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Toward Knowledge-Based Criticism (2)

In my previous post I discussed Thomas E. Patterson’s just-published book, Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism (Vintage Books, 2013), which puts forward the radical idea that journalism as a practice would improve dramatically if journalists actually knew something about the subjects they covered.

Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at […]

Toward Knowledge-Based Criticism (1)

It may seem preposterous to have to advocate for and even defend “knowledge-based journalism” against ignorant or dumb opinionation. But we live amidst a growing faith in the reliability of what Jaron Lanier and others refer to as “hive mind,” the collective wisdom (and lack thereof) of whatever amorphous and usually anonymous aggregate one might encounter in an online forum or the listener base for a call-in talk show or the habitués of your neighborhood sports bar. […]

Fine-Art Photo Trickledown, 1: The Selfie (a)

Like kudzu, transplanted to the U.S. southeast from Japan, or cane toads, imported to Australia from Hawaii, the so-called “selfie,” short for photographic self-portrait, has found in the combination of cellphone cameras, the internet, and social media an environment that fosters its unchecked growth. Thus it constitutes a classic example of what the late Neil Postman dubbed “media ecology.” […]

JFK, Tink Thompson, and “Six Seconds in Dallas” (2)

What I took away from Thompson’s book “Six Seconds in Dallas” that nourished my budding inclination to start working as a photography critic was this: Close, patient attention to the particulars of lens-derived images would reward the viewer in unpredictable ways. […]

JFK, Tink Thompson, and “Six Seconds in Dallas” (1)

On November 21 of this year I happened across “November 22, 1963,” a short film by Errol Morris, which features an unlikely interviewee: a Navy Seal turned Kierkegaard scholar turned high-profile private investigator named Josiah “Tink” Thompson. Though I met him only once, almost 46 years ago, I recognized him immediately. […]