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One of the most important influences in my political thinking, Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, is retiring.
Mr. Lapham, who is 70, said he would ...continue to write his "Notebook" column on a regular basis....He said he expected a new editor would be named within a month and that the person would retain the character of Harper's, a 155-year-old monthly. He described the magazine this way: "It's about inquiry. It's not about the promulgation of the truth, it's about a search for the truth."
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Mr. Lapham was fired from the magazine 25 years ago, when it was ...on the verge of folding. John R. MacArthur, the president and publisher of Harper's Magazine, then rescued the magazine with help from his family foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the board of the Atlantic Richfield Company. Mr. MacArthur reinstalled Mr. Lapham as editor in 1983, and he has been there ever since.
Lapham is a great man. Whomever succeeds him will have very large shoes to fill, and a heavy responsibility. We ahould all be supporting Harper's, a blog-like publication of political and social investigation.
a few quotes:
More than illness or death, the American journalist fears standing alone against the whim of his owners or the prejudices of his audience. Deprive William Safire of the insignia of the New York Times, and he would have a hard time selling his truths to a weekly broadsheet in suburban Duluth.
Of what does politics consist except the making of imperfect decisions, many of them unjust and quite a few of them deadly?
People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.