Lewis Lapham vs. journalism

[Previously: “Catherine Nixey - The Darkening Age (Video Interview).”]


By Grand Rapids Anonymous
Monday, November 28, 2022 at 2:37:00 p.m. est

I’ve never heard of Lewis Lapham, so I looked him up, and he’s now 87. It appears his last book was in 2016, called The Age of Folly—a putdown of Trump and Hillary Clinton.

If he made fun of the Bushes, what would he think of Biden?

--GRA


By Grand Rapids Anonymous
monday, november 28, 2022 at 11:02:00 p.m. est

My last thought on Lewis Lapham, via a snippet of an article, by a Ron Rosenbaum, from 2012:

“I was fortunate to write for him, so, not being entirely objective myself, I asked New York University professor Robert S. Boynton, head of the literary reportage program there and author of The New New Journalism, to describe Lapham’s significance: ‘He pushed the idea that the memoir form might influence ANY piece—an essay, report, investigation—and make it more, rather than less, true. Another way to put it is that he attacked the false gods of ‘objective journalism,’ and showed how much more artful and accurate writing in the first person could be.”

GRA: Lapham abhorred “objective journalism”—the opposite of which is—propaganda. If you have nothing but propaganda in your papers and tv, the reader or viewer cannot possibly know if he’s getting facts or lies, as he donates his time to either endeavor.

--GRA