If you don’t know his work and don’t read his columns, well, a vote/comment is kind of meaningless. I hate to be exclusionary, but I’m hoping to hear from people that follow his writing.
So, Dopers, what is your opinion? I wish the OP were more stimulating, but I’m pretty much just looking for a poll on this.
I read Zakaria regularly in Newsweek International Edition (maybe its differente from the US edition…) and I think he is quite good. He does flip flop a bit…
He certainly has some good insights and tries to be balanced IMO…
Zakaria is excellent. What’s more, he’s one of the few political writers (Thomas Friedman is another) who seems to be fairly devoid of partisanship. This, of course, drives partisans nuts, because when he agrees with them they cite him as a reference, and then later when he disagrees with them and someone cites him back, they can’t attack the source. Friedman is the same way.
He’s good. Not great, but good. I think his insights on the Middle East tend to be a little bit “pop” – like popular music type of pop. I can’t think of any other word to describe my view of his views. He is interesting, but not overly insightful.
That’s why I started the thread. I had an idea of starting a few others over the coming weeks to try to find reporters and journalists that everyone can agree is respectable. Or at least not blindly biased in their writing.
And I forgot to mention that I like his writing. I never miss a column.
Well, for my money, i think that there are actually plenty of journalists out there who do their best to report the news as professionally and objectively as possible. The trouble is, they are often pushed and prodded and pressured by editors and publishers who have a particular political position to defend. This usually doesn’t take the form of direct censorship or orders about what to write; rather, it is made clear to reporters which stories need to be covered, which ones should be ignored or downplayed, what the focus should be, etc., etc.
Interestingly enough, despite my own leftist leanings, i think that some of the best, most professional journalists working today are some of those who work for the Wall Street Journal. Their reports are almost invariably professional, well-written, and comprehensive. It’s a great paper, as long as you stay away from the Op-Ed pages, which are usually festooned with the work of corporate cheerleaders and assorted conservative pontificators who make Attila the Hun look like a Nation columnist.
If we’re talking about publications, I trust the Christian Science Monitor.
Oh, and another good *reporter * would be John Burns of the NYT. He is the definitive reporter to read on Iraq, IMO.