That the Sun lasted the six-and-a-half years it did is something of a miracle. Times haven't exactly been favorable to newspapers, and a proudly right-wing paper in a liberal city — one already stuffed with newspapers — didn't seem like a winning proposition. If those weren't problems enough, the Sun had other issues. There were its soap-operaesque internal battles, chronicled with malicious glee by Gawker and the greater blogosphere. There were its occasionally wacky editorial stands, like its call for Brooklyn to secede, its undying love for the gold standard, its suggestion that political protesters be tried for treason. There were its pugnacious editors, Seth Lipsky and Ira Stoll, always spoiling for a fight and trash-talking the competition. The paper was perpetually short-staffed — its reporters regularly poached by larger papers. Yet somehow the small, harried staff of the Sun put out a consistently interesting paper, which included the best arts pages in the country, a crossword second only to the New York Times's, and lots of scoops.

Labels: journos, shameless self-promotion

It's no mystery why Maddow has become the darling of the progressive blogosphere: She's one of them. Aside from the minor fact that she doesn't actually have a blog, she otherwise fits the bill quite nicely. She's young. She wears those black hipster glasses (or did--before MSNBC's makeover squad got to her). She worked as a barista. And most importantly, she's an unabashed geek who loves talking (and arguing) about policy: Before taking up hosting duties on Air America, she wrote her dissertation about AIDS and served as a prison-reform activist. Meanwhile, her academic credentials are impeccable. Want to send a liberal into a swoon? Just start quoting from Maddow's resume. She got her B.A. from Stanford! She was a Rhodes Scholar! She has a doctorate in political science! From Oxford! (Trust me--no liberal can discuss Maddow without mentioning the D.Phil.)

How did American men get themselves into such a mess? And how do we get them to grow up already? (Or should we even try? For guys in crisis, the slacker man-children in Apatow's movies seem to be having an awful lot of fun.) No matter. It's time to put away childish things--and that includes the remote, the copy of Playboy, and the Wii. Or so say man's latest self-appointed saviors, columnist Kathleen Parker and sociologist Michael Kimmel. American masculinity is in crisis, both say, and something must be done.

Labels: gender wars, journos, shameless self-promotion

Labels: journos, politics

--Gene Weingarten

Labels: journos