The Basement Japes
As you have no doubt heard, Bob Costas recently took online newspaper commenters to task, creating a great big shit-storm in the weblog community. If you ignore the fact that Bob is the 96,576 old-school media-type to characterize bloggers as "pathetic get-a-life loser[s]" who live in their mothers' basements, and doesn't seem to actually know what a blog is, his comments were pretty much accurate.
We have it pretty good in Toronto, as the Star and Globe both do a good job of moderating their comments, but down south, the comment sections can get real ugly real fast. I've seen some of the most horrible racist and homophobic crap spewed anonymously at foxsports.com, and it seems like every baseball article at espn.com quickly deteriorates into an argument between people named YANKEEHATER!1!!!1 and RedSUX69. (On the other hand, the comments on Kevin Hench's idiocy extravaganza from this past weekend show that these sounding boards can be used for good rather than evil).
So, Costas isn't a total dick, and he kinda apologized for insulting thousands of die-hard sports fans today, so why do I bring this up? Well, as Bill Cosby used to say, I told you that story, so I could tell you this story. You see, while Costas simply has a problem with one small subsection of the online world, our very own Rosie DiManno appears to have a beef with any print medium that isn't the traditional daily newspaper.* Get ready, because here are Rambling Rosie's wild and windblown thoughts on:
Email:
We have it pretty good in Toronto, as the Star and Globe both do a good job of moderating their comments, but down south, the comment sections can get real ugly real fast. I've seen some of the most horrible racist and homophobic crap spewed anonymously at foxsports.com, and it seems like every baseball article at espn.com quickly deteriorates into an argument between people named YANKEEHATER!1!!!1 and RedSUX69. (On the other hand, the comments on Kevin Hench's idiocy extravaganza from this past weekend show that these sounding boards can be used for good rather than evil).
So, Costas isn't a total dick, and he kinda apologized for insulting thousands of die-hard sports fans today, so why do I bring this up? Well, as Bill Cosby used to say, I told you that story, so I could tell you this story. You see, while Costas simply has a problem with one small subsection of the online world, our very own Rosie DiManno appears to have a beef with any print medium that isn't the traditional daily newspaper.* Get ready, because here are Rambling Rosie's wild and windblown thoughts on:
Email:
"Because no opinion can be allowed to go unshared and every email author is a quasi citizen-journalist - or citizen-editor - the unsolicited advice, inexpert analysis and shallow exposition is cacophonic.Those free newspapers you get on the subway:
It's touching that many readers have a proprietary relationship with their gazette of choice, but the scolding can get a bit much. And where one reader sees genius, another sees abomination, conspiracies and editorial agendas run rampant."
"Don't want to see any newspaper die, or go completely online, or lose their precious share of the market to ubiquitous giveaways slapped together from wire copy and outright thievery, without substance or an original thought.(Wait. Slapped together from wire copy? Without substance? Newsprint spam? Is she talking about the Metro or the National Post?)
They don't dispatch reporters for a you-are-there keyhole view of world events or even the local ones because they are not, in the main, part of the fabric of their community. There is no interpretation, no context, no texture and - worst sin - no story-telling. They are newsprint spam."
Blogs:
"At the other end of the spectrum are the online "content providers," blogs and "social media" networks that are all view, all comment, all personal whinge, graceless, and devoid of source reporting.Surfers go to these fonts of blather not for illumination but for validation of their own beliefs and to group-bitch."
Pretty much sums-up our site. Good stuff, but it looks like we're going to have to wait for Rosie's opinion on telegrams and skywriting.
*Thanks to Bitter Leaf / Pike Malmateer for the tip-off on this one.
Arguing with Rosie is like boxing with an amputee.
Remind me to tell you the (second-hand but no less enjoyable) story of how many reshoots and stylists-flown-in-from-NYC it took to capture DiManno's last headshot.
Why wait? Tell it in the comments!
I found this bit of her article amazingly insightful:
She has immense respect for the Post and the Sun... but is bothered by bloggers and e-mail?
Secondly, this part indicates a reactionary viewpoint on her part:
If the revenue streams are overwhelmingly coming from the hard-copy product, they might want to think about changing that... or perhaps consider charging internet service providers so people can access their drivel, similarly to how CABLE NEWS NETWORKS CHARGE PEOPLE TO WATCH THEIR BLATHERING.
And just in case Rosie was in the dark, the revenue streams for papers with both off-line and online versions come overwhelmingly from ADVERTISING. If that revenue is online, or in print, it's STILL there. God she's an idiot ain't she?
And that AD revenue is STILL growing: check it out.