The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Yo, yo, yo Times
: There’s a touch of rhetorical whiplash in the Observer’s interview with Howell Raines at the Times regarding his cultural ambitions. With one breath, he says:
“I posit our readership as being the most sophisticated in the country and having a Renaissance-like appetite for information”…
I haven’t used “posit” in a sentence — with a straight face — since freshman philosophy.
In the next deep breath, Raines says:
“When [Run-D.M.C.
Open-bracket backslash blockquote closed-bracket! And make sure one of these great new jobs you’ve been inventing doesn’t have a hiring bias against people from Snoop Dogg’s hometown….
With the exception of Elvis Mitchell, the Times’ Farts & Seizures section is usually well out of touch with mainstream crap-loving America.
Their music reviews are especially pedestrian, and pander to the Next Big Things, like every other music rag out there. In fact, the only decent music writing one sees is on the internet. (Sure, there are a few print exceptions. But good ones are ALL OVER the net.)
A _real_ media critic would be great. But (as my mom would have said) I won’t hold my hands on my ass waiting for that to happen.
Name-dropping Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight is just a pathetic attempt to show he knows what’s “down” and “phat” and whatever other no-longer-used slang word Maureen Dowd told him was in vogue.