Showtime at the Apollo (nikkibong & PreppyMcPrepperson)

[Baltimoron]

I think what the Economist does is useful for the executives who make up a large chunk of its readership, people who can't be bothered to follow in-depth reporting in daily papers, whose own careers aren't based around in depth political knowledge and just want a quick summary of events and a ready-made neoliberal opinion to regurgitate at the water cooler.

Alright, yes. In my situation, I want a weekly summary to supplement blogs and other free online content I scrape together from RSS feeds, podcasts, and places like this forum. There are plenty of stories the mag doesn't cover, but there's also more content that does get covered in its blogs. It's nice to put a little neoliberal bow on the week's events. And, in the ROK, neoliberal isn't a throwaway line. Just trying to argue with anyone that individuals and markets - the whole liberal canon of beliefs Americans dismiss as old hat - is revolutionary stuff compared to Confucianism. A protest sheet full of witty if sometimes vapid apologies for capitalism is fighting words in this context!

That said, I find it hard to respect the Economist as journalism because I have always associated journalism with original reporting, and what the Economist does is just smart analysis of information reported elsewhere.

Call it the Utne Reader of Capitalism. The FT and The Economist go together with the intelligence unit. But, the investigative journalism point was something American journalists need to address in the afe of the internet. FT/Economist can back its assertions with its research. American papers are looking for a model to replace the loss leader model. And, again, where the numbers toldd the story, as in the dot com and housing bubbles, The Economist was fearless and reported trouble for years - not doom and gloom Roubini-style - but with hope and a call for a slow deflating. No American publication, clutching corporate lifelines has the gonads or the foresight to give itself the means by which to take those stances.