Michael Powell dropped by again late yesterday to sort of wrap up his side of our ongoing discussion. Since I feel as though I did that in my last response, and also because this venue naturally provides me with the unfair advantage of having the last word, I will largely get out of the way this time and give the floor to Mr. Powell.
First, to everyone who’s been following this, where Powell and I agree to disagree should be obvious at this point. But in reexamining his piece over the course of our discussion, Powell has come around to recognize that he’s “very much in accord on context” and “could see a tweak here and there that might have helped here.”
It may not be the mea culpa some crave, but I believe it’s certainly a positive step on many levels. A New York Times reporter, a veteran mainstream journalist, not only was willing to enter the fray over his article, multiple times, but also freely embraced criticism, taking it seriously enough to reconsider his position, concede some points, and, yes, suffer the wrath wrought by all negligent mainstream news pieces before and since.
Can you imagine Joe Klein ever doing this? Or Judith Miller? Or David Broder? Or Tom Friedman? And remember, as opposed to Powell, these are journalists whose work has been widely criticized for years, yet the best they can muster in response is vitriol, condescension, willful ignorance or obliviousness. My criticism was of Powell’s one article, not his body of work. Nonetheless, he was willing to answer it.
Even in better times, mainstream journalism of course had its shortcomings. Like any profession, it employed its share of standouts and hacks. Though the Bush years unleashed a troubling form of journalistic malpractice that has gravely damaged the public trust. Aside from what’s so desperately needed of the mainstream media right now – more substantive, balanced and accurate reports - nothing will do more to begin to mend this trust than the kind of dialogue in which Mr. Powell was willing to engage. And I hope other mainstream journalists follow his lead.
Michael Powell's latest comments:
Dear Mr. Bloodhound,
I take your points, though I suspect we'll probably just leave this at an agreement to disagree. Certainly, many readers picked up on the tone of the piece, not least the Giuliani camp. I would argue, from the lede to the kicker, that it's clear that the tension is between Dr. J and Mr. Hyde. So we're talking about a makeover as opposed to a conversion. (As I note in the piece, Giuliani's done this before, in 1993).
I hear Batocchio [a blogger who left a comment] on Chris Matthews, but if I am now responsible for his comprehension, I'll hurl myself off of the top of Times Square.
As for the piece I penned a while back for the Post, keep in mnd that was, explicitly, a profile (and quite a bit longer than the NYT piece).
That said, I'm very much in accord on context, and I could see a tweak here and there that might have helped here. And Krugman offered a good, plain-spoken critique this week of much campaign coverage. But I'd also argue that as the MSM evolves, in no small part in reaction to the web and bloggerdom, readers will (and are) adjusting to new tones, new slants, some fooling around in the pages of the mainstream papers. Some of this will work, some won't. As I've often encouraged young writers: Take chances. The worst that will happen is that the bungee cord breaks and you do a header.
Anyway, dialogue is good. I remain working for MSM because it's one of the few places where you can simultaneously engage in good spirited arguments with people of many different views. But I'd acknowledge, rapidly and happily, that we're the better for the criticism (even when I'm accused--elsewhere--of being a gay lover of Rudy Giuliani. Exposed at Last!)
Best
Michael Powell
And his addendum:
Oh, and one other thing, and not addressed to Mr. Bloodhound.
Some of the other rumblings are kinda juvenile. Mr. Powell has been put on notice, Mr. Powell is ...C'MON.
The attempt here is to have a nuanced discussion, largely successful on both sides. I'm laying out a rather elementary point. Yes, of course, bien sur, each story should have enough context and internal fairness to stand on its own. As I said, I'm very comfortable with that.
At the same time (this is called holding two thoughts in mind at one time--higher level simian behavior. If I can do it, trust me, anyone can), we have a broader goal: To paint, over time, a complex picture of a candidate. Can you do that in one piece? Nope.
That isn't to argue that you should simply take my arguments, or my pieces, on faith. And frankly, there's no danger of that. I'm all for rigorous criticism and good points, and I read a fair amount of this here (For the record, I have read blogs of all kinds for years ... ) But let's hold the threats, not least because those become not scary but laughable.
Real criticism of the type offered by Senor Bloodhound, forces one to think and defend and--who knows--rethink, and that's healthy. But that requires listening on both sides.
Michael
NY Times Journalist Michael Powell Returns
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | June 09, 2007 at 09:13 PM
I'd like to voice what I think MIGHT be going through the minds of us old enough to remember Powell's equivocations and revisions during My Lai Massacre hearings.. Powell is a company man who changes companies but stays close to power. The fact that he consistently upholds any US foreign adventure as justified shows the dead spot where his soul should be. He does not recoil against the violence of war because he has always been behind a desk with the rest of the chicken****s.
Who should have and could have stood up and said no to Bush and the UN presentation? Think of the suffering he has caused.
Posted by: Richard Ray Harris | June 11, 2007 at 08:13 PM
Sorry got sent this link by a well meaning IDIOT..wrong Powell, my error..
Posted by: Richard Ray Harris | June 11, 2007 at 08:28 PM
Just a suggestion, Mr. Powell, if you read this.
You're having a conversation with the Bloodhound. While you're welcome to respond to some of the comments if you want to, don't feel obligated to respond to them. Lord knows that the majority of the readers skip over the majority of the comments, because they're dumb or silly or obnoxious or just add nothing.
Basically, I don't really think you have to tell the commenters to grow up. They won't. Just have your conversation with the adults. Otherwise you can end up sounding like an adult explaining to someone else's kid why 'poopoohead' is not a cogent criticism of your latest piece. And after about the fortieth time you do that, you burn out on blogging and are never heard from again.
-fred
Posted by: Fred Fnord | June 11, 2007 at 11:12 PM
Bravo, Bravo! I thought intelligent discourse was dead. It is so refreshing to see two adults talking in clear and precise language to come to terms with differing opinions. I hope and pray that this is contagious in the most virulent way.
Posted by: irton | June 12, 2007 at 09:27 AM
"Lord knows that the majority of the readers skip over the majority of the comments, because they're dumb or silly or obnoxious or just add nothing."
Well, that's certainly the kind of statement that some people have learned to recognize as a gross generalization - maybe even a mean-spirited one.
My own suggestion - read every comment, no matter how painful it may be, no matter how ill-informed it may seem. If Abe Lincoln could stand the effort once each week of meeting every constituent willing to stand in line at the White House, I expect that the rest of us could make it through a few comment threads.
Unless some people are busier, or more important, than Abe Lincoln was.
Posted by: RubDMC | June 12, 2007 at 10:03 AM
While it is commendable that Powell is engaging in terms of the critique of his saccharine article on Giuliani, I have basically tuned off the MSM largely. Take Matthews for instance, he obsesses so much over Sen. Clinton's "marital problems", but has never mentioned Giuliani's! Sometimes, I think he would have preferred the senator be a divorcee like Giuliani. He leads on most days with some not-so-falttering info on the Clintons. These people need to get out of their closeted world more often.
Posted by: abiodun | June 12, 2007 at 12:41 PM
Good to read all this; thanks to all.
Michael Powell may regard his recent piece on Giuliani as explicitly a "piece" and part of an ongoing epistle that reaches more than a decade into the past, to "paint, over time, a complex picture of a candidate. Can you do that in one piece? Nope."
But, perhaps reporters can let us know which of their work to read as more of a fragment, more of a parallax or sidelight, than a grand view. "Certainly, many readers picked up on the tone of the piece, not least the Giuliani camp," because they had that context.
Expecting all, or even most readers, to know that context seems less than fair to me. Without that specific historical context, we have the current context of candidates who lack the honesty and intelligence to endorse evolution, or the decency and integrity to condemn torture... and a press that pampers and promotes them.
Posted by: Janus Daniels | June 17, 2007 at 01:20 AM
Nike Air Jordan can be a Gucci outlet renowned manufacturer label engrossed in fabricating fashionable Gucci outlet online couple for offspring, older individuals, men, and ladies. Gucci sale.
Nike Air Jordan is frequently popular as Jordan Concords during the small configuration and is also pretty admired Jordan 11 Concord and acknowledged due to products created of chic sports Jordan Retro 11 Concord activities boots who have rake in globally acknowledgement Jordan Retro 10 for being very resilient and cozy. Jordan 10 The label on the money gathering is supported about the label of Jordan 10 Chicago its holder Michael Jordan who was an amateur of latest Louis Vuitton Outlet solution footwear; he employed to get well-known Cheap Louis Vuitton Sale as being a faultless icon in the most recent strategy marketplace.
He commenced up New Orleans Saints Jerseys in 1985, the monetary gathering was commenced with Youth Saints Jersey some staff that everlasting fetched new creations Women's Saints Jersey for the business. But using the means of time Custom Saints Jersey boots received globally credits Custom NFL Jerseys and a great number of paying out clientele Customized NFL Jerseys who ended up most up-to-date tactic savvy Personalized NFL Jerseys population and preferred to put on boots of surplus well worth and content.
Now, using under consideration the Christian Louboutin Sale qualifications the fiscal gathering has, I Christian Louboutin Shoes ought declare that Nike Air Jordan has become toiling while in the wares of flexible Louboutin Shoes specifics which might be getting designed for people getting Louboutin Sale.
Assorted purely natural world about vogue Cheap Jordans and hope to produce a group on their couple of boot properly by Jordan 11 shopping into latest fashion. Nike Air Jordan 's boots are obtainable Jordan Retro 11 in divergent range- they offer a large kind of boots in divergent hues,Jordan XI creations, profile, and of course in divergent selling price. The cost construction of the boots differs from one method of Jordan 11 Concord a further; this really is fully approximately your possibility and likings.
When your allocation Cheap True Religion Jeans sanctions you to depart for remarkably charge boots with the True Religion Jeans then you definately should depart for it, since the finest,True Religion Cheap the standard.Any person who professes True Religion Outlet to love basketball just isn't a real follower of your game if he will not know the exploits of the best athlete who actually performed the game.
Just after all, you can find conceivably no Uggs On Sale basketball admirer who doesn't know the fame and exploits Ugg On Sale of Michael Jordan.
Even individuals that have been born Uggs following his retirement continue to be attentive to the echoes of the Jordan Uggs Outlet period as manifested from the acceptance of Uggs Boots quantity 23 in basketball jerseys, inside Uggs On Sale the variety of vain tries to emulate gliding from the Cheap Jordans air for a dunk that only His Airness can execute, and of Jordan 7 course, from the enormous recognition of Jordan sneakers hoping Jordan Retro 7 that some regular kid from an not known corner of the world Jordan 13 will someday have the game during the method that Michael Louis Vuitton Jordan did.
Michael Jordan's fame pass on not Louis Vuitton Outlet merely in the basketball courts he performed on, New Nike Air Jordans Shoes from his School days at Cheap Jordans North Carolina as many as his time for the NBA together with the Abercrombie And fitch Outlet and also the Abercrombie And fitch Online Washington Wizards, even at Spain for the 1992 Cheap Abercrombie And fitch Barcelona Olympics.
In each one of these locations and time, nike free run acquired repute for staying a fearless executioner with the most nike frees tricky photographs that has a penchant for taking the sport cheap nike free profitable shot once the game is about the line, and in Cheap NFL Jerseys inspiring his teammates to excel to NFL Jerseys greater heights. This only triggered men and women to Cheap Jerseys flock to watch him play, widening his
Nike Dunks base of supporters. For that reason, what's more, it enlarged the repute of Jordan sneakers, which has Nike Air Maxturn into carefully determined using the gentleman. As Air Max Shoesa result, Air Jordans happen to be worn all over Cheap Supras the place, with most hoping to at the very least Supras Shoes
emulate a number of his remarkable difficult court moves.
Posted by: Louis Vuitton Outlet | December 27, 2011 at 03:45 AM