Hans Eisenbeis

Apropos of Pete’s comments yesterday, I have to admit I haven’t looked at many New Times papers in recent years. I think their impulse to be politically contrarian is a good one (which is a much different thing than being anti-liberal, but that’s a whole ‘nother conversation–of course, anti-liberalism usually IS more or less disguised … Read more

The announcement yesterday about the Village Voice and New Times merger was interesting. All concerned parties–that is Mike Lacey, Jim Larkin, and David Schneiderman–are awfully defensive about charges of “selling out,” but then they’ve been hearing that for years, so their protests have always landed on my ear just a touch too loudly. I personally … Read more

You might have thought I was in Puerto Rico at that glamorous American Magazine conference, but no. I don’t think I could afford the gas to get to the airport, much less leave the country. But I see my old friend Wonkette is there stirring things up a bit. It’s been a few months since … Read more

Sorta busy this wet morning, but I couldn’t help myself from weighing in on the Strib redesign, over at MNSpeak, so rather than fritter away more time, I’ll do the really gauche thing, and quote myself: Everyone can agree that newspapers are losing readership, but the basic problem is believing that management can think (or … Read more

I try to avoid these sorts of political ramblings, but sometimes it just becomes unbearable–the sin of silence, we call it, during Yom Kippur. It is marginally related to media criticism, so spot me one here. The tone has become noticeably conciliatory over at Power Line these days. True, the local detachment of the 42nd … Read more

I was surprised to see last week’s New Yorker, the Style Special, for a couple of reasons. First it was poly-bagged with a supplement called “Fashion Rocks” (more about this in a moment), and second, because it contains what I first thought to be one of the bigger flubs in New Yorker history. Considering that … Read more

Amid all the news of the End Times, you may not have noticed that the New York Times Magazine introduced a new department last Sunday. They are calling it “The Funny Pages.” They are not funny. The most obvious attempt at what would normally be called humor was Elizabeth Gilbert’s confessional essay on yoga, in … Read more

I see where there is a new biography of Mark Twain, and I intend to clean out the office to see if it might have arrived while I wasn’t looking. It is my shameful practice to deal with most of what I receive here in the mail by stacking it in small pillars that lean … Read more