Conservatives and journalism
August 28, 2008 |11:19 | Fields in Journalism By : Team X
On a new conservative website called Culture11, Conor Friedersdorf argues that the Right needs fewer activists and more storytellers, including journalists.
I'm going to make a similar point in my column this Sunday (which I finally turned in yesterday): that culture is more important than politics, and conservatives have erred in placing all their hope for change in politics, when what they ought to be doing is engaging more deeply with the culture.
But as Conor points out, it's a big mistake to think that the way to engage the culture (or do journalism) is for the sake of propagandizing for conservatism.
You have to love the art and craft of journalism (or, I would say, novel-writing, film-making, etc.) for its own sake. And that means being willing to go wherever the truth takes you, even outside your ideological comfort zone.

Murdoch University International Study Centre Dubai yesterday launched its first Bachelors in Media classes on its new premises at the Dubai International Academic City.
I just watched CNN gleefully play up the story that John McCain doesn't know how many houses his family owns, treating it as some sort of transcendent gaffe. Uh, his wife is an heiress who has a lot of property and doesn't do a good job of keeping track of it, as the recent flap over her unpaid taxes at a Coronado condo confirmed.




