You may have noticed a few new twists on the blog today. The graphic presentation is different. So is the name: No more “Citizen Cohn.”
The change isn't entirely cosmetic. When I started this blog, as a successor to “The Treatment,” my goal was to stay on the news as much as possible. I'll continue to do that when events warrant, whether in Washington or Wisconsin or somewhere else.
But I've always thought that opinion journalism, at its best, doesn’t merely react to the agenda. It tries to set the agenda. And so, going forward, I’m hoping to focus a little more deliberately on writing about some issues that perhaps don't get as much attention as they should. As time permits, I'll be writing more on the problems of Americans struggling with poverty, difficult working conditions, disability, domestic violence--in short, the people I’d (very) loosely call the successors to the impoverished, disadvantaged masses that made up Michael Harrington’s “Other America” in the 1960s. I also hope to do more reporting, both in the sense of reading primary sources and, when possible, getting out of the office to speak with people first-hand.
Rest assured, you’ll still read about policymaking in Washington, with, of course, a heavy emphasis on health care reform. To think I thought that debate was ending! As for the blog name, I was always a bit ambivalent about it--although, I confess, I had a soft spot for the hat. But the name isn’t going away completely: It will remain atop my Twitter feed.
Video from Citizen Kane, with Orson Wells, via kewego