the kicker

The Goldberg Variations

Yesterday afternoon, a new writer trotted into The Atlantic’s impressive stable of bloggers: Jeffrey Goldberg rolled out the magazine’s latest eponymous blog. “This is almost certainly a mistake,” The Atlantic’s national correspondent declares by way of introducing his first post, following that up with a detailed—and self-deprecating—list of his reservations about donning the proverbial Blogger’s […]

April 29, 2008

Yesterday afternoon, a new writer trotted into The Atlantic’s impressive stable of bloggers: Jeffrey Goldberg rolled out the magazine’s latest eponymous blog. “This is almost certainly a mistake,” The Atlantic’s national correspondent declares by way of introducing his first post, following that up with a detailed—and self-deprecating—list of his reservations about donning the proverbial Blogger’s Pajamas. (After noting his experience writing for, among other publications, New York, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, Goldberg writes, “I have nearly run out of magazines. I will undoubtedly be ending my career at Cat Fancy.”)

Kidding aside, though, the writer expects to put his foreign affairs expertise—and his Renaissance Man mentality—to work in Jeffrey Golberg: The Blog.

I hope to blog, when the spirit moves me, on the future of Israel, the coarsening of American life, the Jewish predisposition toward dissatisfaction, the Mets (see previous), Dylan and Springsteen, the perfidies of Wal-Mart, genocide in Africa, gun control, the civilizational struggle within Islam, airline delays, screenwriting and the bleakness of journalism. I also hope to be bridge to the 19th Century. I’ve spent many aimless hours rooting around the cavernous and wondrous Atlantic archives, and I hope to bring you along for some of my more exciting discoveries.

Cat Fancy can wait. Welcome to the blogosphere.

Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.