Why I (Usually) Hate Writing for the Media

Market incentives compel every editor to pretend to their authors, with a straight face, that anything but the dullest everyday English is unnecessarily “precious”, “snobbish”, etc.

Qui me non nisi editis novit, non novit.

G. W. Leibniz

Trying to get a point across in public writing, whether established or clickbait media (a distinction of vanishing significance), with just the nuance, force, and connotations you intend, is like trying to perform a violin solo underwater. You can be as virtuosic as you like, but the medium you’re pla…