Romenesko

NYTimes.com
Ben Ratliff responds to a reader who asks if jazz is dead: "Proclaiming something or other is dying or dead is a very media kind of thing to do. I have fallen into that trap myself, regretted it, and learned from it. Editors of magazines and newspapers really, really want writers to say that something is dead. Partly because it's a dogmatic position that makes people's blood boil, but partly because they don't want to think any longer about whatever it is that they're saying is dead. They want to cross off that box and move on."