...ist diese Polemik von Gavin Keeney gegen den "New Yorker". (Anlaß ist das Chomsky-Portrait von Larisa MacFarquhar im April.) Was diese Attacke nicht leisten will - eine mit Empirie angereicherte Analyse - fehlt ihr letztendlich.

Both "The New Yorker" and "The New York Times" specialize in empty intellectual calories, spiriting away anything of value and spritzing the reading public with journalistic eau de nothingness, a vagueness so vague that it seems almost self-conscious of its own meaninglessness. Far from provoking an intellectual and spiritual crisis, this potential crisis is instead de-racinated and institutionalized in the club that each journalistic camp employs to sort and massage the every-day barrage of half-truths and lies that constitute the news cycle.

The New Yorker, in particular, is the quintessential club for light-weights -- the air-head club -- an efficacious affectation that spares its members any responsibility for the state of things. The club is effectively a chorus of highly-paid commentators on the spectacle of contemporary life.