Capital New York

ScottishFold commented on Correction: Sam Tanenhaus is not a long-time conservative

God this is all so dumb. What do you mean, "in a media environment in which personal knowledge of the people who give you your information, your facts, your ideas is treated almost as a precondition of accepting it"? Maybe that is true for media people but speaking as a reader who does not work in media, my acceptance of information has far more to do with whether or not idiocy, shoddy practices, or whorishness on the author's part is apparent to me from their writing, which -- I hate to burst your bubble -- it sometimes is. Likewise the credibility, practices, and general whorishness of the publication they're writing for. The idea that readers care about the personal identity of the author -- particularly when SO many lack distinctive voices, and when so many seem happy going through the motions of formulating desperate, shrill link-bait -- seems silly and self-aggrandizing to me. And a wee bit delusional. Also a wee bit dumb: Tanenhaus's remark that Republicans "[are making an attempt] to draw the most people in rather than to alienate or stigmatize." Wow, wow, wow! They have alienated pretty much everyone who isn't white and male. Was he asleep under a cozy rock when all that "legitimate rape" stuff went down, for example? "But it's becoming less pointless every day, as, more and more, writers actually do consult the parameters of their personal brands to determine what they should think and say. . ." That is truly pretty vacuous, not to mention tacky. If you think of yourself as a brand and see your task as consulting the parameters, I see no reason why you should even be bothering with this political stuff, not when you could be writing "101 Sexy Reasons Why the NYT Book Review Will Give You Cancer" instead.

Posted on February 22nd, 2013 5:05pm

ScottishFold commented on Ben Smith sets off Andrew Sullivan's 'Orwell bells' in Flatiron fracas

"Smith argues that discerning readers have no trouble distinguishing sponsored content from reportage." Right. Buzzfeed's whole OMG WIN FAIL aesthetic and the vacuous 20-somethings it attracts as readers are really conducive to making that separation, and it's clear from Smith's chubby, smug, bro-face that he's a discerning man who knows his way around truly stylish and well-thought-out content. Having clicked through to that NYT article and see a photo of important political mastermind Meghan McCain at one of his parties, I regret ever questioning whether his site is read by anyone other than dim bulbs who work in retail and the fleas who make their living writing about the content industry.

Posted on February 22nd, 2013 2:32pm