There are several ways for reporters to sneak opinion into the supposedly hallowed news pages of the New York Times. The opinion can be dressed up as a "point of view"—which is different, somehow, executive editor Bill Keller recently explained in an interview with the newspaper's public editor. Or, in time-honored fashion, the reporter can simply find an academic or other expert to parrot the sentiment. But there's a third way: don't bother finding a real authority, which is so tiring; just make up the source, as the newspaper's John Broder just did, in today's article on Hillary Clinton's bitter-ender campaign: "A pop psychologist might say that Mrs. Clinton was showing symptoms of denial or of being divorced from reality, but she has said for months that she will not quit as long as there remains a mathematical possibility that she could capture the nomination."
- Previously: Why the Times should abandon the news-opinion divide











Comments
Oh, yay. I do that all the time when I'm too lazy to cite research that I was too lazy to do for my papers. Glad to see I'm like the professionals!
Sometimes I also use Gawker as a source. Not because I'm lazy, but because it's RELEVANT.
More importantly, what might a botanist say about Hillary?
@FitnessMadeSimple: Ooh, ooh, a botanist might say that Mrs. Clinton's campaign is not rooted in reality and that despite her best efforts to plant the seed of doubt about Obama's electability, she simply lacks a sufficient amount of chlorophyll to initiate photosynthesis, particularly with her phloem and xylem failing to bring her the nutrients she so badly needs.
@FitnessMadeSimple:It's her final deciduous and she is sticking with it.
@FitnessMadeSimple: A unnamed pop botanist says you can smell millions of lilies around Hillary's campaign, the way you would at a funeral.
A tree might fall in the forest and land on the last Times reader.
Actually, a pop psychologist might convene four lazy journos to a staged intervention on daytime television, as a pop psychologist might just consider ethical lapses a desperate cry for help; a pop psychologist might then sloppily address the self-esteem and imposter-complex issues crippling the profession. Mothers might also be discussed to therapeutic effect.
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