Great article: Jonathan Senchyne calls out Nicolas Kristof for his misguided editorial on the lack of “public intellectuals.” Who really gets space in The New York Times? So-called “innovative educators” buying space to promote for-profit ventures, none of whom are actually educators or innovators — just profiteers.
I would add that there are few or no true public intellectuals actively writing in venues such as the NYT, Salon, or Slate because educated opinion making fine distinctions in measured tones isn’t very good click bait. Careful reasoning sounds like hair splitting to most people when, in fact, it is really just careful reasoning taking into account as many of the facts as possible. What media outlets want are flame wars that generate hits, or inflammatory posts that provide confirmation bias for a large and clearly identifiable demographic, but not the work of public intellectuals.
Kristof’s essay obscures this truth while benefitting from it. See? I’m talking about it here…more exposure for him.
Just who does the New York Times turn to for higher ed expertise? (essay) | Inside Higher Ed.
The Philosophy of Contemporary Song 