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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I'm sorry, but lumping Gawker in with Perez Hilton and TMZ is just laziness. I usually enjoy Heather Havrilesky, no stranger to snark herself- but reciting hit jobs from Vanessa Grigoridias and N +1- surprise surprise, both with grudges- makes me feel she just doesn't get Gawker.
Gawker is a NYC-centric site, without apology. The "jealous creative underclass" that Vanessa spitefully described in that NY Mag article, from her privileged perch, is fully entitled to vent about the indescribably comic rat-race that is NYC media and culture. Are they not allowed to do this? When it's well-known that editor X's new job comes from being married to financier Y, can we not have a snicker at watching "who you know/who you blow" in action?
Unless you've lived as a young creative struggling in NYC, every day observing what David Sedaris described as people "who not only have more, but much MUCH more, than you", you don't know what you're talking about, comparing Gawker to Perez.
There's something quite reassuring, reading about that hot new punky downtown artist that the media is fawning over is hiding the fact he comes from a billionaire art-world dynasty (hi, Dash!). Or that first-time novelist living in the townhouse of one's dreams in the NYT Styles didn't actually write "Travelling Pants" herself, and the house is paid for by her husband's vast inheritance.
This is rubbed in one's face every single day in NYC- it takes a ton of balls and spunk and brains to survive. So the coddled Yale N+1 trust-fund boys, with their undergrad pretensions, are fully fair game to have a laugh at.
Do you know who Barbara Corcoran is? Steven Schwartzman? Amy Sacco? Arden Wohl? Teddy Forstmann? I don't see Perez Hilton writing about these people. Maybe Gawker just doesn't translate west of the Hudson, but for a lot of us it's a pleasure in the spirit of the old SPY.
As for the Stalker feature, it's not meant literally, it's not really in real-time, and it's not GPS enabled. One of the few compensations us creative undervermin get is to occasionally see Sarah Jessica Parker blow her nose, just like you and me! A lot of the mentions seem publicist planted btw . And spare me, Ryan Gosling is not John Lennon.
It took the LA Times staff several days to get access to the jail records and parse the raw data into evidence that would tell us whether or not Paris Hilton was really getting special treatment by being released so early.
But it only took an hour or two for the tide of white hot rage over her assumed special treatment to build up on the Internet.
And the Hillary campaign hostage situation -- I could see the white hot tide of political outrage building up within minutes before it was finally defused by a factual determination of the lunatic and his mental condition and motivation.
Why can't people just chill and wait for the facts to come out?
I guess it's the Internet. It speeds up the scandal reaction time but it doesn't really speed up the scandal investigation time.
That's not a good thing.
Watchu say?
Great piece, HH.
Echoing what others have said here about celebrity noise taking the place of actual journalism, if you don’t know about it, you might check out projectcensored.org.
Top 25 censored news stories of 2007
#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region
About Project Censored:
Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media.
Between 700 and 1000 stories are submitted to Project Censored each year from journalists, scholars, librarians, and concerned citizens around the world. With the help of more than 200 Sonoma State University faculty, students, and community members, Project Censored reviews the story submissions for coverage, content, reliability of sources and national significance. The university community selects 25 stories to submit to the Project Censored panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance. Current or previous national judges include: Noam Chomsky, Susan Faludi, George Gerbner, Sut Jhally , Frances Moore Lappe, Norman Solomon, Michael Parenti, Herbert I. Schiller, Barbara Seaman, Erna Smith, Mike Wallace and Howard Zinn. All 25 stories are featured in the yearbook, Censored: The News That Didn't Make the News.
As a veteran of four formative years in Catholic school, to which I flash back as if it were 'Nam, I don't believe scrawling "Fuck You" all over the stalls of the girls' bathroom -- even in red Magic Marker -- constitutes sociopathy.
Seems like a pretty reasoned response to me.
But, whatever you do... LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!! *sob*
It is in the best interests of a capitalist society to keep the gaze away from the shenanigans of industries and right wing politics to a huge preoccupation with celebrity culture.
Is it any wonder that we now have to pay for drinking water, live in massively polluted cities, live on the mercies of the American Medical Association and the Pharmaceuticals, that the rich, lazy media should be investigating for the good of the citizenry in the first place.
It is completely disgusting that an untalented, bratty, self destructive socialite like Paris Hilton (what really is her claim to fame?) makes headline news around the world while close to half a million Iraqi women, men and children have lost their lives in the US occupation, or how about unnecessary deaths of Americans due to lack of health care. The travails of a visibly troubled Britney Spears takes up more news time than the daily killings of Palestinians by US interests, or if that is a hard pill to swallow, then how really the US sabotages voter turn outs that would make this society more equitable.
Bring on the Kool-aid because the media is never going to raise the bar for a well informed society. Dumbing down of America has become a guilt free pasttime.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
