August 06, 2003

Big media & bloggers

I'm looking at the September issue of Vanity Fair (the enormous 20th Anniversary issue with Prince William on the front) and I just came to the old SPY ripoff Venn-diagram page titled "Common Grounds"—two overlapping circles, one titled "Threats" and the other titled "Belgians" with the overlapping area labelled "Jean Claude Van Damme." (Threats/Belgians is, incidentally, the only one on the page that's actually funny.)

One of the diagrams has two circles labelled "out-of-work journalists" and another labelled "computer owners." The overlapping area? Guess. Just guess.

It might have been funny if VF hadn't done an in-and-out list a couple of issues ago where "out" was "out-of-work journalist" and "in" was "blogger." The joke only works once. And big media making fun of bloggers is, like, sooo January 2002.

The irony, of course, is that I don't know a single out-of-work journalist who's a blogger.

Posted by espiers at August 6, 2003 12:51 AM
Comments

Elizabeth, love your work. Regarding the unemployed journalists blogging, take a look at

http://www.8goodpeople.com/

Best regards.

Posted by: Brian D. Johnson at August 6, 2003 10:52 AM

Here's the back story on 8 Good People:

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1057870782.php

Posted by: Brian D. Johnson at August 6, 2003 10:54 AM

I can think of a few out-of-work bloggers who are journalists.

Posted by: xian at August 6, 2003 11:12 AM

Well, we've only met once...but I unquestionably belong in the categories of "out-of-work journalist" and "blogger."

Posted by: Steven I. Weiss at August 7, 2003 12:38 AM

aw, she's just salty because they didn't mention her in the article. ;^)

Posted by: Jim at August 7, 2003 09:48 AM

I find that sitting at home is not conducive to blogging, but sitting in the offices of a newspaper or magazine, surfing the web while supposedly working, is just the motivation I need.

Posted by: ken at August 7, 2003 11:56 AM

I like Ken's comment. Reminds me of the old days when networking up Doom in the office was the height of computer acumen.

James

Posted by: James R. Rummel at August 10, 2003 12:40 PM