I'm not writing off David Brooks

So, I have never quite forgiven NYT columnist David Brooks for the shoddy journalism that led him to misrepresent my college and my generation in this article ("The Organization Kid," Atlantic Monthly, April 2001). Long story, but he based much of the anecdotal evidence used in this piece on an extremely non-random sample of students. In fact, I may have to devote an entire post later on to something I should have done long ago--picking that article apart.

But I have to admit that Mr. Brooks is often insightful. I do not fully disagree with the points that he's made about the Boomers and the "Millennials"--which is what the serious generation-studies types call people my age and a little younger--in his book Bobos in Paradise and in the article referenced above. I just think that he takes solid premises a little too far sometimes to develop really whack conclusions.

Anyway, what got me thinking about David Brooks was this lead to his column today: "Tim Russert is a great journalist, but he made a mistake last weekend. He included Jerry Falwell and Al Sharpton in a discussion on religion and public life. Inviting these two bozos onto 'Meet the Press' to discuss that issue is like inviting Britney Spears and Larry Flynt to discuss D. H. Lawrence." Heh heh. Totally true. And overall a good column on the bad thinking out there about faith and reason.