Malcolm Gladwell deepens our understanding of smarm by explaining that when Dave Eggers wrote the words "Do not be critics," he meant people should be critics.
On Smarm
Last month, Isaac Fitzgerald, the newly hired editor of BuzzFeed's newly created books section, made a remarkable but not entirely surprising announcement: He was not interested in publishing negative book reviews. In place of "the scathing takedown rip," Fitzgerald said, he desired to promote a positive community…
Some PR people have declared today to be "Snark Free Day." Well then, fuck you sincerely.
The War on Snark Rages On
"I love funny writing, but I'm sick of snark," says Nick Catucci, the new editor of RollingStone.com. Christ, first The New Yorker, then Rolling Stone...soon this virtually meaningless catch-all phrase capable of describing anything will have no friends left! [NYO]
Big Psychology Nerd Talks 'Snark'
Only boorish, unqualified loudmouths like bloggers and David Denby have weighed in on the world's most grating question, "What's with all this snark?" Until now! An actual psychologist has a theory.
Eminem Tells Blogs: He Made You
Eminem dropped his first official solo single in four years earlier this week, "We Made You". Some like it, but many more are calling it formulaic, or boring.
The New York Times Makes Comical Statements About the Internet, 1995-2009
The New York Times has issued a formal set of standards for their in-house blogs, marking the first time blogs have ever had standards (No "snark"). The latest in a rich history of technomazing ideas!
'A Writing Style Ideal for Sex-Deprived Nerds'
"One might say, in fact, that snarky writing is a wish-fulfillment for compulsive masturbators." No, that would be "banging your cousin in real life." *Snark!* [Collegiate David Denby supporter]
Snark Infiltrates The New Yorker!
Second-string New Yorker movie critic David Denby hates 'snark.' He wrote a whole book of fiction about it! What would the man think if he knew that snark—yes, snark—is creeping into his own publication's content?
David Denby Clearly Has Big Crush on Maureen Dowd
Hey, our friend David Denby was on Charlie Rose last night, going on and on about how he despises Maureen Dowd. Why didn't he just call his book "All I Know Is Maureen Dowd Sucks"?
David Denby's Book Is Full of Lies!
Oh, what a shock: David Denby's book, The Internet is Mean and I Am Smart, is full of either intentional misreadings and factual errors or inadvertent glaring mistakes because he is a lazy thinker and a poor writer, who really needs an editor, which is why he would not actually be a successful blogger, because he'd…
The Internet Kills Beloved Cartoon Penguin
Opus, Berkeley Breathed's troubled, herring-loving penguin, has managed to eek out an existence since he first hit the strip "Bloom County" in 1980. But now he's gonna
die, because Breathed is gonna him, and it's all , snarky snarking internet users! Asked why Breathed is ending Opus's self-named strip next week…
Raging Against the Snark Machine
Is snark ruining the Internet, as someone wonders or alleges approximately every fifteen minutes? Maybe. The snark-haters occasionally have good points. Or—
or—is it that's killing enlightened online discussion and debate? Make up your mind, guys! The latest (and well-researched) comes from Geekcentric: That's a…
News Corp. Uses WSJ As Company Newsletter
Thank god that News Corp. bought the Wall Street Journal, so that it can use the paper as a platform to give voice to the voiceless in our society: News Corp. executives. Yesterday, the Journal ran an op-ed by William McGurn, who's back at News Corp. after spending the last three years writing speeches for noted…
'NYRB' Explains Blogs
The New York Review of Books, highbrow home of Joan Didion letters and occasional epic literary feuds (or "nerd fights") today undertakes it greatest challenge: explaining "blogs" to its million-year-old readers. The author assigned to the task? Journo (and cartoonist!) Sarah Boxer, who has assembled a little print…
Heidi Julavits: There's So Much More To Me Than Sanctimonious Scolding
Heidi Julavitz is many things to many people: she's a prolific novelist, a teacher, a founding editor of the Believer, and, with Ben Marcus, one half of our fourth least favorite literary power couple (thisclose to being third, but Waldman really cancels out anything non-annoying about Chabon). She's also the author…
New Combat Warplane May Deploy Ironic Cruise Missiles
Where Heidi Julavits failed, the military-industrial complex may have succeeded. "Snark" has jumped the shark:
Media Bubble: Hearst to Head Home
• Hearst mags get move-in dates for new tower, where the cafeteria will serve sushi five days a week. [NYP]
• Four Time Inc. mags will move their TOCs to the first page, sponsored by Philips Electronics. Finally, the cure magazines have been searching for. [WSJ]
• Housekeeping no longer so good for EIC Ellen Levine? […
Media Bubble: Best of Times, Worst of Times for Mags
• Hurrah: Mag ad revenues were nicely up in 2005. [Folio:]
• Boo: Mag ad pages barely rose in 2005. [Ad Age]
• Kurt Andersen is the godfather of snark, says Jon Friedman. And we fear for the day — and that day may never come — when Kurt calls upon us to do a service for him. [MW]
• Robin Williams made an ass of…
Media Bubble: 'Time' Keeps on Ticking, If Barely
• More cuts at Time Inc.: This time, Time's London bureau! [WWD]
• Angry Simon Dumenco hates pay-per-use media content, and he thinks you do, too. Also, he hates the electronics industry for not being as smart as Tim Berners-Lee. [Ad Age]
• Today was Stern's first day on Sirius. Did you listen? We didn't. [NYT]
• Ah:…
