I love vacation... I get to catch up on all the magazines that were sitting around next to my bed. I always feel a little bit guilty throwing out these magazines (New Yorker, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly) because every time I pick up a copy, I always come across something that is so interesting that I feel embarrassed that it took me so long to read the damn thing in the first place and learn it.<o:p> </o:p>
Particularly interesting for me is that it gives me a snapshot of what people were thinking just a few months ago. You’d think that you have a fairly accurate picture of what you’re reading from the magazines and remembering what you read, but looking back I find myself extra sensitive to bias and components that may have since been proven wrong. I think the amazing thing is how neutral the writers really are. Well, neutral may be a bit strong, but certainly there are not passages you come upon where the author says “A this clearly points to a Bush victory” or “This will ultimately cause Bush to lose.” At the time I was reading most of these magazines (which I think fairly securely fall into what people would call the liberal media, a term which is not only wrong, in my opinion, but nearly slanderous/libelous considering how far I think those in most media organizations bend over backwards to be unbiased), I actually felt like most of them were guaranteeing Kerry victory… just goes to show that the human mind has a terrible capacity for accurate and unbiased memory (though I suppose it could just be me).<o:p></o:p>
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