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You are here: Home / Slate to become even more boring and predictable

Slate to become even more boring and predictable

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Slate just laid off press critic, Jack Shafer, who was the only reason I ever read Slate.

“We have made some editorial changes, including a small reduction in our full time staff and our contractors,” says Slate editor David Plotz. “Press Box” columnist Jack Shafer confirms in an email to Adweek’s Dylan Byers that he was laid off, but says he’ll continue as a contributor.

William Saletan will continue to pen white supremacist screeds and muse about anal sex for the online publication.

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  4. 4.

    Big Baby DougJ

    Shafer is a really good guy, answers email, doesn’t pull punches in his columns. He’s the opposite of everything that sucks about Slate. Even though he’s a libertarian.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    OT….Earlier today someone mentioned that they were reading “In the Garden of Beasts” and I found this link on NPR.
    Things can get very dangerous here. The economy is sinking and the repubs don’t care, they see it as winning. The repub candidates are scary to say the least. I just wish one journalist or reporter would ask what country doesn’t have safety nets.
    Sorry Doug for not worrying about Slate..I haven’t read them in months.

  11. 11.

    Lev

    I like Fred Kaplan’s work at Slate too. But man, does that place have some zeroes in it. I remember listening to their political podcast with John Dickerson, Plotz and someone else, and I really don’t recommend it unless you want to get in a car crash on your commute home. It’ll make you that angry.

  17. 17.

    SuzieC

    OK, I rarely read Slate and now will read it even less frequently. I never read Salon now that Glenn has gone off the deep end. Kos too, to some degree. Help! What should I read for sane, liberal commentary, in addition to BJ?

  18. 18.

    justinslot

    Man, a lot of people whose opinion I respect have been mentioning this, first on Twitter and now Doug here. I guess I’ve misjudged Shafer, who I always just assumed was one of the usual Slate “contrarian” “hey you’ve been hearing about this? NO IT’S TOTALLY WRONG” thinkers.

    EDIT to add: I only read Weigel there at this point, and Dahlia Lithwick.

  19. 19.

    Jenny

    Speaking of job loss, Steve Jobs resigned today. News organizations are already ghoulishly speaking of him in the past tense.

  20. 20.

    Big Baby DougJ

    @justinslot:

    Shafer is not contrarian. He’s written about half-a-dozen very good pieces about the Murdoch drama in the UK, all of which were excellent.

  21. 21.

    Big Baby DougJ

    @justinslot:

    I like Dahlia but I don’t follow Supreme Court stuff too much. I don’t love Weigel, he’s a dogged political reporter, but he’s kind of a moron too.

  22. 22.

    Anne Laurie

    Meh. Shafer, to my reading, was always a little too impressed with his own hipster contrariness. I still like Dave Weigel, and Dahlia Lithwick, read them both on a regular basis, and don’t hesitate to click over to other Slate stories on the right-hand column. Unlike, for instance, David Froomkin, who was on my must-read list until the click-mining horror that is HuffPo wore out my limited patience & bandwidth. Or Jim Newell and John Cook at Gawker… much as I love reading those guys, the ugliness of their sponsor sites means I don’t read them nearly as often as I once did.

  24. 24.

    justinslot

    @Big Baby DougJ: I will have to check those out. The last I heard from him was during the Vargas drama where he made the absurd claim that Vargas lying about his visa meant he couldn’t be trusted about anything else, and then I went back to my default Slate-avoiding mode.

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @JPL:

    Sorry Doug for not worrying about Slate..I haven’t read them in months.

    I haven’t read Slate regularly since 1999, I think. Oh, wait, there was a bit during the run up to the 2004 election where I looked at it about once a week. That’s it. Never understood the appeal.

  27. 27.

    Anne Laurie

    @Big Baby DougJ:

    I don’t love Weigel, he’s a dogged political reporter, but he’s kind of a moron too.

    He’s a libertarian, with a sense of humor. You have to appreciate the “tongue so firmly in cheek as to protrude from the vulgar bodily orifice”* writing style to enjoy Weigel.

    * quote from R.A. Lafferty, incomparable s.f. writer

  33. 33.

    kth

    I didn’t see Shafer’s Murdoch series, but what I did read of him (probably a dozen or so items over the years) was undiluted and tiresome glibertarianism. Also a perennial Fox News apologist.

  36. 36.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Jenny: Good answer on that. Benen and Sargent are great.

    I think Weigel’s kind of a moron too, even as he’s tenacious at times. I do enjoy Dahlia Lithwick, and like Anne Lautie, I don’t hesitate to wander into stories that look like they could be worth reading, though I am sometimes disappointed. Kinda like life; heh.

  37. 37.

    hilts

    @SuzieC:

    Listen to Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Free Speech Radio News and read Truthdig, Truthout, Consortiumnews, Alternet, Common Dreams, and Nieman Watchdog.

  38. 38.

    MikeJ

    @hilts: Hwh! That’s funny. Amy Goodman and sane in the same sentence.

    She was batshit insane when Clinton was in office.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    Mickey Kaus still got his contrarian perch at Slate?

    Too bad about Shafer; he wrote some good stuff. And some not so good stuff.

    Used to like Slate, but it’s not as good any more. For going on a year or two now. Maybe it’s more like the Daily Beast? Anyhoo, not worth checking more than once a month or so.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    Hmmm. Jim Romanesko is going into semi-retirement at Poynter.

    Lots of changes in the media world.

  47. 47.

    hamletta

    Alls I know is Shafer was incredibly kind to me when I brought him my little punk rock paper to him and asked for advice.

    I kept waiting for him to laugh at me, but he didn’t. He wanted me to go out there and make a great paper.

    Sadly, it wasn’t in the cards, but I did make it better, and it served my town, and me, rather well.

  48. 48.

    Waldo

    What’s that old saying … The enemy of my enemy Rupert is my friend? Yeah, I’ll miss that part about Jack.

  50. 50.

    someofparts

    A journalist friend of mine mentioned liking Shafer. I tried, but guess I caught him on a bad day, so didn’t check back. The Slate website as a whole was no draw either.

  51. 51.

    Joel

    Tim Noah, who was actually one of the good guys/decent writers at Slate, also lost his job per Yglesias.

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