Taiwan: The World is Not That
Written byJose Manuel Tesoro
Michael Turton picks apart global know-it-all Thomas Friedman's myths, mistaken conclusions and mischaracterizations of Taiwan so as to shoehorn it into his popular theories. “Friedman's uninformed screed highlights a desperate need for newspapers to draw on the writing of recognized experts in their fields, and more importantly, for academics to produce more works for popular audiences.” Amen to that.
Written byJose Manuel Tesoro
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4 comments
I appreciate the aggregate work you do at Global Voices, but please spare us the shallow editorializing, Tesoro.
Leave it to readers to make up their own minds.
Editorializing doesn’t prevent readers from making up their own minds, Ananda — especially when it’s overtly done.
I think Turton’s right: the time is long gone when newspaper columnists can be experts on everything — and be accepted as such — is long gone. I agree with him; you might not. Both you and I are entitled to have, as well as to voice, an opinion.
You need to grow a thicker skin, Tesoro. I subscribe to GVO for the diversity of links that deliver substantial content, not for cheap quips from the aggregator. If you want, get your own blog for your own comments.
You also need to learn to listen – I never mentioned Turton. If I had I would have said that I admire his in-depth analysis. Sure got me thinking.
Working here gives me a pretty tough skin, so I wasn’t offended at all. Apologies if you missed that.
Yet I still worry that a key difference eludes you: GVO isn’t a wire feed from which you can expect stories that are presented as objective and written in a voice that is presented as neutral.
Yes, GVO’s a blog aggregator — but it’s still very much a blog! Everyone speaks in their own voice here, not the single, “neutral” voice of a news-gathering collective.
But there’s really a very easy fix, Ananda: If you disagree with my editorializing, you can always, always just read straight through to the linked blog post. You have that option as well.