<p>Paid critics are an endangered species, and good criticism is a dying art. Editors are culling many, and frequently all, of their best critics. In the academic world, balanced criticism is being driven out, in favour of weird and wacky, hard-left dogma. Especially on the internet but also in newspapers and magazines, there&rsquo;s more <em>bad</em> criticism than ever before &ndash; needlessly rude, ill-judged, poorly expressed or bigoted, and sometimes all four.</p><p>There are &ldquo;reviews&rdquo; that are not reviews at all, but paid-for marketing tools or uncritical hagiography by friends and relations of the artist (and sometimes by the artist himself). Corruption in the field of reviewing is rife.</p><p>Bad is driving out good. Even in such havens of free speech as Western Europe and America, the story of criticism over the last few years has been a shocking tale of sackings, corruption, suicides, murders and editorial stupidity.</p><p><em>Better Criticism </em>shows how and why Criticism has become the most undervalued of all the arts, and presents Ten Commandments which should help anyone to become a better critic.</p>