As regular readers know, we are continuing our annual, end-of-year fundraiser. Here is today’s reason to contribute: we’re so good that we make our journalistic competitors jealous — literally.
This year, Bloomberg Businessweek is inaugurating a new tradition of recognizing journalistic work that is of such quality that induces, in its staff members, a struggle with the ol’ green-eyed monster:
In this season of relentless kindness, envy is often sadly neglected. Which is why we bring you the First Annual Jealousy List, a compilation of the great pieces of journalism in 2013 that left Bloomberg Businessweek’s staff sick with resentment. Besides functioning as a very long “Bah, humbug,” it’s also a useful guide to the best work of the year by our peers at other news organizations. May they all receive a lump of coal—along with the satisfaction of a job well done.
Regular readers of this blog and especially Washington Monthly magazine are no doubt familiar with the superlative work of Haley Sweetland Edwards. Haley has covered subjects ranging from Martin O’Malley’s presidential aspirations to America’s worst community colleges to Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh. In my opinion, and the opinion of many others, her most memorable contribution to the Monthly this year was her instant-classic magazine story about how Washington’s byzantine rule-making process has all but gutted Dodd-Frank.
For the Bloomberg “Jealousy List,” here’s what Brendan Greeley wrote about the story:
Hayley Sweetland Edwards’s story for Washington Monthly did a better job of explaining how Washington actually works, far away from Congress, than anything else I read this year. I constantly link back to it in blog posts and return to it for reference.
We at the Monthly know that Haley is made of awesome sauce, and it’s gratifying to see the rest of the world giving her props as well. No less than Michael Tomasky called her Dodd-Frank piece “the best article on how Washington works I’ve read in years.”
Admittedly, though, there’s a special kind of satisfaction that comes from provoking the jealousy of Bloomberg Businessweek. On the one hand, there’s the Bloomberg media empire empire, owned by the billionaire mayor of New York City. On the other hand, there’s the little ol’ Washington Monthly, a modestly budgeted not-for-profit. And yet, we’ve inspired their envy!
It’s a situation akin to the rich girl who, in a desperate attempt to look stylish, spends thousands of dollars on an outfit — and yet can’t manage to pull off a fraction of the fashion fabulousness of the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who pulled together her look in a thrift shop for less than ten bucks.
If you like the idea of supporting important work like Haley’s — or you just enjoy the idea of making the Bloomberg types green with envy — won’t you consider contributing to the Monthly? You can make your tax-deductible donation by clicking here. Thank you for your generosity.
