Liebling's heirs

It's as valuable warning now as it ever was, and it pops to mind on those increasingly frequent occasions when the media is preoccupied with one story -- O.J., Monica, etc. -- at the expense of many others.

Liebling made a noble effort to keep the press honest, or something close to it, in his day. His press criticism appeared under the title "Wayward Press" in The New Yorker magazine from shortly after World War II until his death in 1963. It's regarded as among the best, or the best, in the field.

A collection of "Wayward Press" columns can be found in any good library or good used-book store. They're worth checking out, for Liebling's humor, cutting observations and commanding style.

The spirit of Liebling is alive and well today. Several major newspapers and magazines employ writers whose sole duty is to serve as a watchdog of the media and report on happenings among the ink-stained and carpel-tunneled wretches.

Many of them can be found on the Web. Below, I've listed a few whose work I'm familiar with. If you have some favorites, please feel free to post the URL in the discussion area or send me an e-mail pointing the way.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/...

I make a point of reading The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz every week. His columns appear online every Monday, with media-related stories added through the week. Kurtz is everywhere these days -- he's written several books dissecting aspects of the media, and he's frequently seen on TV doing the same.

This URL will take you to The Post's search engine. Type in "Howard Kurtz" and you'll turn up a few recent columns.

http://www.freedomforum.org/technology/k...

Jon Katz became one of the Web's best-known writers with his informative and entertaining "media/culture/geek" column at Hot Wired. He's now with The Freedom Forum, where he writes a column twice a week. Other Katz columns can be found at these two URLs: http://www.newstrolls.com/news/dev/katz/... http://hotwired.com/synapse/

http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/cott...

I'm not well-acquainted with Cynthia Cotts' "Press Clips" column, but The Village Voice's press criticism has usually been regarded as among the best. It's heavily focused on New York City, of course, but the coverage of the magazine world is also quite extensive -- and interesting.

http://www2.shore.net/~dkennedy/phoenix....

Here's a link to columns by Dan Kennedy of the Boston Phoenix. Check out his archives for coverage of the downfall of The Boston Globe's Patricia Smith and Mike Barnicle. Of particular note is a piece showing similarities between Barnicle's prose and Liebling's biography of Louisiana's Earl Long.

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