Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

There are lots of reasons why the mainstream media have the attitudes and stances they do. Some have to do with class, and some with political biases. But many of them have to do with the same forces and phenomena that nearly everyone runs into at no matter what place-of-work: ego and ambition, of course, but also inertia, laziness, going-along-to-get-along, feathering-the-nest, sucking-up-to-bosses, hoping-not-to-get-laid-off ...

A consequence is that the professional news media often ignore (or soft-pedal, or misreport) dicey but pressing topics. Why volunteer to juggle a hot potato when it might mean alienating your peers, the people in whose world you want to succeed, or at least survive? Why antagonize the people who hand out prizes and promotions? Why play dangerous games with your career?

Which does leave the rest of us in the lurch, alas: Where is the news about uncomfortable but important topics going to come from, if not from the people whose job it is to dig it out?

It's going to come, if at all, from courageous independents like Steve Sailer. In recent years, Steve -- who writes for a number of outfits but is employed by none of them -- has done an amazing job of wading into turbulent waters. He writes informatively (and fearlessly) about genetics, race, sexuality, and disease. He has been courageous in calling attention to the insanity of our Mexican-border situation. He blew the whistle on the myth that the states that voted for Kerry were more intelligent than the states that voted for Bush, and he speculated -- correctly -- that Kerry himself is no more intelligent than Bush is. Yet Steve is no slave to either party; he's one of the most biting critics around of George W. Bush, whose policies he has brilliantly labeled "invade the world/invite the world." Not to mention his movie reviews, which represent some of the most original current writing I know of about the movies.

I just noticed that Steve is running a fund-raising drive. It ain't easy going your own way, let alone speaking the truth as directly as you can. It also isn't an approach that makes it easy to pay the bills. Steve also makes a lot of his work available for free on the web. What a boon for the rest of us, and what a public service -- but, again, not the kind of thing that puts food on the table. The digital world is great in many respects, but it has made it far less easy than it once was for freelance writers to get paid for their work.

Yet the rest of us depend on the work of people willing to take chances. If you value Steve's work anything like as much as I do, you'll join me in making a donation. Since I get more more intellectual meat to chew on from Steve's blog alone than I do from The Nation and The National Review combined, I couldn't be happier to contribute.

Best,

Michael

I'm broke myself, but I did blogroll his place. Maybe somebody from my spot will go visit his and pass on a shekel or two.

I hope so. The only negative I could see was the lack of comments. (Aint I particular? :) )

Posted by: Alan Kellogg on August 17, 2005 03:41 PM






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