Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

I am running into this constant refrain from the Mainstream Media: your ideas are too big, too broad, and too complex to get across in our short pieces. I don't get this from everyone. Got the Q&A done with Newsweek (a Millennial) and with USN&WR's digital, but it's always by people who've actually read the book!, and guess what? They don't mind me having "too many ideas," as the NYT review complained.

That's why the hours with Hewitt have been so great. I've done a lot of great one-hour versions and even 20-min blocks since the book came out, but it's been a real blast to go chapter-by-chapter with Hugh. Frankly, there is nowhere else out there to get that sort of treatment--forget about it. Instead, you're offered a guest op-ed (got 52 of those every year already, thanks) or a slot on a panel discussion, where you won't be interviewed about all those "complex ideas" but instead you'll just chatter about current events with other talking heads.

Impossible to expect better, I am constantly told by handlers. These guys are slaves to current events. Expect to boulderize everything and make it bit-sized.

Except I don't like to explain complex things without giving some sense of the complexity, and that means VERY LONG ANSWERS to even short questions, and not apologizing about it.

And Hewitt gives me that opportunity. He's as current event-driven as anybody else. He just chooses to carve out times for broader discussions.

And when I get a couple of hours taped with him like I did tonight, I just think to myself: f--k the soundbite universe. Don't apologize for having "too many ideas" or thinking "too broadly." Don't apologize whatsoever.

Because people are hungry for complex, big answers to complex, big problems.

Plus, quite frankly, I don't know how to write books any other way. So if they don't fit the MSM mill, then simply explore the alternatives to the fullest extent possible and be happy with that.

Long story short: after a day of many disappointing feedbacks from the MSM world, I feel a lot better after spending the time with someone willing to explore the complexity with me, even when he often disagrees with several of my tactical choices and strategic imperatives.

But that's the debate we're missing right now in the MSM. I have to admit: the older I get, the more I buy into the blogosphere's notions that the MSM is deeply dysfunctional. As they drop from the print world and become glorified Huffington news aggregators, I'm not so sure anymore that I'll miss them.