New Yorker writer guest posts on Gawker to defend the magazine
When the book on 21st century media is written, the day that a writer from the esteemable New Yorker, considered by many to be the most important magazine published, dipped her toes into the unchlorinated pool that is Gawker, will be noted as the day that old journalism was irrevocably adulterated. Not to issue a quote, mind you, but an entire 600-word guest post defending the labyrinthine, secretive modus operandi of the New Yorker institution.
What drew Susan Orlean — staff writer since 1986 and author of the excellent The Orchid Thief — into the welcoming arms of the media gossip site? It was Dan Baum, who decided over a week ago to tweet the story of his “firing” from the magazine.
What I’d really like to know is how this guest post came about. Surely Orlean would not have done this without a nod from those atop the invisible masthead (rumor has it that the New Yorker’s masthead exists between the 45th and 46th page of the magazine, just as John Cusack’s character in Being John Malkovich works on the 7 1/2 floor of an office building). Was this an approved hit job, signed off by David Remnick himself?
I wasn’t exactly a fan of using twitter as a medium for that sort of story, but I’m baffled, just baffled by her claim that twitter is “more invasive than it might feel.” What the heck does that mean?