Wonkette
: Ana Marie Cox — Wonkette — gets mondo ipublicity in the NY Times, which turns catty on cattiness.
With her gossipy, raunchy, potty-mouthed blog, Ms. Cox, a 31-year-old self-described failed journalist, has grabbed the attention of staid Washington, where gossip columns usually amount to little more than records of Capitol Hill staff changes and James Carville sightings. As she puts it, her mission for her blog (www.wonkette.com) is to write “a blend of gossip and satire and things I make up.” …
Despite some criticism, Ms. Cox’s knack for mockery has attracted quite a following. Wonkette has reached bookmark status for Washington media fanatics since it went online in January….
In a relatively short time, she has drawn her share of detractors. Mr. Leiby described her as a “foulmouthed, inaccurate, opinionated little vixen.” Jack Shafer of Slate called Ms. Cox a “heaving puke” in a column that also lambasted Gawker.com, the New York-based gossip blog created in 2002 by Nick Denton, the publisher behind Wonkette. “Her enthusiasm for penis jokes cannot be as great as her blog suggests,” Mr. Shafer wrote. The Columbia Journalism Review scolded Ms. Cox for covering the Kerry intern rumor as if it were true, a criticism Ms. Cox was eager to point out. “They accused me of trying to out-Drudge Drudge,” she said triumphantly. “Which I love, and I’d do it if I could.”
: UPDATE: NZ Bear catches the Times in a bit of Wonkettesque selective unreporting itself. Times reporter Julie Bosman quotes Jack Shaffer’s “heaving puke” headling but not the subhead: “Nothing like an abusive headline to grab your interest, eh?” And not other words of slathering praise for the Wonkster.
People who live on glass heels should not stomp their feet.
: Further…. I looked back at Wonkette (catching up on my post-Bloggercon reading) and found a convenient list of all the Kerry sex links. The Times’ characterization of Wonkette on Kerry was unfair.
They were trying to be snarky on snarkiness and, well, that’s hardly a core competency of The Times, is it?
I think they’re jealous.
It’s shocking that no one — neither the Washington Post nor The Times — thought to think of Washington in gossip and sex terms. Did we learn nothing between JFK and Clinton? Jeesh.
Ana Marie Cox and Nick Denton drove Wonkette into a hole in coverage big enough for a… well, a pimpmobile.
: The Times did one thing right: Finally, a decent picture of Wonkette. I’m telling you: there’s TV in her future.
