I have to say, I kind of really like The Atlantic’s “Media Diet” series, in which they ask famous people, usually writers and journalists and others of that ilk, where they get their news from. This week’s subject was Aaron Sorkin, the Hollywood scribe who won an Oscar for writing The Social Network — in addition to A Few Good Men, The West Wing and The American President, among others. Some were critical of Sorkin not having a Facebook page when he was writing a movie about Facebook, and his response to critics back then was basically something along the lines of, “F*ck you!” And he apparently still isn’t all that impressed with social media.
I get the The New York Times and Los Angeles Times thrown at my door every morning. I’ll read the front page of The New York Times, then the op-eds, then scan the arts section and then the sports section. Then I do the same with the L.A. Times. I’m not on Facebook and I don’t tweet but I know plenty of people who love both. At the office I’ll have either CNN or ESPN on with the sound off. At night I check in with MSNBC once in a while.
He then added that he keeps Yahoo as his homepage and offered a critique of the site’s commentariat, a remark that made me LOL because, as someone who used to write for Yahoo, I can say with absolute authority that he is spot-on in his assessment.
The homepage on my web browser is Yahoo, which I’m told it shouldn’t be, but I’ve just been too lazy to change it. From time to time I’ll read some of the comments under stories on it to get a sense of what it must be like at a Klan meeting.
Yep, that sounds about right!
And perhaps not surprising, Sorkin revealed that he isn’t really a big fan of those crazy blogs with their crazy bloggers out there just saying anything willy-nilly on the web while sitting in their mom’s dark, damp basement in their pajamas…
The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance. I can’t really get on board with the demonization of credentials with phrases like “the media elite” (just like doctors, airline pilots and presidents, I prefer reporters and commentators to be elite) and the glamorization of inexperience with phrases like “citizen journalist.”
When I read the Times or The Wall Street Journal, I know those reporters had to have cleared a very high bar to get the jobs they have. When I read a blog piece from “BobsThoughts.com,” Bob could be the most qualified guy in the world but I have no way of knowing that because all he had to do to get his job was set up a website–something my 10-year-old daughter has been doing for 3 years. When The Times or The Journal get it wrong they have a lot of people to answer to. When Bob gets it wrong there are no immediate consequences for Bob except his wrong information is in the water supply now so there are consequences for us.
Aaron Sorkin is old. So I think it’s probably safe to assume that he knows nothing about the Zuckerberg note pass meme, right?