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H.H
Oct 24, 2006

August is the Cruelest Month
I started reading The Atlantic about two years ago, partly because I was frequently bored at work and partly because of a genuine desire to stay informed in a thought-provoking manner.

At first, I found the articles interesting while managing to avoid the all-too-common journalistic pitfalls of sensationalism and hyperbole.
Although there was a definite political slant the writers provided insightful analysis and the magazine made an effort to incorporate non-mainstream opinions (notable examples are this story and this one, which are clearly written by well informed writers which went to great lengths to prove their arguments about admittedly controversial subjects).

Lately, however, I struggle to find content that is not rehashed to death, cringe inducing or just plain embarrassing. The way they poo poo themselves at the thought of Trump becoming the next US president, churning out diatribes against him that just boost his popularity with his target audience; their overwhelmingly flattering writing about identity politics (consider how quickly their position on this changed in just a year: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/), their never-ending articles about millennials (favourable or otherwise, it seems that whenever the don't have any good material they just shoehorn a random idea unto millennials, somehow mistaking this for originality).

Is this really the best that one of the most respected magazines in the US can do?

Am I an idiot for trying to find pearls in this shitpile?

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Nooner
Mar 26, 2011

AN A+ OPSTER (:
H.H, i respect you as a poster bud, but this is straight up tl;dr buddy :sigh:

Vegetable
Oct 22, 2010

The Atlantic has always been pretty bad. They occasionally turn out gems like the one about women can't have it all but those are by far the exception.

For long reads try those Review of Books websites. The LA and NY ones are good.

H.H
Oct 24, 2006

August is the Cruelest Month
I'll check them out.

Thanks!

skeletonotherkin
Sep 26, 2014

It was always garbage OP.

Ruggan
Feb 20, 2007
WHAT THAT SMELL LIKE?!


H.H posted:

I started reading The Atlantic about two years ago, partly because I was frequently bored at work and partly because of a genuine desire to stay informed in a thought-provoking manner.

At first, I found the articles interesting while managing to avoid the all-too-common journalistic pitfalls of sensationalism and hyperbole.
Although there was a definite political slant the writers provided insightful analysis and the magazine made an effort to incorporate non-mainstream opinions (notable examples are this story and this one, which are clearly written by well informed writers which went to great lengths to prove their arguments about admittedly controversial subjects).

Lately, however, I struggle to find content that is not rehashed to death, cringe inducing or just plain embarrassing. The way they poo poo themselves at the thought of Trump becoming the next US president, churning out diatribes against him that just boost his popularity with his target audience; their overwhelmingly flattering writing about identity politics (consider how quickly their position on this changed in just a year: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/), their never-ending articles about millennials (favourable or otherwise, it seems that whenever the don't have any good material they just shoehorn a random idea unto millennials, somehow mistaking this for originality).

Is this really the best that one of the most respected magazines in the US can do?

Am I an idiot for trying to find pearls in this shitpile?

only read your last sentence... yes, the atlantic isn't good

Nice Guy Patron
Jun 29, 2015
did Murdoch buy this one too? Like Nat'l Geographic?

Zombiepop
Mar 30, 2010
lol at that israeli news report article. OMG A student rally with dumb students doing dumb poo poo, why wont all these international media outlets cover it! boohooo.

Other than that, I dont know friend, but sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. And it has always been like that. Thats news for ya!

CaptainSarcastic
Jul 6, 2013



Seriouspost: I'd recommend Harper's Magazine, if you aren't already familiar with it. Second oldest continuously-published magazine in the United States, and maintains a pretty respectable standard of quality in writing and analysis. It's not really a news magazine, though.

get that OUT of my face
Feb 10, 2007

yeah the post is long, but i got the gist of what the op was saying from the thread title. most websites have homogenized into places that produce outraged clickbait to share online. outside of having different names, there's no difference between The Atlantic, Salon, Slate, HuffPo, The Daily Beast, and other websites that have articles. even The AV Club surrendered by cutting TV reviews and picking up the slack with thinkpieces

i wish i could go back in time and prevent Thought Catalog from existing, because so many websites these days have molded themselves after their dumbass model of "i have a really bad opinion and i'm going to tell it to you." it is Patient Zero of this awful phenomena

H.H
Oct 24, 2006

August is the Cruelest Month

CaptainSarcastic posted:

Seriouspost: I'd recommend Harper's Magazine, if you aren't already familiar with it. Second oldest continuously-published magazine in the United States, and maintains a pretty respectable standard of quality in writing and analysis. It's not really a news magazine, though.

Most of what I've seen of Harper's is good, but the paywall sucks. They don't even have the option of reading the first few articles for free, like most other online publications. Guess I'll just have to get what I can using less than legitimate means.

Zorodius
Feb 11, 2007

EA GAMES' MASTERPIECE 'MADDEN 2018 G.O.A.T. EDITION' IS A GLORIOUS TRIUMPH OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY. IT BRINGS GAMEDAY RIGHT TO THE PLAYER AND WHOEVER SAYS OTHERWISE CAN, YOU GUESSED IT...
SUCK THE SHIT STRAIGHT OUT OF MY OWN ASSHOLE.

BUY IT.
The ISIS article you linked is really good.

The Atlantic does seem to have caught a case of that The New Yorker disease where they stumble and accidentally fall up their own assholes

Murray Mantoinette
Jun 11, 2005

THE  POSTS  MUST  FLOW
Clapping Larry

Zorodius posted:

The ISIS article you linked is really good.

The Atlantic does seem to have caught a case of that The New Yorker disease where they stumble and accidentally fall up their own assholes

They fell up their own assholes because that's where the clicks and cash are. We paid them to fall up their own assholes. They did things to their own assholes for money. They're like the publication version of a prostitute or camgirl or something.

Psycho Society
Oct 21, 2010
Name a better news site than the atlantic then, ya turds.

various cheeses
Jan 24, 2013

Psycho Society posted:

Name a better news site than the atlantic then, ya turds.

GBS

H.H
Oct 24, 2006

August is the Cruelest Month

unironically this.

I can't count the number of times I've heard a report of a news event and went to GBS to find the relevant thread.
The trick is to read only the first few pages, before it inevitably deteriorates into a retarded slapfight over semantics and/or unresolvable political viewpoints expressed with the dumbest talking points this side of Bill O'Reilly.

various cheeses
Jan 24, 2013

Remember how ridiculous the Boston bombing thread was? DEAD MANS SWITCH

THE BOMB ROBOT

BEARCAT

GBS has good news coverage

lynch_69
Jan 21, 2001

Don't worry OP, there's no shortage of serious minded political magazines to come out with well thought out editorials on Why America Needs to Invade the Middle East (Again) to gin up public support for war every couple of years.

Video Nasty
Jun 17, 2003

Good think pieces are hard to come by, but I really like Grantland for it's few gems, like this reprint of Hunter S. Thompson covering the Kentucky Derby (with slight editorial updates to help provide context): http://grantland.com/features/looking-back-hunter-s-thompson-classic-story-kentucky-derby/

penus penus penus
Nov 9, 2014

by piss__donald
christian science monitor

not even joking, that trumps everything for what you want OP

Wooded Zacynthus
Mar 15, 2015

Agreed, OP. I started reading them about a year ago to pas the down time at work, like you, and found their articles really good. Lately the longer think pieces that got me into the magazine have evaporated in favor of a deluge of reliably insipid click bait from their staff writers. At this point you'll get 4+ articles a day appearing on the site that are just re-hashing how awful Trump is and how awful women have it. None of these articles have anything insightful and are themselves just bundles of links to other articles held together with some undergraduate level surface analysis.

I still check back every couple of days to see if David Graham, David Frum, or Te-Nehisi Coates have written anything new. They are about the only writers there I have any respect for or interest in there.

Mariana Horchata
Jun 30, 2008

College Slice
andrew sullivan got busted smoking a joint in the nude on a cape cod gay beach

ScRoTo TuRbOtUrD
Jan 21, 2007

i enjoy mother jones and rolling the dice when it comes to whether or not its just a fart

The Bananana
May 21, 2008

This is a metaphor, a Christian allegory. The fact that I have to explain to you that Jesus is the Warthog, and the Banana is drepanocytosis is just embarrassing for you.



H.H posted:

I started reading The Atlantic about two years ago, partly because I was frequently bored at work and partly because of a genuine desire to stay informed in a thought-provoking manner.

At first, I found the articles interesting while managing to avoid the all-too-common journalistic pitfalls of sensationalism and hyperbole.
Although there was a definite political slant the writers provided insightful analysis and the magazine made an effort to incorporate non-mainstream opinions (notable examples are this story and this one, which are clearly written by well informed writers which went to great lengths to prove their arguments about admittedly controversial subjects).

Lately, however, I struggle to find content that is not rehashed to death, cringe inducing or just plain embarrassing. The way they poo poo themselves at the thought of Trump becoming the next US president, churning out diatribes against him that just boost his popularity with his target audience; their overwhelmingly flattering writing about identity politics (consider how quickly their position on this changed in just a year: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/), their never-ending articles about millennials (favourable or otherwise, it seems that whenever the don't have any good material they just shoehorn a random idea unto millennials, somehow mistaking this for originality).

Is this really the best that one of the most respected magazines in the US can do?

Am I an idiot for trying to find pearls in this shitpile?

I like reading scientific American. helps me pretend to be smart.

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

I really like the font the use in their title, which makes me pick it up occasionally, then I put it down

gleebster
Dec 16, 2006

Only a howler
Pillbug
It started to go downhill when they made Michael Kelly editor. That was in 1999, so the thing must be utter crap now.

Hector Beerlioz
Jun 16, 2010

aw, hec
I reccomend Cat Fancy, op

RobattoJesus
Aug 13, 2002

I just print out GBS and read it on the train

Hector Beerlioz
Jun 16, 2010

aw, hec

RobattoJesus posted:

I just print out GBS and read it on the train

The print screen key cones in handy for this

ArtIsResistance
May 19, 2007

QUEEN OF FRANCE, SAVIOR OF LOWTAX

Nooner posted:

H.H, i respect you as a poster bud, but this is straight up tl;dr buddy :sigh:

"I respect you as a poster" jesus f c

paul_soccer10
Mar 28, 2016

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
*pulls up op's shirt and blows a raspberry on his belly, much to his mirth and delight haha*

a shiny rock
Nov 13, 2009

marketwatch keeps up on world news pretty good

FedEx Mercury
Jan 7, 2004

Me bad posting? That's unpossible!
Lipstick Apathy

THE DOG HOUSE posted:

christian science monitor

not even joking, that trumps everything for what you want OP

They are surprisingly good for a publication named The Christian Science Monitor. It's like some kind of mind game to weed out self censoring extreme leftists from the audience.

Hector Beerlioz
Jun 16, 2010

aw, hec
In the original Ghost Busters they showed the cover of The Atlantic and the headline was "do ghosts have rights?".

paul_soccer10
Mar 28, 2016

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
guy i was friends with from gradeschool got hired to write the weekly "john oliver was EXTREMELY right last night" article on atlantic's website

nigga crab pollock
Mar 26, 2010

by Lowtax

H.H posted:

I struggle to find content that is not rehashed to death, cringe inducing or just plain embarrassing.

welcome to 2016, the news and the gatekeepers for mass media in general are pretty much terrible. they were always terrible, and always have been, but lately they haven't even been trying to pretend that they aren't.

journalism is a joke now where hacks with no self-respect whine and bitch about how hard journalism is while posting the most low effort garbage imaginable without checking any sources. the future of journalism is getting into slapfights on twitter and crying about not having enough money because they are underpaid and overworked and most likely have to interact with people who are paid to shill (or are at least so one dimensionally political they might as well be) and because of that they are incapable of separating wild fantasy from reality

literally do not pay attention to the news, at all. assume it is completely bunk, because it is. do not take any statements made at face value and take everything with enough salt to act as a dessicant because the people who are writing this poo poo are just as qualified as you if not less

RobattoJesus
Aug 13, 2002

nigga crab pollock posted:

literally do not pay attention to the news, at all. assume it is completely bunk, because it is. do not take any statements made at face value and take everything with enough salt to act as a dessicant because the people who are writing this poo poo are just as qualified as you if not less

This + the fact that papers get money for page views so lol if you think they're interested in telling you the boring truth vs getting you to click on things.

You're more likely to get truth from a used car salesman than a journalist.

Doctor J Off
Dec 28, 2005

There Is
Journalism is a dead industry coasting on ads masquerading as articles, and stupid opinion pages, and also terrible lifestyle pieces in which the writer expounds upon their mundane life and relationships for whatever half-assed point or sob story, le than Ian guy the other month who made a cuckold of himself.

In short, I concur with the above posters' sentiments that GBS is a better source for news than the established media, and the irreverent humor cuts to the core of issues in a kind of Swiftian wit, and furthermore

ArmedZombie
Jun 6, 2004

when they were sold and moved out of boston

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ClamdestineBoyster
Aug 15, 2015
Probation
Can't post for 10 years!
Playboy is a kink mag now lol.

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