The Illuminated Donkey

Via Jim Romenesko's MediaNews, a San Francisco Chronicle interview with Harper's editor Lewis Lapham (Harper's editor laments rise of corporate news purveyors), where he portrays himself as the only honest voice in the post-September 11 media.

Lapham is most dismayed that he has been accused of being unpatriotic, when he isn't. "In a democracy, the most valuable quality is candor," he said. "Democracy works best when people try to tell each other the truth. That's not what we've got. We've got a lot of cant."

Ah yes, Lewis Lapham: the unbiased voice of honesty in these hideous, Big Media days. Apparently Lapham's definition of "candor" includes printing reworked and distorted versions of speeches so that they better illustrate his incredibly narrow view of how the world should be run. Unreadable prig.