Less-Than-Critical Moment
With the new progressive Independent, the Review writes, there will now be “two left leaning papers on campus” — the other one being the Daily. Ouch, that was harsh. That is, to poor Critical Moment, which doesn’t even merit a mention. This must be one of those acts of epistemic violence that the Review is so renowned for practicing.
I think if Critical Moment leaned any more to the left, it would fall over.
posted by Dave on February 25th, 2005 at 1:53 amThis is probably a case of the Review not having done any research in the past year. At least one article in their most recent issue hasn’t been fact-checked since last April at the most recent, so it hardly surprises me that they’re totally oblivious to Critical Moment.
Oh, no, wait. That’s not why it hardly surprises me that they’re oblivious. It’s because they’re the Review.
posted by Murph on February 25th, 2005 at 9:06 amI’m quite surprised that there will actually be another paper on campus. Given the wonderful quality of writing and thought in the rags already out there, I can’t imagine that there are even more gifted undergrad writers in Ann Arbor who will ignite the torch of progressive enlightenment for me. Perhaps one of the reasons the quality of writing is so poor in Ann Arbor is because the demand is so low. Do people use the Daily, for instance, for anything other than lining their kitty litter boxes or parrot cages? I really wonder how many trees have met the end of a chain saw to support the egos of undergrads who think anyone cares about, for instance, what Jasmine Clair thinks about Bill Cosby? Like the many copies of the Wall Street Journal that go unread, rotting on Ann Arbor’s lawns (what’s up with that, by the way? maybe students should start reading real newspapers before publishing their own) I am fairly certain this new progressive newspaper will support at least one industry in this state: recycling.
posted by DrMandrake on February 25th, 2005 at 12:54 pmDude, what does that subhed refer to in the one you linked, Murph? Church and state? In the Link? Jesus wants me to have a cadillac?
posted by js on February 25th, 2005 at 12:54 pmCan we keep in mind here that what’s printed in the pages of the Review is completely different than a posting on the blog? Surely, you guys don’t check out everything you post here, right?
posted by Jim on February 25th, 2005 at 5:02 pmman, we aren’t going to get anything decent in the way of student publication unless we have a good journalism program.
as for the critical moment, its just pathetic. They don’t ever try to explore issues, they just present one side. While on occasion there have been issues that had a decent article or two, as a whole, they just print garbage
posted by Just a Voice on February 25th, 2005 at 5:03 pmI wasn’t really criticizing the post for inaccuracy, just thinking it was kind of funny that Critical Moment is so far out there that they’re not even on the Review’s radar.
As a J-school dropout, I’d question whether having a journalism program would necessarily improve the quality of student publications here. Anyhow, the Daily really isn’t terrible. The weird thing is that there are so few other publications that can even get up off their ass to publish regularly, let alone publish anything decent. The Review actually does have some interesting stuff sometimes. Other than that, what have we got? Consider? The Every Three Weekly? My undergrad institution had about as many publications, despite being about 1/5 of the size.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 25th, 2005 at 5:23 pmCritical Moment is pretty dopey, although I found the Daily extremely useful for the free crosswords. I should start doing those again. Also, the train-wreck appeal of some of the editorials can always bring me back. Speaking of which, I still need to see “Battlefield: Earth” and I just found out that 10 pm showings at Ann Arbor’s Improv Inferno are apparently 5 bucks!!
posted by Lazaro on February 25th, 2005 at 6:17 pmYeah, the worst 5 bucks you will ever waste. You’re better of just going somewhere and buying a beer and flipping a coin - more fun than Improv Inferno.
posted by DrMandrake on February 25th, 2005 at 6:23 pmWell, the point of the original Independent was to present whatever side someone felt deemed writing. It ended up liberal by defualt because it’s, well, Ann Arbor for chrissakes. It was also a good outlet for the sardonic/sarcastic humor and decent music reviews that the Daily just doesn’t seem to have these days. A grad student in my department actually thought that the op/ed piece about children being unnecessarily exposed to homosexuality in Chelsea was serious. Now, I got it, but if they can’t get a simple stupid parody piece across to the readership…
I’m rather worried that this (the Independent) is going to turn into another Moment, albeit one funded by MSA and written more by the students. Impartiality my ass. Anyone who forces me to agree with a Michigan Review kid after reading a Daily article deserves some sort of wrath.
By the way and for the record, this has nothing - repeat, nothing - to do with the Michigan Independent of 3 years ago, with the exception that permission was asked to take the name after they had already chosen it.
posted by Anonymous on February 25th, 2005 at 9:52 pmI’m pretty sure that Moment gets MSA funding.
posted by Alex(andra) on February 25th, 2005 at 10:07 pmAnyone remember Agenda?
posted by js on February 26th, 2005 at 1:10 pmAgenda–I remember seeing that at Dawn Treader, but it looked like Critical Moment, so I gave it a pass. Wasn’t there some glossy style-type mag you can still get in the Borders vestibule?
posted by Lazaro on February 26th, 2005 at 1:31 pmClearing things up:
* Critical Moment does get some funding from MSA
* The new “Independent” (which may or may not retain that title) is actually funded by a national liberal organization and has not asked for funding from MSA
Is Agenda still around or did Eric finally give up?
The new Independent certainly risks being a “left” paper akin to the Review. But the Review isn’t totally useless, so even if the Independent becomes that, it’ll still have some utility.
And I believe the new Independent is casting itself more as a magazine than a “paper.”
posted by Scott T. on February 26th, 2005 at 6:16 pmJim — note that the Review article that I linked to (which desperately needs both fact-checking and, as js pointed out, a copy editor) is a copy of something from their print version, and not just some random Review-blog tidbit. Sure, blogs are impromptu, fairly informal, and quite capable of being wrong, but the fact that such an article made it to the print edition shows the Review to be of a slightly lower journalistic caliber than my high school newspaper.
posted by Murph on February 28th, 2005 at 12:05 pmnigga please
posted by isajeep on February 28th, 2005 at 2:26 pmI foolishly picked up a stray copy of the Daily on Sunday, and was shocked at how seriously many people seemed to take Joel Hoard’s “satirical” “masterpiece” on conservative perceptions of homosexuality in the letters section. It almost made me want to jump off the parking structure, although fortunately the mood evaporated before I could get there.
Did anyone see that?
posted by Lazaro on February 28th, 2005 at 2:30 pmSaw it and laughed. I thought the original was pretty lame, but to see everyone freak the fuck out was worth it…
posted by js on February 28th, 2005 at 4:08 pmI think the Agenda is still around…
posted by Kozzie on February 28th, 2005 at 6:44 pmReally? I hadn’t seen it in a while…
posted by js on March 1st, 2005 at 10:23 amThe stacks of WSJ’s are there so you can identify the B-school students’ houses. Some profs make them part of required reading, and the student subscription fee is super-cheap.
posted by snickerdoodle on March 1st, 2005 at 5:18 pmLazaro - Yeah, I did. I actually had a grad student come into our student lounge all a-flustered about it. I was amazed at the complete lack of comprehension… I mean, the piece was horrible for many, many, many reasons, but “satirical” it obviously was, if only for the fact that the Daily would never print that sort of thing if it was true. You just know they wouldn’t.
Sigh.
posted by Jen on March 2nd, 2005 at 2:30 pmaaio gets a springbreak? No fair. What about us poor bastards who are stuck here?
posted by yo mamma on March 2nd, 2005 at 4:31 pmI concur. I’m dying here at work with no updates. Next year I’m scheduling my vacation during the university’s spring break.
posted by Poor Bastard on March 2nd, 2005 at 6:29 pmThat Joel Hoard column was just plain stupid and neither funny, nor shocking, nor clever, nor enlightening.
posted by Brandon on March 3rd, 2005 at 1:02 am…but it was clearly not serious.
posted by js on March 3rd, 2005 at 10:02 amMaybe I have a weird sense of humor, but I liked the Joel Hoard piece. I like that he comes to a conclusion that most conservatives would find entirely defensible, instead of going for something obvious and over the top.
Besides, anything that inspires Web comments this priceless is worth it in my book: http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/24/421dc06776feb?in_archive=1
posted by Paul D. on March 4th, 2005 at 9:00 pmIt was my impression that Critical Moment is not merely a campus paper, especially since the one aritcle I just read about standarized tests in it was written by a non-student. Plus, has anybody ever actually seen this paper on campus? If so, please post its location because I wouldn’t mind checking it out in print.
Also, while the bus route article contained mistakes, what publication does not print incorrect information from time to time? Even the best magazine on Earth, Reason Magazine, has a corrections box. So does the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Detroit News, etc..
It happens. I get the impression that some on this board would like to make a mountain out of molehill to use this one entirely insignificant article on bus routes to overshadow the troubling implications of GSIs who consider conservative thought inherently evil, seem unwilling to actually confront this thought intellectually, and may bring this unconsidered bias into grading situations.
posted by Mistakes Happen on March 5th, 2005 at 8:11 pmAs of roughly an hour ago, there was a tall stack of *Moment*s in the Angell hall newspaper-stand-thing-a-ma-bob. There was also another periodical proclaiming a non-partisan current events shtick. I didn’t think it was the Independent… probably was.
posted by yo mamma on March 6th, 2005 at 3:12 amReason as the best magazine on Earth? Sure, if you like jingoistic Libertarianism…
posted by js on March 6th, 2005 at 7:43 pmGimme Harper’s or Atlantic Monthly any day…
JS,
In all seriousness, why do you think Reason is jingoistic?
Thanks
posted by Mistakes Happen on March 7th, 2005 at 2:35 amThe most recent example I can think of is their coverage of Ayn Rand’s death. They offered a traditional Point/Counterpoint, with one side arguing that while Ayn wasn’t a very good fiction writer, everything in her Objectivist philosophy was essentially correct. The counterpoint was that she was a very good fiction writer.
posted by js on March 7th, 2005 at 1:56 pmI suppose I just had my hopes set too high for a magazine that called itself Reason; I expected more well-reasoned opinions instead of “Newsflash: Young, affluent people think dismantling the social safety net is great!”
I think Reason is pretty cool. It used to be sort of a Libertarian Party propaganda organ, but then they hired all these funny young writers, so now it’s more of a small-l libertarian propaganda organ that actually has some pretty good writing. I don’t read it expecting to agree with much, but they print some stuff you’ll rarely see elsewhere, like defenses of recreational drug use.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 7th, 2005 at 2:24 pm