I am getting somewhat annoyed reading David Brooks. He never takes a position. There is the eloquent reporting on the hot ideas and the cutting edge thinking but there is never a report on David Brooks’ thinking. This is an upscale mash-up version that I so much detest. In fact if he keeps it up, he will turn into a Thomas Friedman, in other words a shallow, “flat” thinker who has three or four themes, ready to recycle in each and every editorial. Part of the problem is that David Brooks achieved such a privileged status and comfort that there is no genuine pressure required for the creative rage. One of the markers of a great writer is if the work is still current in ten, five, even one year. I recently tried selling Brook’s book on the secondary market – nobody wants it, even for one cent. I miss William Safire, there was never a doubt about his own views.
- Further Reading:
- David Brooks – Western Men Are Doomed
- David Brooks on Mob Switch
- David Brooks Proclaims a Tea Party Decade
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Is there nobody else out there who is a straight shooter? Without being a crazy?
Fran O.
I like Fareed Zakaria
Charles Krauthammer is singular
if you are looking for meaning from the pen of the media writers, you are lost and looking in the wrong direction.
How about George Will.
Ben, why don’t you suggest somebody.
I don’t care for any of them, especially Will Great thinkers don’t work in the media. Measuring your ideas based on the media is equal to having a gap somewhere inside.
I agree.
David Brooks used to be a must read for me.
I found him to be the most intelligent, insightful, thoughtful, humble and witty political and social commentator out there. I always found his columns to be a breath of fresh air. I even had a subscription to Times Select just to read him.
He has been going through a bit of a dry spell lately and I confess that I’ve been skimming, or even just skipping his columns entirely.
But I have to say, that every one of his columns makes it on to the NYTimes most emailed list, and each column also generates hundreds of comments, (99% of them thoughtless dribble and very critical -maybe that has something to do with it, or maybe it’s just the that current socio/political ).
I’d just like to remind you that William Safire Z”L also went through his dry spells, I just hope that Mr. Brooks recovers soon.