Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 395

On The Ball

Tonight, over a billion people will tune in to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Latif Nasser traces the history of the New York tradition:

In 1877, Western Union installed a time ball on its Manhattan headquarters, at Broadway and Dey Street. … After Adolph Ochs became the publisher of the Times, in 1896, he decided to move it to the former site of the Pabst Hotel, at the intersection of Forty-second Street, Broadway, and Seventh Avenue. The Times’ new terra cotta and pink granite building was the second tallest in Manhattan. By 1904, Ochs had convinced Mayor George McClellan to rename the square after the paper. That same year, Ochs planned a New Year’s Eve party, promising fireworks at midnight, to lure New Yorkers away from the city’s traditional gathering, on Wall Street, where people listened to the bells of Trinity Church. It worked. Three years later, though, Ochs couldn’t get a permit for the fireworks. Instead, he installed a seven-hundred-pound sphere of iron and wood, covered it in a hundred twenty-five-watt light bulbs, and had it lowered from the flagpole at midnight.

The Times moved in 1913, but the Times Square ball drop continued, interrupted only by wartime blackouts in 1942 and 1943. Until 1995, the ball was lowered much as older time balls once were: by “six guys with ropes and a stopwatch.” Today, the drop is initiated by a laser-cooled atomic clock in Colorado, the primary time standard for the United States. It continues to be our most spectacular display of public time-keeping.

Two years ago, Jen Glantz joined a crowd of a million to watch the ball drop in person:

By 8:30 pm, I wanted to call it quits.

I could no longer feel my itty-bitty toes and my bladder was starting to hit that 3/4 full mark. I was sandwiched between the pushy elbows of someone from Turkey and the unnecessary baggage of someone from Idaho. I was fully immersed in it all. Smells of food, people peeing in their pants, babies in a state of misery I desperately wish I could get away with at this age, rowdy crowds of hungry and antsy human beings.

But instead of giving up, I gave in. Dancing beside a family of 5 to keep busy, to keep sane, and most importantly to keep warm. Exchanging life stories, told to me in broken English juxtaposed with beautiful accents. Learning about people, their places and their things has the ability to make 9pm flirtatiously flow into 10pm…. If I wanted to get through spending New Years Eve in Times Square, an occasion half of the people I know batted their eyelashes at me and told me I was crazy for attempting, I had to let myself go. And if you, my friends, want to make it through a New Year, a new list of resolutions, changes, discoveries you want to make, I suggest you do the same.

(Photo: The 2014 New Year’s Eve Waterford Crystal ball during a test at One Times Square on December 30, 2013. By Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

Mental Health Break

Ringing in the New Year with some classic scenes from cinema:

The Deadliest Assignment

Twenty-nine reporters were killed in Syria this year, making it the most dangerous country for journalists in 2013. That’s nearly three times as many reporters who died in the world’s second-most-dangerous country, Egypt. Catherine Traywick explains why Syria is exceptionally dangerous:

First, from a baseline of relative safety, the security situation for journalists deteriorated rapidly once the conflict began. (In the two decades before the 2011 uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, CPJ [the Committee to Protect Journalists] had not documented a single journalist death in the country; the following year, it ranked No. 1 in journalist deaths).

Second, both sides of the conflict have specifically singled journalists out for violence. Assad’s regime – already notorious for suppressing media freedom – was the first to target journalists reporting on the civil war. In the early days of the uprising, Syrian authorities began arresting local reporters covering the anti-government protests. Then, in 2012, when Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in a rocket attack carried out by the Syrian army, the Telegraph reported that the Syrian Army may have specifically targeted the journalists after tracking their satellite phone signals to a particular building. Soon after, CPJ confirmed that satellite phone tracking was being widely used by military and security forces …

Journalist abductions are also increasingly a problem in Syria. According to CPJ, 60 journalists have been kidnapped since the start of war – most likely taken by opposition groups – with 30 still missing. In most cases, the kidnappers don’t ask for ransom, but are looking to mete out their version of “justice.”

The Most Popular Posts Of 2013

We haven’t done this before, so I figured: why not? One way of looking back at the past year is through the Dish’s most popular posts. And they do give a flavor of the year. None of them come close to the 62 million page-views that the home page got this past year, but they’re stand-outs nonetheless.

Our most popular by far was simply a viral breakout – the kind of thing that now defines much of online journalism. It’s a truly simple blog-post: a headline, a link, a graphic, a pull-quote and then some commentary and analysis from yours truly. It has everything a viral blog post should have, and I didn’t even spend a month at Upworthy to come up with it (which is why it’s so rare, I guess). It’s The Saddest Map In America from last February with more than 275,000 views. Next up: a summary of the entire political year: The Nullification Party, from October, with 209,000.

Then: How To Think About Obamacare, another very simple and short post that took off unexpectedly. Money quote:

The thing that staggers me about the Republican hatred of this law is its abstract quality. They never address the real problem of our massively inefficient private healthcare market, which is a huge burden on the economy. They never address how to help the millions of uninsured adults get the care all human beings need. They appear to regard a Heritage Foundation, free-market-designed, private healthcare exchange system as some kind of communist plot. They do not seem to believe there is any pressing problem at all. And they have nothing constructive to offer.

This is not about Obamacare. It is not even about politics. It is about a form of revolt against the very country they live in.

What strikes me about the traffic for a post like this is that it doesn’t have to be Buzzfeedy to work. It just has to say something and stand for something.

Fourth: a gossipy post after Pope Benedict’s resignation: Two Popes, One Secretary. Fifth: Cameron Proves Greenwald Right, my defense of Glenn’s partner, David Miranda, from creepy anti-terrorism harassment at Heathrow. Sixth: Kerry Gaffes; The Russians Blink, my post as diplomacy on Syria took a sudden lurch in early September. Seventh: A&E Cannot Bear Very Much Reality, my recent post opposing the firing of Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty. Eighth: The GOP Calls Its Own Fiscal Bluff, my take on Paul Ryan’s bullshit on debt reduction. Ninth: The Tea Party As A Religion. Money quote:

What the understandably beleaguered citizens of this new modern order want is a pristine variety of America that feels like the one they grew up in. They want truths that ring without any timbre of doubt. They want root-and-branch reform – to the days of the American Revolution. And they want all of this as a pre-packaged ideology, preferably aligned with re-written American history, and reiterated as a theater of comfort and nostalgia. They want their presidents white and their budget balanced now. That balancing it now would tip the whole world into a second depression sounds like elite cant to them; that America is, as a matter of fact, a coffee-colored country – and stronger for it – does not remove their desire for it not to be so; indeed it intensifies their futile effort to stop immigration reform. And given the apocalyptic nature of their view of what is going on, it is only natural that they would seek a totalist, radical, revolutionary halt to all of it, even if it creates economic chaos, even if it destroys millions of jobs, even though it keeps millions in immigration limbo, even if it means an unprecedented default on the debt.

This is a religion – but a particularly modern, extreme and unthinking fundamentalist religion. And such a form of religion is the antithesis of the mainline Protestantism that once dominated the Republican party as well, to a lesser extent, the Democratic party.

Last up a guilty pleasure: my post on a certain Wall Street Journal columnist who saw in the “scandals” of the first part of this year a crippling crisis for president Obama: Noonan Just Loses It.

How do they all hold up? Your call. The only one I’m now squeamish about is the gossipy one about Benedict’s close companion Georg Ganschwein. The others? They suggest to me that the biggest story of the past year was the dysfunction and extremism of one political party that had just been defeated soundly at the polls. Sometimes, the fleeting perceptions of a passing scene may be more accurate than a view with a little distance. Right now, we’re all fixated on Obama’s crisis of leadership. But that masks a deeper one.

Presenting The 2013 Dish Awards!

[Re-posted from last week. Today is your final day to vote.]

As usual, our blue-ribbon panel – sequestered for days in an undisclosed location – has selected this year’s finalists. It was an agonizing, often nail-biting time. But we did our duty in selecting the finalists and now it’s that time of year for you to do yours in selecting the winners. Click the links listed below and vote for the 2013 Malkin Award, Hewitt Award, Hathos Alert, Moore Award, Poseur Alert, Yglesias Award, and Dick Morris Award. Polls are also open for the Chart Of The Year, Mental Health Break Of The Year, and Face Of The Year.

And, for the first time, you can pick the year’s best Window View and Cool Ad. Yes, a Window View contest everyone can win!

The Dish Awards Glossary

You have until the end of the year to pick the prize-winners. The polls will close tonight, December 31, at midnight. Winners will be announced soon after. Have at it – several of the contests are neck and neck and need your input:

Click here to vote for the 2013 Malkin Award!

Click here to vote for the 2013 Moore Award!

Click here to vote for the 2013 Dick Morris Award!

Click here to vote for the 2013 Poseur Alert!

Click here to vote for the 2013 Yglesias Award!

Click here to vote for the 2013 Hewitt Award!

Click here to vote for the 2013 Hathos Alert!

Click here to vote for the Chart Of The Year!

Click here to vote for the Cool Ad Of The Year!

Click here to vote for the Face Of The Year!

Click here to vote for the Mental Health Break Of The Year!

Click here to vote for the Window View Of The Year!

A Poem From The Year

“The Argument of His Book” by Robert Herrick (1591-1674):

I sing of Brooks, of Blossomes, Birds, and Bowers:

Of April, May, of June, and July-Flowers.

I sing of May-poles, Hock-carts, Wassails, Wakes,

Of Bride-grooms, Brides, and of their Bridall-cakes.

I write of Youth, of Love, and have Accesse

By these, to sing of cleanly-Wantonnesse.

I sing of Dewes, of Raines, and piece by piece

Of Balme, of Oyle, of Spice, and Amber-Greece.

I sing of Times trans-shifting; and I write

How Roses first came Red, and Lillies White.

I write of Groves, of Twilights, and I sing

The Court of Mab, and of the Fairie-King.

I write of Hell; I sing (and ever shall)

Of Heaven, and hope to have it after all.

Please consider supporting the work of the Poetry Society of America here.

(Photo by Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Politico’s Defense Of Mike Allen

Here it is:

The idea — and it really wasn’t an argument what I read; it was more of a suggestion, insinuation, innuendo in a really unfair way — that the product is somehow compromised by advertisers was (a) not supported and (b) horribly, horribly unfair to what really is one of the most transparent journalistic products in the city. Anyone can read it any given day and sort of take their best guess as to why this is in there, why it’s not, who Mike had lunch with, who was giving him this, who he had dinner with, who was feeding him that. Totally transparent.

I can’t beat Chait’s elegant dissection of this claptrap, so read it.

Journalism’s Surrender

Not sure what to think of this sponsored section on #SouthSudan in the Dec. 30 issue of @TIME. pic.twitter.com/yfj8BYVl68

— clairelambrecht (@clairelambrecht) December 28, 2013

I should end the year on an upbeat note, shouldn’t I? But Time Inc. ruined it. The surrender of journalism to advertizing and public relations – not alliance with, but surrender to – was the biggest media story of 2013 that the media almost didn’t cover at all. But it’s right there in black and white, if buried on the slowest news day of the year:

Time Inc. will abandon the traditional separation between its newsroom and business sides, a move that has caused angst among its journalists. Now, the newsroom staffs at Time Inc.’s magazines will report to the business executives. Such a structure, once verboten at journalistic institutions, is seen as necessary to create revenue opportunities and stem the tide of declining subscription and advertising sales.

Now remember this is not some desperate trade magazine; this is Time Fucking Inc. Journalists at Time will report directly to those on the business side (or is that now an anachronism?) seeking advertizing revenues and sponsored content contracts. That’s what the editors now are. And listen to the howls of outrage swirling around every other journalistic institution, read the columns decrying the end of independent journalism, witness the mass exits of outraged editors, observe the talking heads fulminate and readers rebel!

Actually, there was one resignation, and it was a deeply honorable one:

Among those who expressed concern was Martha Nelson, the recently departed editor in chief. Before Mr. Ripp came aboard and brought on Mr. Pearlstine, the magazines’ editors all reported to Ms. Nelson, who was seen as a staunch defender of newsroom autonomy. Late last summer, Mr. Ripp invited Ms. Nelson to Nantucket to discuss his plans, according to several current and former Time Inc. executives. Troubled by the idea of reporting to the business side, she resigned.  “When Joe suggested a new structure that required editors to report to the business heads, I wasn’t comfortable being part of it,” Ms. Nelson said. “You can’t take apart what you have promoted and built.”

This is the way the press ends. Not with a bang but a “revenue opportunity.”

Tweet Of The Day

.@BA_Influencers Can we cut out the middleman and you guys just take a big, wet shit right on my soul? Might save time.

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 27, 2013

Oswalt continues here.

A Place For Placebos

Robert McGinley Myers, a recovering audiophile, talks about his former compulsion to buy expensive headphones and accessories in search of the ideal sound system:

[T]he specter that loomed over everything was the idea that this was all some big placebo effect. I would occasionally spend an evening listening to a song on my new set of headphones and then on my old set, or with my new amplifier and then my old amplifier. I would make my wife listen to see if she heard a difference. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn’t. Sometimes I didn’t. Every once in a while, I’d read a post on Head-fi about someone who was selling everything he’d bought because he realized he was listening to his equipment rather than music. I finally had the same realization and made the same decision. At the time, I felt like a recovering addict, or a victim of a con artist, reformed but slightly ashamed.

Myers reflects on a recent Felix Salmon piece that suggested “instead of sneering at the placebo effect of fancy wine, its marketing, and its slightly higher prices … we should take advantage of it”:

The more you spend on a wine, the more you like it. It really doesn’t matter what the wine is at all. But when you’re primed to taste a wine which you know a bit about, including the fact that you spent a significant amount of money on, then you’ll find things in that bottle which you love … After all, what you see on the label, including what you see on the price tag, is important information which can tell you a lot about what you’re drinking. And the key to any kind of connoisseurship is informed appreciation of something beautiful.

This idea of “informed appreciation” reminds me of another area of modern life beset by placebo effects:

the world of alternative medicine. In a recent article for the Atlantic, David H. Freedman argues that there’s virtually no scientific evidence that alternative medicine (anything from chiropractic care to acupuncture) has any curative benefit beyond a placebo effect. … However, there is one area where alternative medicine often trumps traditional medicine: stress reduction. And stress reduction can, of course, make a huge impact on people’s health. …

Maybe each of these activities (listening to high end audio gear, drinking high end wine, having needles inserted into your chakras) is really about ritualizing a sensory experience. By putting on headphones you know are high quality, or drinking expensive wine, or entering the chiropractor’s office, you are telling yourself, “I am going to focus on this moment. I am going to savor this.” It’s the act of savoring, rather than the savoring tool, that results in both happiness and a longer life.

Previous Dish on the pros and cons of the placebo effect here, here, and here.