hours news factoids. Trendism is newsprint’s last stand. The Times failed miserably with Raines’ “flood the zone”. And there is always the shadow of Blair and Judy Miller. Chatter over the LA Times’ fiery arc fills the cafeteria. And lest one forget, a mere 22% of the Washington Post Co.’s revenue comes from the newspaper\/website these days.<\/p>\n

trend.jpg<\/a> <\/center><\/p>\n

B<\/b>ut back to the campus thing. Is this trend a trend or even a surprise? Demographics are always shaped by their When. In the Time’s random sample (apparently talking to 50 professors equals a national trend if one can also quote an association) the lead example only turned 14 when the Soviet Union and Cold War disappeared. Kurt Kobain and shoe gazers were still hiding in Seattle holes. Her entire teenage and college Ur Kultur? The boom years of the 1990s, wealth and opportunity, and annoyance at the petty polarization of the Imperial City politics, yada yada yada. <\/p>\n

And these are youngsters in any event. Keeping their head down and punching the ticket for tenure. Even if they did not grow up with “Do Your Own Thing, Man”, In-A-Godda-Da-Vida or K-Tel records, the Times gets a twofer — another trend piece ‘revisiting’ this sample (such a hoary media device) lies in the Times’ future. The so-called newly scrubbed faculty ‘moderates’ are larvae re faculty politics; their false consciousness soon will be torn asunder. After all, as Henry the K said and we have quoted many times, “Faculty politics are so lethal because the stakes are so low.” [Insert Monty Python Peoples’ Front of Judea, Judean Peoples’ Front joke here]. And like even the most tawdry beach, there is always another wave — the Warlord, netroots and Grand Theft Auto Generation’s is still to break. <\/p>\n

——————————— <\/center><\/p>\n

W<\/b>e’ve worked with and observed faculty\/scholars at the most exalted of our institutions. A favorite story involves two extremely senior, perhaps brilliant scholars and media personalities. These are the kind of people who don’t really worry about getting on the Lehrer News Hour or placing an Op Ed in the Times or Post (or a very serious hearing from them). If they have something trenchant to say, they get a platform (Charlie Rose doesn’t count). Yet these two, at the time camping out at a famous institution and by every objective measure politically coeval, were locked in a deadly scorpion’s duel. Savage. The venom and tenacity of this struggle transcended ‘obvious’ consensus physics. The battle boiled over and created institutional fissures. The core reason? Who had more dibs on their shared secretary’s time and output. And that didn’t even involve battling for grant money. We do not joke. <\/p>\n

Jaundiced? Perhaps. Nonetheless, we’re a bit leery — if not downright contemptuous — of trend reporting as peddled by the Times et al. Even more so when promoted by alleged independent columnists discovering ‘Bobos’. If the Times needs trend ‘reporting’ to survive, better perhaps to throw in the towel. Just find within its corporate conglomerate the equivalent of textual blatantly vacant eye candy. Emphatic prose from their version of Wintour and her cohorts. The NY Post with more textual Ralph Lauren. <\/p>\n

We obviously need hard news desperately. As a society, we are sinking in a sludge of Simon Cowell, TMZ and the Situation Room. Pulp news’ long lamented demise is truly on our doorstep even now. No obvious solution appears to solve the Internet and cable disintermediation. Or the debilitating impact of corporate ‘news’ subordinate to P\/L and conglomerate voraciousness. It’s true still that the Times sets the lead for other (failing) papers. Perhaps the step above might be its final and best service to its flock. <\/p>\n

All the vacuity that’s fit to wink. Perhaps another reason Fox might outlast them. Its embrace of the ephemeral. That, and Photoshop. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, it is simply more trend reporting from the Times — perhaps Bill Keller should simply step aside for Anna Wintour. Otoh, David Horowitz also would be out of work. So it’s a mixed thing for them — especially in this current economy. Does the Times really have any choice in the age of Politico? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-acolytes-in-media","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stiftungleostrauss.com\/bunker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}