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Dave Hardin's avatar

Walter, as you know I am an admirer of you and your work. I love the precision and the humanity of your writing. This piece, as the kids would say: “Nailed it”. Knowing your background and your vast vocabulary, I impressed with your use of one word throughout this writing. The rhythm with which you inserted the word “bullshit” throughout was like a metronome of alarm. It was a perfect use of the word. And that is not bullshit! Shalom my friend.

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Lisa Schiffren's avatar

Brilliant! An excellent summation of the crumbling of the formerly impressive edifice of truth seeking, which didn't necessarily get 'the truth,' but it sure did get more truth than the 'narrative building' that has replaced it.

You remind me how, in the 1980s, when I was an editorial writer at a big metro daily in the midwest, we didn't trust the reporting of the news side, because we knew their biases. So we reported our own pieces. I was very young, and I cared very much about getting it 'right.' I weighed what actually happened, and the consequences, rather obsessively, against policy prescriptions, and ideology. It seemed to matter. I can't imagine what young journalists think now, as they imbibe the narrative, and further it, and never seem to question it.

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