iris

I'm a fan of Isaacson's biographies of people who died before he started his research. I particularly liked his Benjamin Franklin book. But his biography of Steve Jobs (and now Musk) betrays a central problem in the genre. When immensely powerful people, about whom there is intensely curiosity among the general public, give one biographer uniquely close access, they are giving huge gifts -- sometimes worth millions of dollars -- to the biographers.
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When powerful people in Washington and New York give vast access to a select group of journalists and news organizations -- access is the name of that game -- they are part of a process that should always make you cautious. It's a similar conundrum.
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