OPENING SALVO // Other Families, Other Rooms
Kinship
National Geographic magazine helped me understand our human family—and our non-human one
by Heather Shayne Blakeslee
EXCERPT //
National Geographic exists now only in the form of a website, television channel, and podcast. Gone are the days when a kid could go to the family bookshelf and look for that row of golden spines to pull out an issue and escape into another world without being attached to a screen of some kind. Yes, video from nature documentaries now is stunning, but many times it’s interspersed with AI-generated video—and they don’t disclose to you when you’re looking at a real image versus a made-up one. As an education tool, its waters are murky. Inspiring? Yes. Accurate? Not so much.
A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, just identified in his op-ed, “A Free People Need a Free Press,” three areas where good journalism matters. First, he writes, “As a historic surge of misinformation erodes our shared reality, the press ensures the flow of trustworthy news and information the public needs to make decisions, whether about elections, the economy or their lives.” Second, he argues, “As polarization and tribalism strain our societal bonds, the press fosters the mutual understanding that allows a diverse, divided nation to come together with common purpose.” Finally, “As rising inequality and impunity undermine confidence in the American promise, the press asks the tough questions and exposes the hidden truths that enable the public to hold powerful interests accountable.” The bias at The New York Times sometimes drives me crazy, and I’ve read too many opinion pieces masquerading as reported articles, but he’s right about these concepts. Local newspapers in particular, also on the extinction list, need to be rebuilt, for all the reasons that Sulzberger outlines.//
For full text and images, consider reading RQ in print, on a Sunday afternoon, sun streaming through your window, coffee in hand, and nary a phone alert within sight or in earshot… just fine words, fine design, and the opportunity to make a stitch in time. // Subscribe or buy a single issue today. // Print is dead. Long live print. //