It's got to be better than this.
Tell me it's better than this.
Confirm for me that Arianna Huffington really is nothing more than a name-dropping star-fucking money-hungry wannabe who may have succeeded at accomplishing her short term goals.
Here's from her lede on the Huffington Post today.
Arianna Huffington: Bill Maher Saves the Oscars... At Least for Me
For my money, this year's Academy Awards telecast was the funniest in ages. No, not because of the show itself -- Anne Hathaway and James Franco's "young and hip" shtick wore thin pretty quickly -- but because I watched the show sitting next to Bill Maher at the Vanity Fair dinner at the Sunset Tower Hotel. Bill kept up a running commentary that put the on-screen patter to shame. At one point we realized that we were both tweeting and retweeting what each of us was saying to the other. "This is excruciating for me, I can only imagine what it's like for you," I leaned over and said to him after a particularly lame joke. He then tweeted what I'd said... which I then retweeted. I'm not yet sure if this mode of communication is a good thing or a bad thing -- I'm just reporting.
I'm just reporting, she says. This is journalism? This is the future of news? This is going to save us, to propel us forward in the digital universe. Overhead conversations between people at a table.
Tell me we can do better than the well-coifed and over-sexed version of Beavis and ButtHead laughing at each other's jokes.
Confirm that there is real stuff out there on the web, and not just the content created by traditional media doing the hard work in dangerous places where journalists get hurt just plying their craft.
Let me know that quality still matters, that there's a difference between opinion and news, hearsay and insight.
Make us think, help us learn, allow us to be informed, and educate us with wit and charm. Don't just repeat regurgitation. Sloppy seconds have no place in news.
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1 comment:
I'm afraid this is what the news has come to. The horror of Jerry Springer and Reality TV bleeds into journalism and changes its quality and seriousness.
It's a lot like a bad car wreck on the highway. You know it's terrible, but you can't help from craning your neck to see it. I think a lot of educated people are disgusted with the news business right now, but we keep clicking through to these silly stories and as our clicks get counted, we inadvertently inspire more of the same. My new practice (and not always easy) is only to click through articles I really think are newsworthy. Vote with your index finger, so to speak.
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