Bloggasm

Because that’s the only explanation that I can think of for why The Atlantic has a cover story on Britney Spears.

Look at the cover below, it doesn’t even look like The Atlantic, but rather one of the tabloid magazines you find in a grocery store. The publishers at that magazine must be really desperate:

Some media related links for your amusement:

1. If you become a (real or imagined) media celebrity, does this automatically mean you should shut up about politics?

2. First they came to steal music, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a music seller. Then they came to pirate film and television, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a film or television producer. But then they came to steal online porn, and I said “oh fuck.”

3. Are you a book reviewer who regularly receives advanced review copies of books? Don’t even think about giving them away to anyone, you might have to give them back to the publisher.

4. The NYT catches even more flak for hiring Bill Kristol: “So I pulled a stack of Kristol’s signed editorials from the Weekly Standard and his Time columns. Setting aside his point of view, with which I mostly disagree, what struck me most about them is that they read, without exception, like they were written in a hurry, by a person whose fluency cannot conceal what is superficial judgment and reporting. Kristol had nothing to add in perspective or voice to a great many other conservatives that any casual consumer of the category will find in print, online, and on the air.”

5. Racism has never been funnier: “At least that’s what Daily Show correspondents John Oliver, Jason Jones, and Rob Riggle wanted last night’s crowd to think at Southpaw in Brooklyn, where they celebrated the release of A Practical Guide to Racism.”

Yes, the video below is hilarious because Paris Hilton once again looks like an idiot. But as a journalist I was struck by Letterman’s interview skills. Listen to Hilton’s responses. They’re all one-word “yes/no” answers. It wouldn’t surprise me if most journalists absolutely hate interviewing her. Watching that youtube segment makes me cringe when I think of all the interviews I’ve conducted with empty-headed people who have absolutely nothing to say.

But Letterman just runs with it. Each yes/no answer is met with a rapid-fire follow-up question. It goes so smoothly that it almost seems rehearsed.

Youtube video embedded below:

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1. How to write about Africa
2. Ambushing interview subjects
3. Wars between the White House press secretary and the media
4. The Riches

I know everyone has probably seen this already, but I’m compelled to post this Youtube video where an MSNBC journalist physically shreds the copy for a Paris Hilton story because she refuses to report on it. The irony is that the result of the act gives Paris Hilton even more publicity, since the video has been seen over 600,000 times on Youtube. You just can’t win!

via buzz machine

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I’m not sure what annoys me more, the mere fact that ABC News was willing to pay Paris Hilton $100,000 for a post-jail interview, or the fact that doing so would basically be financially rewarding her for attending jail in the first place.

My main reason for hating when journalists offer interview subjects vast sums of money is the possibility that it could become a precedent in the US. As a journalist, I hate the thought of paying for an “exclusive interview” with a subject.

Slate has a scathing critique of how journalists write celebrity profiles for men magazines. Ron Rosenbaum hones in on a particular profile of Angelina Jolie that was published in Esquire:

No, the piece is a serious profile, and there are serious reasons for running it. There are serious issues raised, there are profound questions about The Way We Live Now to be discussed. The result is a meretricious prose whose pretense at arch sophistication has become a schlock art form, the written equivalent of a Leroy Neiman nude.

via ed

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I’ve been a big fan of Eddie Izzard for years. I’ve seen all his stand-up specials on DVD. And I’ve yet to miss an episode of his new FX show The Riches, where he plays a psuedo-gypsy who has conned his way into a rich community pretending to be someone else.

I was a little saddened to find out last night that Izzard has stopped cross-dressing since he reached fame in the US:

“If you turn up for an audition wearing a dress, they’re not going to give you the role,” he says.

“So I’ve stayed in boy mode for the past few years. In a perfect world I would just get up in the morning and flip a coin and say, ‘Oh, I’m wearing a dress today.’ But I have to be tactical.”

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