Some are trying to bolster the youth movement, one instant message at a time.
Peter Suderman, 27, and Conor Friedersdorf, 29, both of the District, were recently laid off from jobs at the now-defunct Web magazine Culture11.com, which had a conservative-Libertarian bent. Now, with about $250 each a month due in student loan payments, and money saved from their previous jobs, they are scrambling for new gigs.
Suderman settled into his home office one day recently to IM with Friedersdorf. "I see liberal reporter friends from small publications who are covering White House press conferences who are my age or a bit older," Suderman said. "Used to be, that publication would not get into the White House or not get the information."
But he and Friedersdorf, reveling in their underdog status, have a plan. They want to start a right-of-center journalism site, something that features deeply reported stories and relies on the investigative skills of their readers to "crow d-source" articles. So, they start tapping away on their computers, slowly elbowing their subculture's way back into the fray, to the sounds of Gmail's IM alerts ringing back and forth.
"They want to start a right-of-center journalism site, something that features deeply reported stories and relies on the investigative skills of their readers to "crowd source" articles."
Fixed it for you.
I'm not at all surprised that Culture 11 failed. Richard Spencer did a good post-mortem on it in Takimag [1]. Key excerpts:
"As was clear from a quick perusal of the site, high-brow criticism was completely absent, but then the site was never as fun as Gawker, PageSix, Vice and the other guilty-pleasure ‘zines that lay bare the horror show of American culture in its full splendor.
...
And their work was “Thompson-esque” in that they were self-referential and talked about themselves all the time. But the subject matter under examination was never war, drink, and debauch but the PG-13 middlebrow culture of the Cineplex and Megamall."
I think it's telling that when Megan first linked to it, she described it as the Conservative Slate. if that's what the Culture 11 crew really were aiming for, then their venture was hopelessly misguided from the get-go.
Both sides of the political debate occasionally succumb to the foolish notion that they can be successfully by adopting their opponents tactics. The results are almost always dismal. The left tries to do talk radio, the result is Air America. The right tries to do comedy, the result is An American Carol. Then there was that atrocious Fox News version of the Daily Show...
The Right doesn't lend itself very well to snark and triviality. They're much better at being the stodgy, boring, but serious party. Any attempts to transform media should keep this in mind.
The Right doesn't lend itself very well to snark and triviality.
My six months of listening to Limbaugh in early '94 (entire lifetime total) says you are wrong. (I owned a car with only an AM radio at the time...)
That is the "game"- and he does it better than anyone!
There is a reason Al Franken is now a Senator* and Jeanine Gawdawfulo is now reduced to exposing her insanity on Olberchildd's show- they are two "supposed" 'comedians' that were truly miserable failures when they challenged Limbaugh at his game.
And no matter what the 'cool kids' tell you, Rush still gets much better numbers than John Stewart...
BTW, my only memory of that entire 6 months of listening is a "parody song" based on Clapton's "Layla"- and I don't even remember the "issue" that was being parodied! (Donna Shalala?) I just remember that the "alcoholic smoker rasp" was done perfectly(see also Robert Palmer)...
*(Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Jesse Ventura, and Al Franken- Minnesota obviously needs 'sobriety testing' at the polls...)
Some are trying to bolster the youth movement, one instant message at a time.
Peter Suderman, 27, and Conor Friedersdorf, 29, both of the District, were recently laid off from jobs at the now-defunct Web magazine Culture11.com, which had a conservative-Libertarian bent. Now, with about $250 each a month due in student loan payments, and money saved from their previous jobs, they are scrambling for new gigs.
Suderman settled into his home office one day recently to IM with Friedersdorf. "I see liberal reporter friends from small publications who are covering White House press conferences who are my age or a bit older," Suderman said. "Used to be, that publication would not get into the White House or not get the information."
But he and Friedersdorf, reveling in their underdog status, have a plan. They want to start a right-of-center journalism site, something that features deeply reported stories and relies on the investigative skills of their readers to "crow d-source" articles. So, they start tapping away on their computers, slowly elbowing their subculture's way back into the fray, to the sounds of Gmail's IM alerts ringing back and forth.
Does John Scanlon have any relation to Terrence Scanlon?
Given John registered culture11
"They want to start a right-of-center journalism site, something that features deeply reported stories and relies on the investigative skills of their readers to "crowd source" articles."
Fixed it for you.
I'm not at all surprised that Culture 11 failed. Richard Spencer did a good post-mortem on it in Takimag [1]. Key excerpts:
"As was clear from a quick perusal of the site, high-brow criticism was completely absent, but then the site was never as fun as Gawker, PageSix, Vice and the other guilty-pleasure ‘zines that lay bare the horror show of American culture in its full splendor.
...
And their work was “Thompson-esque” in that they were self-referential and talked about themselves all the time. But the subject matter under examination was never war, drink, and debauch but the PG-13 middlebrow culture of the Cineplex and Megamall."
I think it's telling that when Megan first linked to it, she described it as the Conservative Slate. if that's what the Culture 11 crew really were aiming for, then their venture was hopelessly misguided from the get-go.
Both sides of the political debate occasionally succumb to the foolish notion that they can be successfully by adopting their opponents tactics. The results are almost always dismal. The left tries to do talk radio, the result is Air America. The right tries to do comedy, the result is An American Carol. Then there was that atrocious Fox News version of the Daily Show...
The Right doesn't lend itself very well to snark and triviality. They're much better at being the stodgy, boring, but serious party. Any attempts to transform media should keep this in mind.
[1] http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/culture_snores/
staash-
The Right doesn't lend itself very well to snark and triviality.
My six months of listening to Limbaugh in early '94 (entire lifetime total) says you are wrong. (I owned a car with only an AM radio at the time...)
That is the "game"- and he does it better than anyone!
There is a reason Al Franken is now a Senator* and Jeanine Gawdawfulo is now reduced to exposing her insanity on Olberchildd's show- they are two "supposed" 'comedians' that were truly miserable failures when they challenged Limbaugh at his game.
And no matter what the 'cool kids' tell you, Rush still gets much better numbers than John Stewart...
BTW, my only memory of that entire 6 months of listening is a "parody song" based on Clapton's "Layla"- and I don't even remember the "issue" that was being parodied! (Donna Shalala?) I just remember that the "alcoholic smoker rasp" was done perfectly(see also Robert Palmer)...
*(Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Jesse Ventura, and Al Franken- Minnesota obviously needs 'sobriety testing' at the polls...)