The Maturing of David Brooks
by alivingston, Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 05:32:06 PM EDT
Meet David Brooks, fictional journalist. To clarify, he's not fictional, but he engages in a style of fiction posing as journalism--also shared by former NYT colleagues Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair. This University of Chicago educated writer asserts that he used to write based on facts, but now considers it "dishonest".
When his first book "Bobos In Paradise" was published in 2000 as a sociological journalism book, a sharp and enterprising reporter named Sasha Issenberg ("Boo Boos in Paradise", Philadelphia Magazine) thought the data cited rang false. He decided to do a little of his own research. What he found was that David Brooks wrote a book of made-up-facts, known by those outside the public intellectual pantheon as fiction.
I will begin with the end of the story. Issenberg called him up regarding his research of Brooks' research. This was Brooks' response,
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