As Malcolm Gladwell argues in the New Yorker, McArdle wants to focus on the difference between issues of freedom (and I would add the more dangerous Freedom, as Gladwell points out)…and simple economics:
“Hard news stories take a great deal of time to write–more time than most amateurs can afford, which is why blogs tend to do opinion rather than journalism. Moreover, they are at least greatly improved when their authors are not worried about losing their jobs if what they write pisses off a local power broker.”
See Also On This Site: The previous two posts which have some links of interest: From The New Yorker: Malcolm Gladwell’s “Priced To Sell”…From The Becker-Posner Blog: The Future Of Newspapers.
Free-riding blogger that I am, I’m relying in part on the success of the New Yorker and The Atlantic to pay authors enough to tackle these issues.
