Trying to Figure Things Out Since 1983

Dave Eggers is neither a novelist any longer, nor ‘on a crusade for print journalism …‘ He is publishing an over-priced newspaper. That’s great, and his motives are noble, but he is no more on a crusade for journalism than he is for New Orleans victims, the Lost Boys of Sudan or the many disadvantaged whose stories he facillitates with the Voice of Witness series.

He publishes books about these issues. Yes, he gives the proceeds to his subjects, but he seems to have a new cause every week, and I can’t take him any more seriously than I take a hippy, whose catchall sympathies ensure their self-righteousness but limit their action to realigning the energies so that every cause gets a bit of their attention.

Eggers does more than hug trees. He’s a philanthropist, a conscientious publisher and an accomplished documentarian, and he probably has a heart of gold, but why the cult of activist-celebrity that surrounds Eggers every time he does something quirky that happens to address a current affair?

Eggers hopes newspaper editors will steal ideas from the San Francisco Panorama. Other people, are proposing real solutions like open-source and pro-am journalism (the institutionalisation of professional journalists working with citizen journalists). Leave Eggers to do what he does best – published mildly quirky stuff to adoring fans.