Nobody give me a column!!
Note to self: if someone is ever so foolish as to offer me a weekly column, re-read this Jack Shafer paragraph: Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make a newspaper columnist. Most columnists start off with a bag full of ideas and endless energy. But the job begins to weigh on even ...
Note to self: if someone is ever so foolish as to offer me a weekly column, re-read this Jack Shafer paragraph: Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make a newspaper columnist. Most columnists start off with a bag full of ideas and endless energy. But the job begins to weigh on even the most talented journalist. He starts writing columns about columns he's written, about his kids, or about the deaths of relatives. He composes columns as open letters to world leaders?or writes from inside their heads. He quotes cab drivers. His columns become more assertion than argument. Finally, he starts picking silly, protracted fights with other media machers. [Yeah, we're not worried about this possibility--ed.]
Note to self: if someone is ever so foolish as to offer me a weekly column, re-read this Jack Shafer paragraph:
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make a newspaper columnist. Most columnists start off with a bag full of ideas and endless energy. But the job begins to weigh on even the most talented journalist. He starts writing columns about columns he’s written, about his kids, or about the deaths of relatives. He composes columns as open letters to world leaders?or writes from inside their heads. He quotes cab drivers. His columns become more assertion than argument. Finally, he starts picking silly, protracted fights with other media machers.
[Yeah, we’re not worried about this possibility–ed.]
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry. Twitter: @dandrezner
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