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Most journalists for reputable broadsheet newspapers write worse than most people here. Do you read Janan Ganesh in the FT? I always think he sounds like the kind of person to post here, although he’s too politically boring to, and he writes better than any other columnist there or in The Telegraph.
But that’s really to do with @TracingWoodgrains ‘ point. It’s not a lack of sympathetic human capital so much as sympathetic human capital deployed in a way which ensures culture war defeat.
Of course, he's one of the best writers there and crucially isn't a one trick pony either, he seems to be well read in the way that a good newspaper columnist should be.
I'm too stingy to pay for an actual subscription (the Chrome extension BypassPaywalls is excellent, you'll have to get it from GitHub since of course the Chrome store doesn't allow it; pity it doesn't work on TheTimes since they moved over to a hard paywall) so don't have an account there but if I did he would be one of the people I'd subscribe to on myFT on day 1.
I use paywall bypass but get the FT comped (my MD was actually surprised at this, but I haven't been called out by the HR goons for it yet). Much like a certain Citigroup banker with an appetite for sandwiches, I'll let you know if I get fired for it.
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