Michael Lewis on the President for Vanity Fair

Should be an interesting read:

 

I wonder how "risky" this really is. I enjoy Lewis's work--and he often is quite unsparring--but how often do you see a rip job from any journalist about someone they're embedded with? Not saying it's anything nefarious or even that Lewis will succumb to spin--but spending a bunch of time with anyone will likely allow you to emphatize with their POV and ratchet down the criticism.

 

This is a mischaracterization of Lewis' work. I like the guy, he is probably among the people whose work I seek out the most. And he is unsparing and unsympathetic -- but not to the person who gives him the access. Whether it's Billy Beane, or a hedge fund manager like David Einhorn, or Schwarzenegger in his story about California, he always takes the side of his tour guide.

 

Lewis has a softer shell than many of his peers in this genre.
He is not used to being challenged and responds very poorly when he is.
Keith Law presented a sober and critical review of the Moneyball film.
Lewis predictably went bananas.
He then went on to personally and viciously attack the reviewer instead of defending the film's merits.

 

And Blind Side, too, although perhaps a bit different because he was initially friends
with the dad.

 

Lewis perceives his role when doing profiles as attempting to put the reader behind the subject's eyeballs. It works for him, because he's a very, very acute observer, but yes, it always gives the subject the best possible chance to be a sympathetic figure. Even when he's ripping the shit out of an entire country, as he did with his piece on Greece, Lewis is pretty sympathetic to actual individuals in the story.

 

As I said earlier, though, is this really a Lewis specific problem? The reason it stands out is because he is otherwise so critical, not because his profiles of people he is embedded with are
any more favorable than other profiles written.

 

And, to be fair, some of the favorable profiles may also result from people acting differently because they know they are being observed by a reporter.

 

I question whether Lewis is challenging any of the BS coming out of his sources' mouths.
He may just be a great listener or conversationalist with a talent for getting people to elaborate.

 

The magazine industry seems to be turning on Obama.

 

Prove it.

 

Purely subjective observation based on some recent articles. Check out the cover of upcoming Newsweek.