• bias

    Jack Shafer Voting For Nutcase

    Did you wonder who your favorite Slate contributor is voting for? Good news: now you know! Michael Kinsley instituted the quadrennial endorsement list in 2000—go back and read how wrong all the Bush people were!—and it's been a beloved feature ever since, the two more times they've done it, because everyone cares how a Slate copy-editor is voting (spoiler alert: for Obama). There is one McCain vote, a half-hearted endorsement from the conservative editor and Slate lady-blog contributor Rachael Larimore. But there are fewer third-party votes and abstentions than in either of the two previous iterations of the feature, even in divided anyone-but-Bush 2004. Because, duh, people like Obama more than Kerry. But one man, press critic Jack Shafer, remains relentlessly devoted to his utterly wrong-headed principles. Shafer, once again, is voting for the Libertarians! More »

    5:07 PM on Tue Oct 28 2008
    By Pareene
    2,134 views, 42 comments

    Most discussed Baroness: Libertarians are Republicans who have the good sense to be ashamed of the jackanapes dominating their party. They're more »

  • slate

    Jack Shafer Doesn't Want Your Stupid Webby Award Anyway

    "It's with great shame that I confess that Slate is a nominee" in the Webby Awards, says Jack Shafer, the site's lead destroyer of all fun. He's upset that so many people get to come home with a trophy: 600 winners and over 1100 pre-announced "honorees," out of almost 10,000 contestants who paid $275 or more each to be considered. He estimates the awards show pulls in $2 million (which honestly doesn't sound like that much to me, considering costs). Of course Shafer's hate-on, like any promising Slate piece, has a caveat. More »

    12:00 AM on Thu Apr 10 2008
    By Nick Douglas
    1,037 views, 30 comments

    Latest by GirlFriday: @MrInBetween: The wee Jack Shafer always won the monkeyfishing contest...unless he was disqualified for poor sportsmanship. more »

  • portfolio

    It's Always The Cover-Up That Gets You

    Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman should learn rule number 63 or web publishing: by deleting a blog post, one only draws greater attention to it. On Friday, the Conde Nast magazine's media industry terrier, Jeff Bercovici, wrote a typically niggling piece for Portfolio's website about best-selling fabulist, Malcolm Gladwell (displayed after the jump). According to Bercovici, the Tipping Point author is the bane of the fact-checking department at his day job, as a writer for the New Yorker, another title owned by Conde Nast boss Si Newhouse. There was nothing that controversial about Bercovici's item: Gladwell has himself drawn attention to his mockery of orthodox journalistic practice. But the post disappeared from Bercovici's Portfolio blog over the weekend. More »

    11:02 AM on Tue Mar 25 2008
    By Nick Denton
    3,794 views, 10 comments

    Latest by rosaluxembourgeoise: @rosaluxembourgeoise: "contact him for comment". more »

  • relax

    Jack Shafer Exposes Malcolm Gladwell's Lies About Lying

    Remember when I freaked out that Malcolm Gladwell, the most successful pop-non-fiction writer of our time, was bragging about pulling pranks at the Washington Post? And remember how I was further irked that Gladwell was lying about lying? And remember how Pareene was like seriously, Rebecca, this is tired? Actually, you might not remember that, because it was a private conversation we had. But Slate media critic Jack Shafer thinks it's interesting. More »

    11:00 AM on Thu Mar 20 2008
    By rebecca
    3,901 views, 20 comments

    Latest by hilarie: I will take vulturesaquadron's first paragraph and put it on a brass plaque for my front door, and in my more »

  • trend spotting

    New York Times Once Again Defines What You Are (Not) Doing

    The New York Times is forever trying to identify and co-opt (bogus) cultural trends, from metrosexuals to bed bugs to Argentinian cocaine. And now, oddly and odiously placed in the Sunday Styles section, they discuss "Drunkorexia," a combination of eating disorders and problem drinking. But don't worry, they don't jump on this one too salaciously. They go to great lengths to provide context and perspective: "Drunkorexia is not an official medical term." Ohhh, thanks Times! [NYT]

    1:58 PM on Sat Mar 1 2008
    By Richard
    2,599 views, 37 comments

    Latest by SarahHeartburn: @PandoraSpocks: Good for you for talking back. And I don't get the nastiness here. It's a serious issue and the more »

  • the new media is the old media

    Online Slags Vindicated By Hideous Newspaper Correction Rates

    Slate's media scold Jack Shafer gets to abuse newspapers today by writing about a new study that found that fewer than 2% of stories with errors got corrected in a group of ten metro daily newspapers. This is where we jump up and down and yell "One of us, one of us!" Can we put the bogeyman of how those stupid blogs are error-ridden and never correct anything in a shallow grave now? (Actually maybe let's see how the rest of today goes here before we start gloating. Feeling kind of over-caffeinated and error-ridden already! Might print anything!)

    Reign of Error [Slate]

    10:40 AM on Thu Aug 16 2007
    By Choire
    616 views, 10 comments

    Latest by artynimue1: I think Mr. Shafer is the perfect choice to criticize errors because he has never made any. I asked him more »