Bruce Benidt
Jon Austin
tcarideo
Ellen Mrja
Mike Keliher
Joe Loveland
Brian Lambert(I asked a dear friend, Bill McAuliffe, what things are like at the Star Tribune these days, with more buyouts and empty desks and union negotiations and a possible bankruptcy. McAuliffe is a great reporter and a damn fine human being. Here’s his dispatch: )
It’s a bipolar existence here. The other day, in a walk from my desk to the news library, I had to say good bye (good buy?) to four people. Long-timers, valued colleagues, reliable glue. And good people.
For many who took the buyout, it’s a positive thing. They’re moving on to something else, either new jobs (in a few cases), or more time with the family, or school, or a sort of early retirement. You gotta be happy for them.
I know of one who didn’t get the buyout and really was counting on it. The company offered 25 buyouts and granted 23. She didn’t have the seniority to get one, I understand. I guess they figure: She’ll now hate the company so much she’ll certainly quit. Quite a management strategy.
The Freeman Building across the street has been dark for six months or more (looking all too much like the foreclosed-on properties around the city, only super-sized); there’s a sign on the second floor skyway connection saying you can’t get there anymore. The basement gets more abandoned furniture shoehorned into it every day – the work stations where people we knew well spent their days. I suppose since we can’t sell ad space we’re soon going to be selling used office furniture. There’s so much of it down there they’re having a hard time keeping the exits clear. It’s like the Chapel of Bones.
I do wish someone would remove the Peanuts statues from the park across the street, but the person who put them there probably thinks they’re morale boosters, even with their peeling paint. Though that person very well might be gone…
Meanwhile, we’ll have to figure out how to accomplish the work we think needs doing – once we decide what that is. More investigations? You betcha! But don’t we have to fill some suburban zone sections? Who’s going to cover for the copy editors and team leaders who are leaving or have left? So we rotate reporters into Terry Collins’ general assignment swing shift, or Bennie Cohen’s obituary job. That takes them off their regular duties for a day a week. Lost continuity, distraction, confused sources, missed or late stories – they will follow.
And yet. . .this is in some ways an exciting time and place. Blindly we’re trying to figure out new ways to present news and information – video, slide shows, audio, blogs, mobile functions. We hope people will notice and value it. Video is certainly not our strength and it’s not why I got in this business, but it can be goofy fun (kind of like blogging!) and ultimately maybe we’ll learn how to use it effectively. Meanwhile, it means trying to tell the same story in several different ways under continual deadlines. Sometimes it seems like we’ve just re-invented AM radio news and thought of it as a great advance, while adding ever more work to everybody’s load.
Even so, I suspect some of the people at the bottom of the seniority list – young, creative, enthusiastic – just want to survive, and then thrive. They’re here, remarkably, for the same old reasons: they want to tell human stories and document our times and our community. And after bankruptcy, what could shake them?
Grimly hopeful, seven days a week. That just about describes it.
Filed under: Communications
Bill’s dispatch is so … McAuliffe. A tough and realistic look at hard times, leavened with humor and hope.
When I was in the newsroom of the old Star and then the Star Tribune, there was always a lot of bitching about how bad things were. It was a very good paper in a fine city and a (then) very good pay scale for journalism, so the griping seemed, to me, to be mostly done for sport. I still have a lot of friends there, and the things that truly merit bitching have escalated. But it’s people like McAuliffe and their desire and need to “tell human stories and document our times and our community” that make me respect journalists enormously and wonder how in the hell we’re going to continue to support people whose wonderfully subversive and essential job it is to go around and ask a pile of questions, often of people who don’t want any questions asked of them ever, dig into the record and tell us all what’s really going on in our community and world. It’s a virtuous profession, and as it shrinks, so does our knowledge about ourselves and our ability to govern ourselves.
Thanks, Bill, hang in.
A genuine tragedy powerfully described. There may be the possibility of new beginnings in modern forms but it feels much more like the disappearance of an essential institution that will be irreplaceable, that we can’t afford to let slip away from us, and this is very disturbing. How can an internet news culture ever duplicate the community of shared information that is provided by the daily newspaper?
Thanks for sharing this with us, Bill.
It’s probably of zero consolation to Bill and his colleagues who are living and working through this conditions, but I believe, no matter what happens to newspapers, journalism will thrive.
Dennis asks, “How can an internet news culture ever duplicate the community of shared information that is provided by the daily newspaper?”
It won’t. But the best qualities of the daily newspaper — as well as radio, television and magazines — will be reflected in the parts of that Internet news culture that will become the new “essential institutions.”
I love the feel and the smell of paper more than most — I intentionally buy old paperback books because they smell so much better than the new crap — but so little of the power of a newspaper lies in the paper. It will take time for the economics of all of this to get sorted out, but Bill McAuliffe can do what he does on tree pulp just as well on WordPress.
Since the “Star/Trib” experience is seemingly being duplicated everywhere how has this effected the way journalism is being taught in higher education? I’m guessing that we’re no longer preparing students for careers that won’t exist. How many of wonderful potential will simply be discouraged by the “shrinking profession” and turn their attention elswhere? Or, in the future willl the internet provide those opportunities? Can it ever provide those opportunities when it’s providing information for free?
Professor Mrja is among small number of college teachers recognizing need for — and attempting to integrate into classroom — new skills that Bill McA mentions, including gaining versatility w multiple platforms for storytelling beyond print. One of MSU Mankato’s recent grads (and not coincidentally one of Ellen’s stars), Myron Medcalf, who covers Gophers hoops for StarTrib, does a great job in this regard: print, video, pod, blog. Credit Ellen for pressing forward to keep students engaged and encouraged, despite trolls and dinosaurs lurking along the road, ready to seize and stomp.
As for Bill’s dispatch from the front: distressing, indeed. Paper going down for the count, it appears. When news is just a commodity and newspapers simply an investment…well, you’ve been over that ground before.
Myron Medcalf does do a great job (and has a great job covering the exciting Gophers)–good work Professor Mrja! But where does he go without the forum of the Star/Trib? Without it, presuming there are no blogs, podcasts, videos, and anyone to pay his salary.
“Can it ever provide those opportunities when it’s providing information for free?”
Isn’t a newspaper basically “providing information for free”? Even for people who subscribe or buy at newsstands, that nominal fee amounts to but a dent in the costs of operating a successful newspaper. The big money is in the ads, and that’s pretty much the same online.
The difference is that advertisers currently aren’t willing to pay as much for eyeballs on Web sites as they are for eyeballs on a printed product.
Is professional journalism in a tough spot right now? Yes, probably in more ways than not. But is solid, meaningful journalism dead or dying? I simply don’t believe it, and I don’t believe it will ever happen, either.
For every story of another dying newspaper company, there’s an organization like The Uptake or MinnPost that’s trying new things and might succeed for two years or two decades or more. Journalism isn’t just a profession for many. It’s also a necessary resource for all of us. It won’t die.
MK–But that’s just the point. With so much free the chances of Myron Medcalf, after his Star/Trib job is eliminated, starting a revenue-generating web site with selected bright and creative similarly out-of-work colleagues, complete with video on-demand, live-streaming and podcasts, or whatever the technology, is very remote. Although I understand internet-ad revenue is a monstrous number. Some news-related sites (Huffington Post?) must be profitable, but thinking very few. Meaning Myron, and others with talent just like him, won’t have the opportunity to practice their craft and earn a living doing it. Yes? No?
First, if no one has noticed there is a severe recession going on. Multiple retailers, car dealerships, realtors, etc. are out the door. With little $$$, I suspect the Star Tribune is doing what it can with what it has.
My suggestion is to start buying the Sunday newspaper. Last week my wife and I saved $50 at Cub with Strib coupons.
You have to be an idiot not to buy it.
As for the journalism, my mother worked there as a reporter in the 1970s. Her and her co-reporters bitched constantly about the newspaper. It was falling apart back then too I guess. Reporters LOVE to bitch.
So….help them out and start telling your friends to BUY the damn thing every week. We then wouldn’t have a problem!
I’m thinking the decline was well underway before current economics grimly accelerated the process. Loss of fundamental ad revenue to free sites like Craig’s List. Loss of subscriber revenue to no-cost information available on the internet. Loss of subscribers contributing to the pull back or out of other advertisers. Now, all markets grinding to a standstill. All coalesce into the picture drawn by Mr. McAuliffe. The office furniture piled in musty hallways. I renewed at $40.00/seven day home delivery. Used to be over $60.00, an amount I gladly paid it even though funds are tight.
A blogger’s advice for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
1) Show Hearst the door: Any plan for preserving the P-I will require the community’s wholesale support. Hearst doesn’t have it. Announcing its intention to sell the paper, then refusing to answer questions from the staff, puts the company right up there with Clay Bennett in the ranks of out-of-town owners. Hearst doesn’t want to be here. Let’s grant that wish.
2) Assemble a local ownership group: This could take many forms — ranging from a single wealthy owner to a small group backed by venture capital. Whatever form the new ownership takes, it will require deep pockets, a love of journalism, a willingness to take strategic risks and an understanding that it will have no say in the day-to-day editorial decisions of the newspaper.
3) Kill the print edition: This will hurt, particularly because of the loss of jobs, but it’s necessary for the short-term survival of the brand. Dropping the printed newspaper will reduce expenses and let the remaining staff focus completely on the online operations. This will also end the P-I’s dependence on the struggling Seattle Times Co., which prints the newspaper and handles related business functions under their joint operating agreement.
4) Bring in a top technologist: Perhaps the biggest mistake newspapers have made is entrusting their online operations to people who grew up in the traditional newspaper business. Old-school reporters should continue to play a role in the business, but the new editorial operations should be run by someone from the outside with a deep understanding of online journalism, technology and social media. (See our earlier list for potential candidates.) Partnering with local tech companies would also be key.
5) Bring in a top Internet executive: In much the same way, newspapers have made the mistake of relying on publishers whose expertise relates primarily to print publications. The reborn P-I will require a business leader with the knowledge and experience to apply emerging Internet business models to the new operation, particularly in the area of advertising. Seems like an ideal role for Brian McAndrews, the former aQuantive CEO who recently left his executive position at Microsoft.
6) Supplement salaried reporters with paid community bloggers: SeattlePI.com already has the infrastructure in place, through its legions of reader bloggers and its Webtowns pages. The new P-I should be run by a streamlined staff of online producers and salaried reporters on centralized beats such as courts, transportation and city hall. To make the business work, they should be supplemented by journalists and vetted bloggers, reporting from the city’s neighborhoods and paid based on the traffic they generate. See ZDNet.com and other technology news sites for examples of this model.
7) Automate the advertising process: Follow the lead of Google and others by giving advertisers a comprehensive online tool for buying advertising inventory and automatically placing ads next to any content they wish. If a restaurant owner in Ballard wants to buy the space next to the big story about the neighborhood, he’ll have it there in seconds — if he can outbid the rival eatery across the street. Sales reps will still have a role, working with bigger brand advertisers on strategic campaigns. But a self-service advertising tool, like one developed by Seattle-based AdReady, could go a long way towards streamlining operations.
9) Resurrect the print edition: Once SeattlePI.com becomes financially viable, the new owners should bring back the print edition as an extension of the Internet property. The first step would be a weekly print product, collecting the week’s online coverage and offering additional analysis and enterprise reporting. Make it available for free, but make it thick with relevant local advertising by offering the new legions of online advertisers space in the print publication as part of an overall package.
10) Act quickly.
_______________________
I don’t agree with 5 of these recommendations. It would be far better to close the legacy assets, keep the brand, and re-open with an online version using entirely new personnel, none from the dead-tree version. Otherwise there will never be enough cash to keep it running.
I should add that MinnPost has it half right. Kramer et al, however, ignore the market by repurposing tired writers covering topics that few people care about. But hey – it’s other people’s money and grants.
But Dr. K. – which half?
“It’s a bipolar existence here.” First of all, I feel badly for all the newspapers that are downsizing. I’ve read the papers ever since I was a kid. In grade school and junior high, I had a daily Pioneer Press/Dispatch route as well as a Sunday Mpls. route.
My reply is not about the difficult times newspapers owners and employees are experiencing. I’m writing about the use of language. Why do intelligent people often feel a need to make their point using jargon and clinical terms dealing with mental illness? I don’t know how many times I’ve heard intellectuals use the term “schizophrenia” when what they would have been better off using the word “dichotomy” as a descriptor.
Later in his blog, McCauliffe said, “Lost continuity, distraction, confused sources, missed or late stories – they will follow. And yet. . .this is in some ways an exciting time and place.” I’m wondering if “dichotomy” might not have better described the situation in this last quotation.
I do a lot of volunteer work with the mentally ill. Do you have any idea what it’s like when you’re driving a client to an appointment, and some broadcast journalist on the radio uses the word schizophrenia or some other term that is relevant to the client’s condition? Usually, when a journalist or someone being interviewed uses a mental health term in this context, it’s done in a pejorative manner, and the average listener probably has no idea what the terms bipolar, schizophrenic, etc. means. Even if the listener does know, he/she will often have to try to figure out how that relates to the point that the journalist or interviewee is trying to convey.
I’ve had this happen more than once when a client was in my vehicle. When it happens, I just want to crawl under the seat and disappear for a few minutes because I feel so embarrassed both for the client and for the person who is talking on the radio. I’m sure the client has similar feelings.
I wish the American Psychiatric Association would abandon the terms schizophrenic and bipolar. The terms have become part of the vernacular language. The APA should just give the larger society these terms and invent new ones to describe the seriously mentally ill in our midst. All parties would be better served by such a move.
I wish Bill McCauliffe and all of the other journalists and their readers the best.
The reference to Bennie Cohen caught me — I sat within earshot of him during a reporting internship and he was, indeed, a model of consistency and persistence. I learned a lot by listening to his interviews, even just the rhythm of his voice when I couldn’t make out the words.
[...] Of Bones Via the indespensable David Brauer, we get a first-hand account of the, ahem, mood inside Strib headquarters from reporter Bill McAuliffe. The Freeman Building [...]
Today was the launch of a stunning online news site, Global Post. This could be where reporting is heading. http://www.globalpost.com/
Stop your complaining!
As an unemployed photojournalist searching for a replacement occupation half as interesting but twice as stable, I’m sick of Strib staffers saying how miserable their lives are. Boo friggin’ hoo. Look at the real world beyond your lives. If that’s too hard, then look at other journalists.
Do any of them earn Newspaper Guild Of the Twin Cities wages? No!
I once was a guild member when I worked at the Pioneer Press. Glad of it, too. But my job there was getting me nowhere, so I went elsewhere to work on my career. I dreamed of someday returning to Saint Paul, to do meaningful documentary work at a newspaper committed to such.
And getting paid $70,000 a year didn’t sound too bad either.
But it didn’t happen. I can live with that. But what annoys me are the Strib staffers who say how their workplace is turning into the catacombs of Paris’ place d’Enfer / place Denfert-Rochereau. So there are fewer folks at the two Twin Cities newspapers. And those who remain – I know more of those at Saint Paul than Minneapolis – are feeling overwhelmed. But at least you are working journalists – and very-well-paid ones at that.
So, to quote South Park’s Eric Cartman – stop your bitching!
No Duluth News-Tribune writers earn what you do. So the Strib no longer pays for your meals on out-of-town assignments. Waa! At least you don’t have to use your personal vehicles to cover assignments.
Your contract is likely better than the one that covers Fargo Forum staffers. Dallas Morning News writers earn less than you. If you love journalism so much, but hate Strib conditions, work at the Mesabi Daily News. I’m confident any staffer there would trade paychecks with you any day.
Your journalism world is so far from reality. Try finding another Minnesota print journalism job that’ll pay you Strib wages. Life’s so hard for you. Work’s so hard for you. That’s hard for even me to accept.
I and the average Joe / Joanne just doesn’t feel your pain. If a copy editor screws up a headline, they look stupid. If the 20-year-veteran pharmacist who fills your prescription makes an error, you could die.
By the way, that pharmacist earns about what a Strib writer / photographer / copy editor with five years experience does. So, please …
Spoiled – that what you are. You’re just too damn arrogant to know it.
Amen to Shooting Loon.
In their world, in order of gravity … (#1) media layoffs (#2) government layoffs (#3) media labor disputes (#4) media mergers & acquisitions (# 5) spending freezes in education (#6) earthquakes in Butfuckistan (#7) and dead last, the rest of us poor unfortunate bastards in the private sector.
As a layperson, I may not have much to ad to the nitty gritty of this discussion, but I will say…
Our paper here in Portland, Maine is in trouble as well, there is a local coalition trying to purchase (from the Seattle based group, I believe), they are having a difficult time finding funding because of the credit freeze…
As a consumer, I love reading the paper every day, but it keeps getting smaller, the coverage keeps getting worse, and the subscription rates keep rising (not to mention, our delivery guy is really inconsistant), in any other circumstance, I would take my business elsewhere….why shouldn’t I?
Mr. Lang: You said, “Some news-related sites (Huffington Post?) must be profitable, but thinking very few. Meaning Myron, and others with talent just like him, won’t have the opportunity to practice their craft and earn a living doing it. Yes? No?” I never said it’d be easy, but as you might guess from all of our discussions of Ayn Rand, I believe in the survival of the fittest.
One of the more likely outcomes is an increase in independent and freelance journalism. Less of “I’m a reporter for the Strib” and more of “I’m a reporter.”
And Big Easy: I hear you on the complaints about misused psychological terms, but admittedly, the majority of my concern stems from the shallower fact that the words are simply being used incorrectly. It’s the grammarian in me. But you’re right that this misuse betrays ignorance, insensitivity or some similar combination.
I have similar feelings when people say things like “there are no atheists in foxholes” or the related “no libertarians in a financial crisis” — but we’ve already batted those around.
MK–This is one of the great (or dangerous) things about the Crowd. Here I am trying to earn a buck, I digress and dial you folks in, and invariably you’ve posed some new conjecture to try wrapping my feable brain around. Invoking Ayn Rand (long a personal favorite) and “survival of the fittest” in the same sentence leads me to think she was a Social Darwinest. I never precisely thought of her that way, although she clearly championed the strong in society. So I dug out Hofstadler’s “Social Darwinism in American Thought.” Check out this epigraph that heads his conclusion: “…survival per se…with the denial of any substantive excellence for what survives…is surely the strongest intellectual stopping place ever proposed….”
Also check out her essay that begins “For the New Intellectual”. She dismisses the entire history of Western philosophy. I’m not exagerating–all of it. (Could have been titled for the Anti-Intellectual”.) The world just isn’t that black and white. Is it? Now that I’ve bored everyone, I still can’t help but lament the breakdown of the newspaper business model. I think it’s society’s loss. And freelancers out there–how’s business?
I don’t believe this is the answer to journalism’s woes, but it’s an interesting read related to our discussion here:
Yup, great article and the comments that follow it.
As a former journalist, I am a major critic of the Strib. But I definitely do not want to see it go away. My criticisms of the Strib have to do with not doing enough. I want enthusiasm, vigor and creativity, none of which is going to exist in the business equivalent of an emergency room psych ward. Going out of business will mean less and less until it goes dark.
The conundrum here is that the desire by the reader/viewer/citizen is at an all time height, even if half of what they desire is, as John Steinbeck said of the topics of Mac and the Boys, of great interest but little importance. People read news from all over the world and share it with each other like never before. And they expect it; the demand for reporting is at an all-time high.
What has failed is the business model that supported reporting – little boxes of print by local business touting Easter bonnets and drywall tools. It has been replaced by the Internet, which despite its terabytes of garbage and endless penis enlargement ads, exceeded virtually every futuristic mind of the last century by creating a world-wide individual press, Star Trek talking computer, library, research tool, Speaker’s Corner, 2001 A Space Odyssey’s HAL and dung heap all rolled into one.
I wish I knew the 21st Century model for news reporting. Not only would it save the Strib, it would make me rich.
Ayn Rand? People are wasting time on that third rate writer and second rate thinker? Hah! Her entire philosophy got flushed down the toilet last fall when the world economy went south. Even her disciple, former Fed. Chief Alan Greenspan, has admitted something went wrong with Positive Objectivism or whatever she called her crackpot ideas.
I’ve got an article I cut out of either the Strib or PP business section last fall that talks about the Ayn Rand Institute’s attempts to pay colleges and universities to teach her books. Pay me, I’ll create a class that critiques her books! The Ayn Rand Institute probably wouldn’t like my interpretation.
I have several intelligent acquaintances who actually read and believe in Ayn Rand. Better to spend your time on something worthwhile like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Great Gatsby or Scarlett Letter. Ayn Rand will rot your brain!
I remember when she was all the buzz back in the early/mid-60s. Playboy interviewed her. Hefner’s mag used the following phrase to describe her–”intellectual kook.” One day at Coffman Memorial Union, the local Ayn Rand Society conducted a telephone lecture with Rand. Her disembodied voice filled the room. Behind the empty lectern was a huge photo of her (kind of reminded me of those great poster photos of Chairman Mao–actually Mao’s droll little red book of sayings was far more interesting and amusing than any of the junk Rand wrote, but I digress).
I had read one or two of Rand’s books and decided to attend her tele-lecture. The Surgeon General’s report on cigarette smoking had recently been released. Rand, if you recall, was a chain smoker. She loved ridiculing existentialists saying that they thought “from the neck down” whereas Positive Objectivists or whatever her philosophy is called think “from the neck up.” The politically correct and oh-so-sensitive committee that screened questions during the q&a session refused to ask my simple question, “In light (sorry about the pun) of recent findings of the U.S. Surgeon General on the hazards of smoking, why do you smoke Miss Rand?”
About 20 years later, Rand rendered my unasked question moot when she died an awful death caused by emphysema and cancer. So much for Positive Objectivism or whatever it was she believed in.
[...] A View From Inside the Strib, جورج يوسف X سحر الباك الإسلامي [...]
Is the extent of the Rand criticism that Hefner’s magazine thought she was kooky?
Simply because Rand’s objectivist philosophy puts rational thought above all else does not mean her choosing to smoke is contradictory. Rand’s philosophy also declared a person’s freedom and pursuit of happiness to be the highest goal.
Cigarettes will kill you just like red, juicy steaks or car accidents will kill you, but if smoking or steak eating or car racing make a person happy, more power to ‘em.
Her point of rational thought is not that people will analyze a situation and then never do anything stupid. It simply means that rational thought is more meaningful and powerful than, say, beliefs or emotions.
And let’s not forget the myriad other paths newspaper companies could travel.
Wow, lots of mileage out of Benidt’s post that he didn’t even write–from the fate of journalism to the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. (Spelling corrections in my last comment: “feeble”, “Darwinist”. Sorry.) I’m afraid MK has a point Big Easy. Enjoyed your lively diatribe but with so much to legitimately question and criticize in Ayn Rand’s philosophy (some of which pertinent to the socio/economic-political climate of what’s going on these days) I kept looking for the substance in your comment, and then became slightly concerned you might hurt yourself. Take it easy.
Global Post, which EM linked to above, looks interesting. Here’s on observer’s take on that: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=156878.
I’m going to “hurt myself” over a slut like Ayn Rand whose rationalist philosophy is able to rationalize a fatal addiction like cigarette smoking? Yah, right. Yes, Mike to answer your sophomoric question, Playboy’s entire interview with her focused on her intellectual kookiness–kooky, kooky, kooky, that’s all they talked about. Wow, you are insightful. By the way, I’ve got some old newspapers and paperbacks for you to smell. I think the cat crapped on them, but if you like old smells, they’re all yours.
Seriously, if you’re unable to accept my “diatribe” against Ayn Rand, then maybe you’d feel a bit more comfortable with someone like Harold Bloom, a professor of English and humanities at Yale. He’s the author of “The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (Harcourt, 1994).” The latter is an examination of the most important works of Western literature. Rand isn’t on the list. Here’s what Bloom says about her, “Rand could not write her way out of a paper bag.”
She probably couldn’t think her way out of a paper bag either. Ayn Rand’s philosophy? She believed American universities have been taken over in the 20th century by thinkers who rejected her notion that many of life’s questions have one right answer. For instance, should I smoke or shouldn’t I? Will I become addicted or will I remain the master of my castle? Clearly, their is one right answer. The one right answer is if it feels good do it. If it feels great, do it a lot. I guess that’s two answers, but objectivism can be devilishly puzzling at times.
You want to waste your mind and your time on Rand’s drivel? Go for it. Hey, free to be you and me. However, the only way I’d ever read her crap is if someone paid me to do so. I mean if the BB&T Corp. (Branch Banking & Trust Co.) can give $1 million to UNC in Charlotte to teach “Atlas Shrugged,” then they can probably afford a few thou for poor schmucks like me to also read it and get sucked in by such a mediocre writer. BB&T has doled out over $30 million in the past decade for such nonsense. They recently pledged $2 million to establish the first U.S. chair in the study of objectivism at the University of Texas at Austin (Texas has produced so many great thinkers…W, Tom DeLay, etc.) One of W’s more famous quotations had something to do with “catapulting propaganda). Sounds to me as though BB&T along with all the other Rand groupies in the world share much in common with great thinkers like W. BTW, word on the street is Tom Petters and Bernie Madoff are huge fans of Ayn Rand.
[...] Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Bill McAuliffe writes about his experiences for the Same Rowdy Crowd [...]
So Harold Bloom doesn’t like Ayn Rand, but a lot of other people do. The Library of Congress deemed “Atlas Shrugged” to be the second-most influential book among those it surveyed — second after the Bible.
As for Petters and Madoff, that’s not a legitimate criticism of Rand. I believe David Koresh was a fan of the Bible, too. Does that reflect poorly on that book?
Hey Big–I enjoyed your diatribe, I just didn’t think it added much to our understanding of Ayn Rand’s particular world-view. But that’s okay, it apparently wasn’t your objective. And heck, you are really passionate about this! I think it was the “New York Times” in reviewing “Atlas Shrugged”, that called it a “masochist’s lollipop”! I bet you and I can agree that’s one great line. So, at the risk of alienating the global blogodrome that frequents this site, care to dissect her philosophy for us? Personally, I’d like to learn something.
Re: David Koresh, we don’t pay people to read the Bible the way BB&T bribes (to the tune of $30 million) colleges and professors to make Atlas Shrugged required reading. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I read Atlas Shrugged, but I recall it as unimpressive. I’m happy for all those people who have found meaning in her book and made it the second-most influential book among those surveyed. I often found it to be trite and superficial. Maybe if I read it again, 45 years later, I’d change my mind. However, if even former disciples like Greenspan are doing a bit of recanting of her ideas these days, then I kind of doubt I’ll undergo some sudden conversion.
Just as the Bible inspires misguided individuals like Koresh to commit evil acts, so does Atlas Shrugged. I’m sure if Petters & Madoff spoke from their heart of hearts (do either one of them actually have a heart?), they’d say Atlas Shrugged was a major influence on them.
As I recall, Rand called for unfettered capitalism–this was partly due to the fact that her family’s fortune and estate back in Russia had been confiscated by the Bolsheviks/Communists. My family also came from Russia, but they lost little or nothing as a result of the October Revolution. Still, I’ve known others who lost much. If I had incurred similar losses at the hands of a totalitarian government, I would doubtless have become as radical as Rand.
Rand has inspired many to embrace unfettered capitalism and to denigrate any kind of government oversight. I’ve seen little from her supporters to contradict such notions.
Edward Lotterman in today’s PP business section summed up the case against the unfettered Rand-types in our midst. “Bubbles stem from human nature amplified by bad government policy.” Unbounded individual greed and the lack of government oversight and deregulation inspired by Rand and carried out by Greenspan, Reagan, Libertarians and others has led directly to the financial crisis we currently see in global financial markets and major national economies around the world.
I suggest that the Rand people along with groups like BB&T reissue and rename Atlas Shrugged. Forgive me for such crudeness, but after looking at my portfolio, let me suggest a new title for the second-most influential book in the History of the World. How about After Atlas Shrugged He Took a Dump in my Portfolio.
Dennis, thanks for the offer to discuss Rand. Maybe sometime in the future that would be something to do. However, at the moment I’m packing for a trip to sail a catamaran in the Sir Francis Drake Channel and hang out in the British Virgin Islands until things warm up a bit around here.
Many apologies to any readers who have been offended by my remarks, but lately I’ve been channeling Hunter S. Thompson.
Big–Happy sailing! Good lifestyle. And thanks for the conversation, although Petters and Madoff’s self-interest to the detriment of others would I think be entirely anathema to Rand. For another day. Keep in touch.
“Harold Bloom doesn’t like Ayn Rand, but a lot of other people do. The Library of Congress deemed “Atlas Shrugged” to be the second-most influential book among those it surveyed — second after the Bible.
As for Petters and Madoff, that’s not a legitimate criticism of Rand. I believe David Koresh was a fan of the Bible, too. Does that reflect poorly on that book?”
Just a couple of afterthoughts on this post. First, simply because something is popular doesn’t make it influential and/or best. For instance, Richard Nixon in 1972 captured all but about 13 or so votes in the electoral college. I think this ties him for 4th or 5th place for percentage of electoral college votes taken in an election in the modern era. Does this necessarily mean that Nixon is the 4th or 5th best president or most influential president of the modern era?
Second, perhaps using a religious fanatic like David Koresh to make your point about Ayn Rand isn’t the best path to take.
Dennis,
Yes, your line about the NY Times calling Atlas Shrugged “masochist’s lollipop” really captures the flavor (sorry about the pun) of Rand’s collected works. She always reminded me of someone who would buy a pair of shoes one size too small just because it would feel so good to take them off at the end of the day.
We’ll stay in touch.
Fair Winds & Happy Trails,
Big Easy
P.S. Thanks for the kind words on sailing & conversations. I’ll have a drink in your honor at Foxy’s, one of the more well-known hangouts in the BVI.
Ayn Rand might have inspired some folks to believe greed is good, but that’s one hell of a bastardization of her ideas. She did not advocate greed or bringing harm to others. She advocated freedom for all and appropriate punishment for those who violate the freedoms of others.
(Later:) Now that I’ve finished reading the comments, Mr. Lang was more succinct: “Petters and Madoff’s self-interest to the detriment of others would I think be entirely anathema to Rand.”
Also, the Library of Congress did not deem the book popular; the organization deemed the book influential. “Influential” was not my editorialization.
Geeze, you guys are still at it! Figured Big would have the mainsail up by now. MK –look what you started. Personally, I was disappointed respected publications often denigrated “Atlas Shrugged”. Ayn Rand would have emphatically detested those who corrupted capitalism, ie. Petters, Madoff, Lay and others who created nothing but lived off others, by moving capital around. For me, reading the novel some years ago, it’s achievement was her celebration of individual invention, intellect and productivity. Of course, in truth, there was also a dark side to those real-life innovators who forged the industrial revolution at the turn of the century.
Apparently there are three people on the blog who are fixated on Ayn Rand’s ideas (sorry to bore the rest of you with our antics). First of all, I believe Rand had pure intentions with respect to libertarian economics. That said, she was incredibly naive to believe that we’d all be acting like those guys of The Enlightenment, padding about in our powdered wigs, breeches (o.k. peddle pushers & capri pants to the un-Enlightened) and white leggings & blathering on about the dignity of man, etc. Give me a break about human dignity–afterall, we’re in a post-Auschwitz world.
Let’s face it. Western Europe has got it right. They understand the importance of the entrepreneur in society. However, like the stud bull or stallion in the wild, such creatures bear watching. While they are often the engines of innovation, entrepreneurs can also create great havoc. Yes, western Europe has had financial corruption, but there is a great difference between their business culture and American business culture. Europe didn’t produce Ken Lay and Bernie Madoff. America, Wall Street, a spirit of deregulation inspired by Reagan and Greenspnan, a disdain for government, etc. is what gave us Enron and Madoff. To simply dismiss Ken Lay, Tom Petters and Bernie Lay as misbehaving bad boys is to understate the impact they’ve had on society. They are responsible for great harm.
Ayn Rand, bless her soul, was self-righteous, naive and misguided. She may have been pure in her economic and societal beliefs, but she was not like that in her personal life.
Let me say that I’m no fan of Bill Clinton, but he was impeached because of his affair with Monica Lewinski (o.k., technically it’s because he lied about his affair). How about the personal life of Ayn Rand, author of the second most influential book of our time? She took up with one of her disciples, a married man. I’m not sure if he had a family, but that’s beside the point. He engaged in a social contract with his wife. In the end, he defiled his social and personal vows to her in order to “bump monkeys” with Rand. Shouldn’t the right wing at least make an attempt to impeach her as their leader?
Fine. It happens all the time that the marriage contract is breached. However, most people who engage in infidelity and the breaking of a social contract don’t promote themselves as intellectual, moral or religious leaders–they often describe themselves as having failed at the task of marriage. Okay, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young engaged in some odd behavior (BTW, I’m not a Mormon), but that doesn’t excuse Rand from helping another member of society from meeting the obligations of his social contract.
I agree with Rand: freedom is good. However, as Janice Joplin said (prior to her untimely death due to a drug overdose and Rand’s untimely death due to a tobacco overdose) freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
We’ve all lost a lot thanks to Rand groupies like Greenspan, Madoff, etc.
Fair Winds and Blue Skies,
Big Easy
P.S. After this weekend, you won’t have the Big Easy to kick around anymore–gees, don’t you just hate that kind of self-pity?
January 14, 2009. …
BOSTON (Reuters) – Bernie Madoff’s investment fund may never have executed a single trade, industry officials say, suggesting detailed statements mailed to investors each month may have been an elaborate mirage in a $50 billion fraud.
An industry-run regulator for brokerage firms said on Thursday there was no record of Madoff’s investment fund placing trades through his brokerage operation.
That means Madoff either placed trades through other brokerage firms, a move industry officials consider unlikely, or he was not executing trades at all.
“Our exams showed no evidence of trading on behalf of the investment advisor, no evidence of any customer statements being generated by the broker-dealer,” said Herb Perone, spokesman for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The sum total from Big Easy: the “implied warranty” clause of the marriage contract (according to Ayn Rand) has the same importance as the implied warranty clause of the investor’s contract with his/her financial adviser.\—————————————————————————————————————–
Fair Winds and Blue Skies,
Big Easy
P.S. If any readers are currently overwhelmed by a time-warp of some kind, please be advised (particularly those of you who currently reside in Holland) not to invest in tulip bulbs or other highly volatile investment instruments that might be suggested to you by sales-people of various brokerages who claim to be acting in your self-interest. Trust me, from the perspective of the 18th century, even if tulip bulbs might seem to be the path to financial wealth, they’re not. The future is in plastics! Or something like that.
And now they have filed Chapter 11….
Awesome post and comments here. Great read.
More on the Strib filing Chapter 11: http://tinyurl.com/7ozpn7
Big–I thought for sure you’d be wafted by tropical breezes by now. I promise to dig into your voluminous comments but I can’t find where you’ve expressed adequately (or at all) Rand’s philosophy and why such antipathy, other than examples that, well, aren’t relevant. Your description of venerable Coffman Union forty years ago was a kick however. So, again, Happy Sailing! Mr. Pearson-Cator thanks for noticing. Hope you’re not being sarcastic. Others have suggested this turn in the conversation has become sleep-inducing.
Dennis Lang,
Rand’s philosophy has been an important influence on conservatives and business leaders. She had a major impact on Alan Greenspan. I believe she also had an impact on Libertarians like Milton Friedman and other at the University of Chicago. Read Greenspan’s biography and you’ll see that Rand was a big influence on him. Why is her philosophy is important? Because many in business and in the conservative movement used her ideas to dismantle regulations that governed the financial sector. And right now, our financial sector is in trouble.
If you doubt how important Rand has been to many in our business community, why would a company like BB&T spend millions of dollars promoting her ideas? Rand was well-meaning, but her type of thinking gave rise to some unfortunate developments. It’s called the law of unintended consequences, I think.
BE
P.S. Not to get off on another tangent, but another thinker who was well-meaning but whose ideas have wreaked havoc is former Russian dissident Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky. He had a major impact on the neocons who came up with the brilliant idea of liberating Iraq, which would then become a beacon of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and Rumsfeld, Wolfawitz and W would become heroes.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, below is an excerpt from Newsweek, Dec. 10, 2008 that talks about the relationship between Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand. If you google Ayn Rand (all two of you on this blog who are interested), you’ll eventually find more than you ever wanted to know about her. Also, if you care to read Greenspan’s autobiography, you’ll find out a bit more about their mentor-student relationship.
The whole Ayn Rand craze among certain groups seems more like a religious cult than a school of philosophy, but that’s just my opinion and I could be wrong. Still, it’s scary to think that the former federal reserve chairman may have belonged to a cult.
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“It’s not easy being Alan Greenspan these days. As the former Federal Reserve chairman, he urged government regulators to take a light touch while banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers buried themselves—and the economy more generally—under a mountain of debt. Now that his reputation is plummeting faster than the stock market, he’s been forced to admit a “flaw” in his hands-off ideology.
Of course, things look entirely different to members of “free-market advocacy groups,” as they like to be called. One such group is the Ayn Rand Institute, named after the matriarch of the movement, whose antigovernment and anti-regulation views are embodied in her best-selling novels “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” Indeed, Greenspan himself was a friend of Rand’s, and a devotee of her extreme free-market philosophy, known as Objectivism. NEWSWEEK’s Barrett Sheridan spoke with the head of the Ayn Rand Institute, Dr. Yaron Brook, about why he defends free markets while much of the rest of the world has turned away from them, and what he thinks of Greenspan today.”
Big–Your unwavering dedication to this subject is really admirable. I’m not kidding. A lot of fun when the dialogue is kept alive isn’t it? Who is else would haul their laptop with them while piloting a catamaran through the Virgin Islands just to discuss a dead author? (I’m confident multitudes in the vast Crowd audience have followed this thread with rapt yet silent curiosity. I think it began with Mr. McAuliffe’s poignant article about the end of journalism about 100 posts ago.) Any defenders of Objectivist economics out there? Mr. Kelliher?
Nice to hear from you Dennis. Yes, the silence from the Crowd is deafening. BTW, while googling Rand, I ran across her Playboy interview from 1964. Her Objectivism sounds like warmed over Calvinism–work hard, avoid pleasure, make a lot of money, etc.
The Newsweek piece about Greenspan’s recanting of no-holds barred, free market capitalism drew some interesting comments from Randians. They seem to be claiming he never really was a free market capitalist, he’s a socialist lamb in capitalist wolf’s clothing. Such circular logic will win any argument. Randians show the same circular logic when talking about government: government is bad, if some economic event in society turns out well it’s because of free market forces but if some economic event in society turns out poorly it’s because of government, and remember all government is bad.
As I am in the tropics for a couple of weeks, I find all this talk of Ayn Rand cool but a bit heady. I’m glad you’re having fun, you philosophers, but with a rum and orange juice in my hand I applaud my pal Jeremy Powers for bringing up some true philosophers — Mac and The Boys. On Cannery Row, life came down to music and weird friends, a little warmth a little food and the relatively positive search for a full bottle. Amen, brother Jeremy.
Bruce,
I’m totally with you re: rum & orange juice. I’ve spent the week next to the pool at our condo rental in Cruz Bay, USVI.
I’m not sure who Jeremy Powers and Mac & The Boys are. Let me guess, they were the pool boys and cabana boys for Ayn Rand. If I’m wrong on that, I’ll meet you tomorrow at the Soggy Dollar in the British Virgin Islands and buy you a pain-killer.
On a more political note, I did arrive in Cruz Bay on inauguration day. Wearing my Sierra Club Obama t-shirt with the message “Obama: New Energy For America,” I stopped by the police station down by the waterfront to ask directions. Officer H. was an African-American originally from Texas. He was so happy about Obama. When he read the back of my t-shirt, he invited my wife and me to hop in his squad car. We got a police escort to our condo. How cool is that?
In the past whenever I”ve ridden in police cars it’s been because of some very naughty behavior.
Life’s a beach!
Big Easy
Hey Big–Nice hearing from you. I too was baffled by the arcane reference to “Mac and the Boys”(but thinking I was the only one and not wanting to embarass myself any more than usual, said nothing). So conducted my own private search. From Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row”. How are those tropical winds?
Tropical winds? I traded them in for freezing temps. I arrived home at about 12:30 a.m. on Fri. 1/30. It’s nice to be home, but it’s soooo cold. Thursday morning before we left St. John, Mrs. Big Easy and I went swimming in our condo pool and watched our neighbor, a huge iguana, as he sunned himself in the treetops. One morning as we swam, he came down from his treetop and marched the perimeter of the pool just to let us know that he owned the place and that we were merely visitors.
It was a good trip. No driving, no franchise stores or restaurants, nice people, lots of exercise, great beaches, incredible scenic views from the hilltops on St. John, interesting trails in the forest, the privacy & convenience of a condo, reasonable prices, the list goes on.
On Wednesday, I snorkeled on the coral reef on Trunk Bay. It’s some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done, maybe the best. It was a transcendent experience, and it even beat the two times I went scuba diving. In Trunk Bay I saw baby squid, two sea turtles, parrot fish that look like they were colored by some kindergartner stoked up on LSD, giant angel fish and lots more. Cost? $14 round trip cab ride from the Cruz Bay, $4 charge to get onto the beach and that was it. Such a deal.
BE
P.S. Thanks for the heads up on Mac & the Boys from Cannery Row. I read it years ago but had forgotten it.