As our own Hamilton Nolan outlined in his universally beloved piece "Against Editors," the typical career track in journalism pushes talented young writers to become editors, where they get comfy and grow old... and lose touch of who is famous, leading to sad and embarrassing errors like the following ones from the New York Times.
Over the past weekend, a P.R. firm called The Social Co. hosted a group of fashion journalists and bloggers for a gratis getaway at the Maidstone, an East Hampton hotel where mid-priced rooms go for $845 per night. Among the attendees was David Yi, a staff reporter at Condé Nast’s Women’s Wear Daily, who meticulously Instagrammed the entire weekend with the The Social Co.’s preferred hashtag, #MaidstoneVoyage. Now Yi’s employer is scrutinizing his attendance for a potential ethics breach.
Hey you! Ever wondered what food writers REALLY think of Thanksgiving? No? Food writers are assholes and you don't give a shit? Well, tough turkey for you, gravyballs.
In an interview this morning with Mitt Romney's surrogate John Sununu that was really just a shouting match, CNN's Soledad O'Brien attempted to explain to the former New Hampshire governor that the lies about Obama "stealing $700 billion" from Medicare are still, in fact, lies. But amidst her several attempts to get the facts straight and move on, At the 4:35 mark Sununu tells her she might as well just "put an Obama bumper sticker on her forehead." Which doesn't go over well.
About 8 years ago, while in the midst of his book promotional tour after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing quotes for the New York Times, I did an email interview with Jayson Blair. At the time, this was a great get for a website called The Black Table and our media interview series, even though Blair was trying to sell his book and had pretty much accepted any request without hesitation.
The Scientology flack who walked out on Bashir came back and tried to have Nightline cut, Steve Phillips' ESPN squeeze is, inevitably, also fired, Timberlake's stalker is cheating on him, while Diane von Furstenberg's Madrid mugging was tweeted.
ABC's Nightline ran a special on Scientology this weekend. It was typically strange and disconcerting, but nothing necessarily new. Except: What could provoke their spokesman to storm off the set of an interview? We get to learn. Paging Lord Xenu.
Pity the poor reporter dispatched to the Vegas strip to get "man on the street" reactions from drunk tourists on the death of Michael Jackson. Steve Ryan of "ABC13 Action News" was one such reporter, and he struck back hard.
Over the weekend CNN's Howard Kurtz asked America the burning question, "are we going overboard with this Twitter business?" Meanwhile, CNN virtually ignored an event overseas with the potential to alter world history, an event reported extensively by Twitter users.
