I’m inclined to see the lapse of judgment in this case as being one of style rather than substance, and I continue to be a huge fan of Lewis’s journalism generally. But the lines do blur. Malcolm Gladwell has said that good non-fiction writing “succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you”, rather than on its necessarily being right. The result, at least in Gladwell’s case — and, for that matter, in Taibbi’s, too — is oversimplification in the service of style. Lewis, with his Germany piece, has done something a bit different: he’s demonstrated so little faith in the ability of his subject matter to be interesting that he’s resorted to the laziest stereotypes of all. You could even say he’s the kind of person who files a polished and prestigious article for Vanity Fair, but who, on closer inspection, turns out to have filled it up with excrement.
The Audit
10:55 AM - August 15, 2011
Feces, Fascists, and Michael Lewis
A flop from the best writer in financial journalism
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
Fearless British mother who talked down Woolwich terrorists
“It is only you versus many people, you are going to lose”
7 questions for President Obama
Stop with the Jew-ranking already!
“There are some lists that have helped Jews in the past, including, most notably, Schindler’s, but…”
Please continue pronouncing ‘gif’ any way you please
We are all correct
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
"Lewis is the best writer in financial journalism by some large margin, and much of what he does when reporting and writing his stories is simply unique."
That's a pretty amazing thing to say about a guy who gets so many things wrong.
Michael Lewis writes beautiful, beautiful, satisfying prose and should pursue a career in fiction. His articles are super fun to read and leave you with an entirely inaccurate opinion of the subject matter.
Michael Lewis:Journalism::Obama:Public Speaking. You feel warm, fuzzy and satisfied while getting screwed. I put the President on mute and Mr. Lewis in the waste basket, and the world consequently makes a lot more sense.
#1 Posted by LorenzoStDuBios, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:03 PM
Ouch. Really sorry for the multiple posts.
Michael Lewis still sucks.
#2 Posted by LorenzoStDuBios, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:07 PM
Well done, Felix. A matter worth careful study. Your comment on "incremental" reporting is interesting. Obviously, many suffer from an inability to get traction on their stories.
By contrast, from the Telegraph's live news blog today:
Latest 15.38 Nouriel Roubini, the US professor and economics guru, gives his take on today's market rally: Homebuilders' sentiment totally depressed, real economy contracting based on Empire State Survey...& myopic markets rallying because of M&As less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply
Nouriel Roubini.
In this economic crisis, nobody is getting better traction than Roubini.
This crisis should be a lesson to journalism schools in at least the UK, the US, and Australia, to change their practices in mutually reinforced programs this autumn.
First of all, students need to learn how to dominate a powerful and intuitive international media reading cycle. Grounded in meticulous analysis of three print newspapers, the weekend WSJ, the Sunday NYT, and the Murdoch Sunday Times. There is a tactile power in doing the print papers and spending three months in fully internalizing the cycle so as to enhance cognition. (Every journalism student should confront cognition directly with the most important book in psychology, Mark Ashcraft's "Cognition"). Given that students are so helpless with vocabulary--a trend aggravated by the SAT--they should also read all of the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. Students should have to master a central 20-source internet news cycle daily, and pass thoughtful exams on it.
There are ways to get traction. Journalism schools often systematically look in other directions. They can't even adopt the COBUILD English Grammar. Too busy being busy.
#3 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:10 PM
Lorenzo:
Would you care to elaborate? What did Mr. Lewis get wrong that so annoys you? Was it in Moneyball? The Blind Side? The Big Short? Liar's Poker? Please share.
#4 Posted by garhighway, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:45 PM
You have not captured the content of Lewis's article accurately, Felix.
How many of your readers--at CJR and at your Reuters blog--have bothered to click through the Vanity Fair article page-by-page to assess your summary?
'LorenzoStDuBios' and 'garhighway' are talking past each other. A symbolic Internet encounter. On a matter of this type, readers should post their real name.
I doubt that the editors at Vanity Fair are having second thoughts, because Lewis's article is the most popular. It shows Tweet 587.
What Lewis says tells us more about the evil force, America, than it informs us about Germany. My recommendation is that the US formally change its name to The United States of Distraction. A pure formalization of its hectic and distracted style, which emerges beautifully in Lewis's piece.
In America, we do not bother to read the text. We just run our greasy paws over it and ejaculate something.
#5 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 01:49 PM
Feces=money, right?
I think it was Freud said it last.
#6 Posted by Edward Ericson Jr., CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 02:31 PM
I read the Michael Lewis as far as his description of Hamburg, a city I know.
How can anyone describe this chap as any kind of a writer? He's a New York hack,that's all.http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
#7 Posted by MICHAEL ROLOFF, CJR on Wed 17 Aug 2011 at 12:18 AM
I am of Greek descent and I find Lewis' writings on Greece offensive. I am puzzled as to why people think he is such a great writer. In an earlier piece on Greece he wrote about how American like and fresh (I don't recall his exact words but that was the gist) the people in the "new" Greek government were. If he were to say that in Greece, he would be laughed out of the country, as the government is neither new nor by any means honest. There is so much that he said that I could critque, but it would take up too much space. In any case, stereotypes are never a good thing, especially when aimed at people who are going through a hard time.
#8 Posted by Mara, CJR on Wed 5 Oct 2011 at 02:26 PM
Some of you should just shut up
#9 Posted by Zack, CJR on Tue 25 Oct 2011 at 03:27 AM