The New Yorker has a long and illuminating profile of Noam Chomsky this week. Too bad it's not available in the online version. I can't comment on his work in linguistics, but I think he's important in that he is the only person (at least whom I know of) who has undertaken such an exhaustive study of the press on individual issues. As the New Yorker article makes clear, though, his main weakness -- at least in his role as gadfly -- is that he has never offered any real solutions to the issues he raises. I don't think he actually believes in change. And that's a hard sell.