The Best Long-Form Magazine Stories of the Year, Per Brooks
EmailI'll be subbing for George Stephanopoulos on This Week this Sunday; our guests will be White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The roundtable will consist of Ruth Marcus, Matt Dowd, Paul Krugman and David Brooks.
In his column today, Brooks bestows his annual Sidney awards for the best long-form magazine articles.
In case you missed them, they are:
The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care, by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker;
How American Health Care Killed My Father by David Goldhill in The Atlantic;
If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care; Fasten your seat belts — it's going to be a bumpy flight, by Jonathan Rauch in the National Journal;
Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man? by David Grann in the New Yorker;
A Rake's Progress: Marion Barry bares (almost) all, by Matt Labash in the Weekly Standard; and
Rediscovering Central Asia, by S. Frederick Starr in the Wilson Quarterly.
Good stuff. Hope to see you Sunday!
- jpt
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As 2009 ends with violence barely concealed all around, some still ascribe the scars of violence (perhaps more likely embodied on the vilest of forms) as too much information.
So may awards sort out individual and institutional contributions to the public discourse into streams of various impact, and so may we appreciate the possibility that humanity is only furthered by making the most of even irrelevance.
Posted by: Pape Dalles Yudin | December 25, 2009, 12:42 pm 12:42 pm
Try to mix it up. I like George; he has a balanced approach and moderates well. I have confidence you can do the same – of course, since you are the “sub” its like you have to carry the tradition forward.
I’d still like you to mix it up with the Press secretary – take him to task on some of his explanations and comments. He is getting better but there are still times when he says things that are – well – just funny.
Posted by: Lone Star Rules | December 25, 2009, 12:48 pm 12:48 pm
As 2009 ends with violence barely concealed all around, some still ascribe the scars of violence (perhaps more likely embodied on the vilest of forms) as too much information.
So may awards sort out individual and institutional contributions to the public discourse into streams of various impact, and so may we appreciate the possibility that humanity is only furthered by making the most of even irrelevance.
____________
What does this mean? I read it twice and I still don’t get it…
Posted by: Lone Star Rules | December 25, 2009, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
What does it mean.
Here is one attempt regarding Brooks, though there likely exist a wide range of entirely consistant possibilities.
Brooks’ choice of talent for 2009 journalism, was incredibily narrow. To reward a writer because they dismissed the relevance of a subject’s bullet wound, even if it meant discomfort upon exposure to a human male nipple is to advocate narrow-mindedness. That may well be a Brooksian tactic, a lot of clubs pay pundits to omit the unpalatable. (including currency that isn’t monetary gain anything to get around corporate ethics)
On the flip side, what the pundit choose to focus attention on, is often falsehood, like crying wolf( and that boy has been discredited in his many forms, across many cultures, and eras).
As for sorting, it’s like saying there’s a system, whereby either everything you touch turns into gold, or mold. believe it, or shrug it off, of course they mix it up so the assortment isn’t obvious.
And then,making the best out of everything, so there’s examples for every lesson. So, say a pundit thinks that he can outmaneuvre the rules of his contract, and unsatisfied with the rewards of the high road, puts himself up for sale to anyone who ‘pays’ well, so he can just simplify or complicate any topic, solely at the expense of the masses.
As for the Press secretary, he is not there to entertain, he communicates the presidential point of view, and is limited by it, so why not ask him straight questions, rather than try to force some special interest’s agenda on him? Just a thought.
Merry x-mas.
Posted by: Defeated Loyalist | December 25, 2009, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
The shephard boy was just seeking attention, Brooks seems to risk away caution and react out of spite: exposing his true self by letting off his guard.
The tale does have many variants, putting countless children to sleep over the centuries. It is feasable that an anti-alarmist faction intented to dull warnings and the boy was set up. Now that’s a genuine walko conspiracy, or a very silly animated sequel.
Posted by: Gang Wolf | December 25, 2009, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
It doesn’t take much integrity to have convictions stronger than Brooks’, and a conviction based on hollow grounds is an offering to the whims of the meteorological bureaucrats.
Posted by: Noem Fer | December 25, 2009, 6:30 pm 6:30 pm
OK, here’s a question for Mitch McConnell:
Republicans were the majority for most of this decade, with the Democrats taking over the congressional majority in 2007.
Even with the many unexpected problems that happened on the Republican watch, you can’t say that America and it’s people ended up better than it started the decade.
Mr. McConnell, after the Republican economic record for 8 years why should Americans suddenly believe that your party has answers when they could not provide them while you controlled the country?
Jake, you know the first comments will be about how Obama is doing this and that, and McConnell will avoid responsibility, but press him, to answer directly why when Republicans had the chance and the power did things in America get worse
Posted by: Sausich & peppers | December 26, 2009, 7:48 am 7:48 am
In case you missed them, they are:
The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care, by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker;
—
Atul Gawande is an excellent writer. I learn a lot from his pieces in the New Yorker. Great to see him recognized by his peers (and I highly recommend him to others.)
Posted by: progressive mama | December 26, 2009, 11:36 am 11:36 am
Good job, Jake. You were able to move through some fairly large swings in the current easily.
tell George he has real competition in the wings.
Posted by: Lone Star Rules | December 27, 2009, 12:32 pm 12:32 pm
This is best idea for maintain the records of the year. You have done great job for making this story.
Posted by: Diesel trucks | December 29, 2009, 2:32 am 2:32 am