Slate: A
Policy Statement
In light of continuing
concerns about the power and ambitions of our parent company, the Microsoft
Corp., we at Slate would like to offer the following declaration of our own
policy and goals. This policy statement was prepared without consultation, and
applies only to Slate.
Our goal at Slate, quite
simply, is to own political and cultural commentary in this country, the
industrialized nations, and ultimately in the developing regions as well. The
whole world, basically. We will use any means necessary to achieve this end,
including competition, both fair and unfair, wholesale buying up of potential
rivals, strategic partnerships and alliances, strategic betrayals of partners
and allies, theft, bribery, murder, and, if necessary, putting out a
high-quality product.
Someday, if you want an
opera criticism, an analysis of the latest tax proposal, or a profile of some
obscure academic, you'll have no choice but to come to us. Building on our
domination of these areas, we will extend our reach into popular culture,
gradually monopolizing movie and television reviews and interviews with
brainless celebrities. Ultimately, our towering position, as well as economies
of scale in the production of opinion and analysis, will make resistance
futile. At that point, we will control the industry and be able to extract the
rich monopoly profits waiting to be had from poetry, book reviews, essays
pleading for entitlement reform, explanations of developments in foreign
countries, and similar product lines.
We will, of course, continue
to support all platforms: liberal, conservative, libertarian, vegetarian, UNIX.
We are committed to producing opinions that are compatible with all standard
political labels and work equally well for Democrats and Republicans. We
foresee a day when all viewpoints on every subject are equally comfortable for
anyone to swallow, and when the frustrating cacophony of today's political and
cultural debate is replaced by easy-to-use modules of predigested viewpoints
that can be downloaded from the Web with a simple credit-card transaction.
Or at
least, that's the plan.
Mark Alan
Stamaty: Recent Works
Mark
Stamaty, author of the cartoon strips McDoodle Street for the Village
Voice and Washingtoon for the Washington Post , didn't know
from computers when we approached him a year ago to create a strip for Slate.
He still doesn't know a lot about computers but, to our great delight, he's
really got into some of the technical possibilities of publishing on the
Web--and into some of the limitations as well. Mark's remarkably clever
animated cartoons also use remarkably few data bits, meaning that they can be
downloaded quickly by a normal 28.8 modem. Check out the current Doodlennium
for an example. Mark also does the delightful jumpy illustrations for "Summary
Judgment" each week. And all of us on the Slate staff especially loved his
recent drawing of Garry Kasparov confronting Deep Blue.
Dispatches, Dialogues, and Diaries, Jinga-Linga
If you haven't already done
so, check out our new design for "Dispatches & Dialogues" and the "Diary." We
hope you'll find the revised layout more user friendly.
--Michael Kinsley
