The New York Times

After Prolonged Press-Bashing, More Constructive Media Criticism Now Flourishes

Kevin M. Lerner

Over the past five years, though, another kind of press criticism has come to prominence after a period of marginalization. This brand of press criticism takes a free and independent press as a necessity for life in a democratic society. Instead of seeking to delegitimize the press, these critics are simultaneously explaining the workings of the press to the public and holding it accountable in its role as the public’s representative and watchdog.

Chuck Klosterman Offers No Sympathy for the Devil

Lee Polevoi

A book about villainy by the pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman would seem (on paper, as it were) like a terrific idea. Klosterman is a smart, funny writer who has expanded his beat beyond sports and popular culture to serving as The Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine. The resulting effort, however, is a strangely abstracted work that isn’t so much about evil as about our popular conception of evil—not necessarily the same thing.

Who Wrecked Our Yoga?

Sandip Roy

Should yoga come with a warning? Practicing yoga can be injurious to health. The New York Times seems to think so. “Yoga is for people in good physical condition. Or it can be used therapeutically. It’s controversial to say, but it really shouldn’t be used for a general class,” says yoga guru Glenn Black in a five-page magazine story How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body by its science writer William Broad. It has unleashed such a storm of protests, the site had to stop accepting comments on the story.

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