October 31, 2010

Top Ten Lists

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Here’s a Twitter conversation from last night:

@kdrum: @ebertchicago’s “Why I Loathe Top 10 Film Lists” doesn’t actually say a word about why he loathes Top Ten lists. http://ow.ly/323Z8

@RemoteClancy: re: @ebertchicago & Top 10 lists. Not a word, just 900 of them. Re-read his response to ‘Best in Film’ for clearest reason.

I guess you’ll have to click the link and decide for yourself who’s right. As near as I can tell, Roger Ebert told us why he doesn’t like being asked to participate in creating Top Ten lists for free, but that’s a whole different question than why he loathes Top Ten lists in general. I realize he didn’t write the headline for the piece, but I still want to know: why does he loathe Top Ten lists? He does seem to, but there’s really no explanation given. Even for a serious critic, it seems like it might be sort of a fun exercise.

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THE TRUTH...

is the first thing despots go after. An unwavering commitment to it is probably what draws you to Mother Jones' journalism. And as we're seeing in the US and the world around, authoritarians seek to poison the discourse and the way we relate to each other because they can't stand people coming together around a shared sense of the truth—it's a huge threat to them.

Which is also a pretty great way to describe Mother Jones' mission: People coming together around the truth to hold power accountable.

And right now, we need to raise about $400,000 from our online readers over the next two months to hit our annual goal and make good on that mission. Read more about the information war we find ourselves in and how people-powered, independent reporting can and must rise to the challenge—and please support our team's truth-telling journalism with a donation if you can right now.

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