Langewiesche at Sea
Worth a trip to the newsstand: The Atlantic Monthly’s September issue, which contains at least two superb articles of depth. The first is William Langewiesche’s “Anarchy at Sea”, an examination of the problem of piracy on our planet’s oceans. Langewiesche is the genius that brought us last year’s phenomenal “American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center”, the book-length series of articles about the clean-up of the site of the world’s most infamous terrorist attack. Unfortunately, Atlantic knows what a great writer Langewiesche is, otherwise they would make his articles fully available online.
The second article, which is online in its entirety, is James Fallows’s portrait of “power-mad, rapacious right-wing vulgarian” Rupert Murdoch, the mind behind News Corporation, which controls, among other things, the Fox media empire.
The article also discusses the recent decision by the American FTC to allow local newspapers to own other local media, such as TV stations. Speaking as someone who lives in a country where this practice is already allowed, I can say that absolutely no good comes of it. Media conglomerates are interested in making profits, not informing citizens. The former goal will always trump the latter, and Rupert Murdoch is walking proof of that.
Previously: The Last Place On Earth
Subsequently: May Pre House The Seamy Side Volitation!!!
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