Writers Who Don't Suck

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Valuing the Outsider

“I don’t have a strict allegiance to ‘journalism’ as much as I have one to the written word. Perhaps there’s no difference. But my point is that to the extent blogging makes it possible for more people who are ‘on fire’ to employ the written word, than it’s good for the written word. It’s true that it creates a situation in which anyone, for $15 a month, can say their piece. But I have more faith in the market of ideas than in a brain-trust of editors to separate the wheat from the chaff.

“Moreover, while there are an incredible number of bloggers out there with no institutional support who suck, there is a truly shocking number of writers, who have all the institutional support in the world, and not only suck, but bring nothing save cynicism, incuriousity, and cold poisoned hearts. And the institutions enable them. To the extent that blogging exposes these frauds, I am all in.”

—Ta-Nehisi Coates, blogger, The Atlantic, 11/2009
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Editor’s Note: So if you have to suck, do it with passion.
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