Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Unsocial Media

John Podhoretz at the New York Post makes the case. An excerpt:

Elementary fairness requires that people know the facts of a case before they pass judgment, and any minimal understanding of how things work in America today should ensure that people know there is no way to get the facts of the case in the five seconds it takes someone to read a tweet.

4 comments:

James said...

I've read your site for years. I'm dropping you from my blog reading rotation.

I am certainly more liberal than you are, but that's not been a problem heretofore. I used to like reading the occasional conservative sources that you linked to, but I can read those on my own.

Based on the one-note drumbeat of political articles you reference, I don't think you read *any* liberal or left sources that aren't linked to, in outrage, by right-leaning sites. The campus left outrages you; police shootings don't. Unfair piling on by modern media sources on some MAGA-hat wearing pro-life teens causes you to post as many articles on one event as you ever have, but you have nothing to say about outrages that don't fit into the box of people you think deserve sympathy.

And most frustratingly, you're a business consultant who has vast experience with dysfunctional organizations, and you haven't called out, or even called attention to, the Caligulan nightmare of the Trump White House. Regardless of left vs right, or policy at all, it's one of the most dysfunctional organizations in American history, and you never discuss it. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on it, but you only comment on the media, media media. Yes, the media has problems. No, they do not exist in a vacuum. They are not inventing this dysfunction out of whole cloth.

I can't speak specifically to your reasoning, but I wonder if you're hesitant to give aid and comfort to people on the left. I think smart people should be better than that.

I don't know you personally, but I've read your posts for long enough to get a sense of you as a person. You come across as highly intelligent, and you have unique insights into corporate behavior. I get the feeling, however, that the voluminous reading you do all or nearly all confirms what you already believe.

You may be aware of this already and not want to address it, or you may write the entire idea off - do with it what makes sense to you. I just wanted to say it as someone who has enjoyed your blog for many years, and who has finally reached his limit.

walt reed said...

I fear a great portion of Boobus Americanus would disagree with John. Please forgive a snarky, partisan aside: I wonder if John fought the good fight when the Russian Collusion farce was being distributed among the faithful. I think not. Very best regards.

Michael Wade said...

James,

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I hope that one day you write a blog because it is a challenge in terms of what to put in and what to put out. I read a great many liberal and left sources and realize that my blog has a particular slant. [As you may know, John Podhoretz in the above link is a famous Never Trumper.] My concern about what is happening on college campuses is shared by many liberals and my own belief is that we'd be better off if we had more liberal and conservative professors on campus and fewer professors who could be more accurately described as leftist, if only because there would be greater tolerance. Most of my favorite professors in college were strong liberals who wouldn't have favored squelching opinions.

I have not written on the operations of the Trump White House just as I refrained from writing about the operations of the Obama White House. A liberal friend of mine pressed me to write about the Obama management style but I felt there was so little reliable evidence on it that I could not reach a conclusion. I feel the same way about Trump. [Since Obama departed the office, the best source I've seen is "The Gatekeepers" by Chris Whipple and I've recommended that book on my blog.] The press coverage of the Trump White House is so off the rails that it is hard to tell what is even close to being accurate. I have no doubt that Trump seriously needed and needs a strong Chief of Staff.

You mention police shootings. I have investigated discrimination cases involving police departments and have strong feelings on the subject but there is a huge array of topics I have strong feelings on - such as the fact that there is still slavery in the world - that I don't write upon. Any post on one topic is a possible neglect of another. That is one of the challenges of writing a blog.

My guess - based on feedback from readers - is that most people who visit this blog do so for the management postings or the quirky and eclectic postings on other subjects. This is certainly not an objective posting of the news. It is an opinion blog, even on the management issues. [I attended a meeting of executives and managers several years ago where the most controversial topic was Peter Drucker!]

Every day I know that I have many readers who disagree with me. That doesn't mean that they are ignorant or that they are not reading a sufficiently wide range of material. My assumption is that they are well read and smart but that they simply disagree. That's fine. One of my operating principles is to hold the idea that the other person might have a valid point or even be entirely correct. One of my certainties is that I am not always right.

I am sorry that you are moving on and I hope that you occasionally drop by for a look. You have my sincere thanks for the time you've spent here.

If you ever do decide to write a blog, please let me know. I'd like to read it and we can swap blogger's stories. Believe me, when you have a limited amount of time in your schedule, it is far more challenging than it looks.

Best wishes,

Michael

Michael Wade said...

Walt,

I don't always agree with John Podhoretz but his Twitter site is one of the first I read every day. I'm also a long-time subscriber to Commentary, the magazine he edits. It gets the little gray cells stirring.

Best,

Michael