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Miss Waterlow's avatar

They’re trying to do too much too quickly. To make themselves a real media outlet with lots of writers and all the newspaper sections (what next? sports?) Bari started a sort of intelligent, narrowly-focused newsletter and is now clearly trying to build it into a media empire. Apparently that requires packing it with a little of everything. Like you said, so much is unserious. Instead of one long piece you have to pick through a bunch of fluff to see if there’s anything worth your time.

Another factor that’s distorted her original intent, I’m convinced, is that her subscribers ended up being largely Trump supporters/MAGA.* Whenever she publishes something challenging to that orthodoxy, the commentariat gets upset. Since they represent the bulk of her income stream, naturally she must keep them happy. Thus a once orthodoxy-challenging publication has become another tedious echo chamber.

*I used MAGA as a descriptor - it’s basically a political party - not as an insult

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Matt's avatar

TFP has become incoherent. Tell me its 1) purpose, 2) intended niche and 3) its differentiating qualities. I can’t answer any of those questions.

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