Archive for February, 2009

@media armistice, please?

  • February 13th, 2009
  • Posted in Media

This made me giggle: And I would like to go on record as calling twitter the Second Life of 2009. Do you remember the last time every single publication had to not only write articles about but be present in some sort of online sphere that a very small percentage of the population were actually [ READ MORE ]

Long Day’s Journey for the Right

My article about young conservatives in DC searching for work is up on Doublethink Online right now: It seems the old saw about Washington being recession-proof has gone the way of the conservative majority. For the city’s conservative job seekers, the legendarily insulated District could not have picked a worse time to mirror ‘Real America’s’ [ READ MORE ]

Overall, Community Newspapers Doing Well?

  • February 13th, 2009
  • Posted in Media

Conor’s latest post about newspapers sparked my interest in finding out how local and community newspapers in my home state (Ohio) are faring. [I'm totally guilty of thinking about "the failing newspaper business" and whatnot only in terms of the major papers—even though every time I go home, my dad (a daily Cincinnati Enquirer subscriber [ READ MORE ]

The Curse of Malcolm Gladwell

  • February 13th, 2009
  • Posted in Books

I just began reading Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got From the Company Man, Family Dinners and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Blackberry Moms and Economic Anxiety by New York University chair of sociology Dalton Conley. It’s quite interesting so far, and I’ll probably have more to say about after I’ve read a bit [ READ MORE ]

“And the world will know!” *

  • February 10th, 2009
  • Posted in Media

Dara Lind at The American Scene: TJ Sullivan, independent journalist and LA Observed blogger, has a modest proposal for saving journalism and by extension “American Democracy” (his caps): Take to the barricades firewalls. He wants all newspapers and magazines to shut down their Web content for a week and force Americans to pick up the [ READ MORE ]

Recession-Career Musical Chairs

  • February 10th, 2009
  • Posted in Media

Last night, I learned that because of These Trying Times, a milliner acquaintance of mine is giving up the biz to become a bartender. This is good—clearing up space in the haberdasheries for when we journalists are forced out of writing by the dental hygienists. In the future, all dental hygienists will become journalists, all [ READ MORE ]

Fending off the dental hygienists …

Singing in this nation is almost 100 percent volunteer. That’s what will happen to newspapers. In the future, a dental hygienist will take two days off, travel to Berkeley to interview the latest Nobel Prize winner, write an article, then return to her job. [...] [Former journalists] will get ordinary jobs: in bowling alleys, Wal-Marts, [ READ MORE ]

Things That Make Me Want to Live in a Cabin in Kentucky:

  • February 9th, 2009
  • Posted in Media

Facebook’s 25-things meme spawns articles-about-25-things-meme which spawn meta-articles about articles about 25-things-meme which spawns a Gakwer post incredulous about said articles, meta-articles and 25-things-meme (and which has now spawned me meta-posting incredulously about the Gawker post). Gawker blogger Hamilton Nolan concludes: Soon we will all be dead. I think that is about the only appropriate [ READ MORE ]

R.S. McCain Chastises Us Whippersnappers …

  • February 3rd, 2009
  • Posted in Media

… and rightly so, I think. The man may, overall, be marginally despicable, but he makes some good points in the comments to this League of Ordinary Gentleman post: When I was your age . . .If you’re under 26, I was working as a nightclub DJ or driving a forklift or playing in rock-and-roll [ READ MORE ]

More on women, fashion, writing …

My friend Melanie is offended by my post on women journalists. She writes: “Love Liz, but I find her response really condescending. Good fashion writing is not “fluff stuff.” Need proof? Washington Post Fashion Editor Robin Givhan won a Pulitzer for her work in 2006. While I agree fashion is not a “serious” issue, that [ READ MORE ]

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