This Is Starting To Remind Me Of A Dispute Over Another Cover

yuuuucchhh. i think this post might’ve put me off gawker for a good amount of time. as condescending as the reader’s critique is, gawker is moreso, and at least the commenter wrote in a personal email, not on a public website. of course, gawker is defending the magazine’s right to editorial freedom (rightfully) and reiterating its irony (obviously.)

the issue is the poor taste of the image, not new yorker’s right to use irony to critique stereotypes. NO ONE IS SAYING THAT. irony is not new, and it does not alleviate an intellectual publication’s good-faith responsibility to intelligence. the cover was in poor taste. furthermore, though we don’t expect outright humor from the new yorker, it was not funny. it was cheap. it did more harm than good. ashton, i think your comments on the unintended caricatures that appear in it, in particular in michelle–her expression, her hair (!)–were right-on in regard to this.

of course, the comments are a complete circlejerk of megalomaniacs trying to dryly out-wit each other. did you know they actually organize gawker commenter meet-ups? at bars? so they can drunkenly fuck each other, thus literally enacting the virtual self-pleasure they take part in on the site?

again, yyuuuuuchhhhhh. thinking about this is making my skin crawl. need to shower…