Slate just laid off press critic, Jack Shafer, who was the only reason I ever read Slate.
“We have made some editorial changes, including a small reduction in our full time staff and our contractors,” says Slate editor David Plotz. “Press Box” columnist Jack Shafer confirms in an email to Adweek’s Dylan Byers that he was laid off, but says he’ll continue as a contributor.
William Saletan will continue to pen white supremacist screeds and muse about anal sex for the online publication.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
What song is that from?
hilts
David Plotz is a fucking PUTZ
Jenny
Sometimes the invisible hand get’s it right.
Big Baby DougJ
Shafer is a really good guy, answers email, doesn’t pull punches in his columns. He’s the opposite of everything that sucks about Slate. Even though he’s a libertarian.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): It is a b-side from an import version of one of the Buzzcocks minor singles. Didn’t you know that?
Big Baby DougJ
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hey, I’m not an obscurantist!
hilts
OT
It’s time to add the Daily Mail to the list of sites that Balloon Juice monitors and mocks as needed
These links are worthy of the NY Post:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029615/Michelle-Obama-accused-spending-10m-public-money-vacations.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029307/Michelle-Obama-shows-President-tiny-purple-bike-shorts-Marthas-Vineyard.html
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m too old to know about the Buzzcocks.
Suffern ACE
Who will point out those morally panicy but obviously dubious bogus press trends?
JPL
OT….Earlier today someone mentioned that they were reading “In the Garden of Beasts” and I found this link on NPR.
Things can get very dangerous here. The economy is sinking and the repubs don’t care, they see it as winning. The repub candidates are scary to say the least. I just wish one journalist or reporter would ask what country doesn’t have safety nets.
Sorry Doug for not worrying about Slate..I haven’t read them in months.
Lev
I like Fred Kaplan’s work at Slate too. But man, does that place have some zeroes in it. I remember listening to their political podcast with John Dickerson, Plotz and someone else, and I really don’t recommend it unless you want to get in a car crash on your commute home. It’ll make you that angry.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Omnes Omnibus:
to be fair, i thought it was a metaconcept greatest hits album from any of the bands that ever did a greatest hits and a concept album.
Omnes Omnibus
@Big Baby DougJ: Is that Soft cell?
Jenny
@Big Baby DougJ: Meh. Hitler was a vegan and loved his dog.
Brian S
The only person I read at Slate is Dahlia Lithwick. If she’s gone, I’ll definitely never go back.
Freddie deBoer
Holy christ, I hate Slate.
SuzieC
OK, I rarely read Slate and now will read it even less frequently. I never read Salon now that Glenn has gone off the deep end. Kos too, to some degree. Help! What should I read for sane, liberal commentary, in addition to BJ?
justinslot
Man, a lot of people whose opinion I respect have been mentioning this, first on Twitter and now Doug here. I guess I’ve misjudged Shafer, who I always just assumed was one of the usual Slate “contrarian” “hey you’ve been hearing about this? NO IT’S TOTALLY WRONG” thinkers.
EDIT to add: I only read Weigel there at this point, and Dahlia Lithwick.
Jenny
Speaking of job loss, Steve Jobs resigned today. News organizations are already ghoulishly speaking of him in the past tense.
Big Baby DougJ
@justinslot:
Shafer is not contrarian. He’s written about half-a-dozen very good pieces about the Murdoch drama in the UK, all of which were excellent.
Big Baby DougJ
@justinslot:
I like Dahlia but I don’t follow Supreme Court stuff too much. I don’t love Weigel, he’s a dogged political reporter, but he’s kind of a moron too.
Anne Laurie
Meh. Shafer, to my reading, was always a little too impressed with his own hipster contrariness. I still like Dave Weigel, and Dahlia Lithwick, read them both on a regular basis, and don’t hesitate to click over to other Slate stories on the right-hand column. Unlike, for instance, David Froomkin, who was on my must-read list until the click-mining horror that is HuffPo wore out my limited patience & bandwidth. Or Jim Newell and John Cook at Gawker… much as I love reading those guys, the ugliness of their sponsor sites means I don’t read them nearly as often as I once did.
hilts
@Suffern ACE:
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
justinslot
@Big Baby DougJ: I will have to check those out. The last I heard from him was during the Vargas drama where he made the absurd claim that Vargas lying about his visa meant he couldn’t be trusted about anything else, and then I went back to my default Slate-avoiding mode.
Violet
@JPL:
I haven’t read Slate regularly since 1999, I think. Oh, wait, there was a bit during the run up to the 2004 election where I looked at it about once a week. That’s it. Never understood the appeal.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Anne Laurie: I like you.
Anne Laurie
@Big Baby DougJ:
He’s a libertarian, with a sense of humor. You have to appreciate the “tongue so firmly in cheek as to protrude from the vulgar bodily orifice”* writing style to enjoy Weigel.
* quote from R.A. Lafferty, incomparable s.f. writer
Jenny
@SuzieC:
Steve Benen
Greg Sargent
Bob Cesca
The Peoples View
Jenny
@SuzieC:
Steve Benen
Greg Sargent
Anne Laurie
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Thanks! I try my best.
JPL
@Violet: I was going to say years but thought that I might have linked to them within the last twelve months.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus:
And here I was certain it was from a Beat import EP (not English Beat, because of course it was an import and thus authentic).
kth
I didn’t see Shafer’s Murdoch series, but what I did read of him (probably a dozen or so items over the years) was undiluted and tiresome glibertarianism. Also a perennial Fox News apologist.
Jenny
@SuzieC:
Bob Cesca
The Peoples View
I also like plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com and Steve Kornacki at Salon.
Also too, Chait and Cohn at TNR.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: They did a ska cover.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Jenny: Good answer on that. Benen and Sargent are great.
I think Weigel’s kind of a moron too, even as he’s tenacious at times. I do enjoy Dahlia Lithwick, and like Anne Lautie, I don’t hesitate to wander into stories that look like they could be worth reading, though I am sometimes disappointed. Kinda like life; heh.
hilts
@SuzieC:
Listen to Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Free Speech Radio News and read Truthdig, Truthout, Consortiumnews, Alternet, Common Dreams, and Nieman Watchdog.
MikeJ
@hilts: Hwh! That’s funny. Amy Goodman and sane in the same sentence.
She was batshit insane when Clinton was in office.
Elizabelle
Mickey Kaus still got his contrarian perch at Slate?
Too bad about Shafer; he wrote some good stuff. And some not so good stuff.
Used to like Slate, but it’s not as good any more. For going on a year or two now. Maybe it’s more like the Daily Beast? Anyhoo, not worth checking more than once a month or so.
Bill Murray
@hilts: she said liberal, not leftist :)
Elizabelle
@Jenny:
I’d recommend Kevin Drum. Good analysis, but he’s got lotso trolls in the comments. Not so fun to read the threads.
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum
Also recommend Ta Nehisi Coates — most thoughtful blogposts out there. AND you can click on right of the webpage to link to James Fallows — another good guy.
http://www.theatlantic.com/ta-nehisi-coates
Elizabelle
Hmmm. Jim Romanesko is going into semi-retirement at Poynter.
Lots of changes in the media world.
hilts
@Bill Murray:
Leftist is the new liberal.
@MikeJ
Amy Goodman’s interview with Bill Clinton should be required listening for anyone who wants a media that holds politicians accountable for their actions. She was aggressive, but fair in her questioning.
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/22/bill_clinton_loses_his_cool_in
timb
@Big Baby DougJ: one of his best friends, according to him, is John Podhoretz. Thst’d not libertarian
Keith G
@hilts: She did use the word “sane”.
Joel
Someone needs to come up with a clever Slate-esque headline for this.
hamletta
Alls I know is Shafer was incredibly kind to me when I brought him my little punk rock paper to him and asked for advice.
I kept waiting for him to laugh at me, but he didn’t. He wanted me to go out there and make a great paper.
Sadly, it wasn’t in the cards, but I did make it better, and it served my town, and me, rather well.
Waldo
What’s that old saying … The enemy of my enemy Rupert is my friend? Yeah, I’ll miss that part about Jack.
Paul in KY
I only read Dahlia Lithwick & Emily Hoffe.
someofparts
A journalist friend of mine mentioned liking Shafer. I tried, but guess I caught him on a bad day, so didn’t check back. The Slate website as a whole was no draw either.
Joel
Tim Noah, who was actually one of the good guys/decent writers at Slate, also lost his job per Yglesias.