The Cool Kids
Okay. I’m officially getting sick of Salon[1]And I’m not the only one.. I’ve been an avid reader for almost ten years now, but their pop culture writing has gotten so bad that the whole site has begun to annoy me. Last week, their review of Star Wars was written by someone who openly hates the series and was accompanied by an article in which other Salon staffers articulate why they think Star Wars sucks. (Since it was their last chance to bash George Lucas, they even invited their readers to write in about why they hated the films.) Today, the season finale of American Idol was written up by someone who’s never seen the show until this week. I’m sure the editors are anxiously awaiting the next pop culture phenomenon so they can figure out what else to hate.
Now I’m no stranger to the frustrating feeling you get when it seems like the entire world loves crap but you, but we’ve all got our guilty pleasures[2]I think Survivor is unwatchable garbage, but I couldn’t get enough of Boot Camp.. Most people are grown-up enough to accept this and realize that if they dislike something it doesn’t mean that the show/movie is without merit. The writers and editors of Salon, however, seem to feel like they’re on a crusade to warn the public that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes without realizing that most of us are just enjoying the sight of a naked man walking down the street.[3]To put it another way, they’re like the people who constantly complain that pro wrestling is “fake”, but fail to notice that fans are drawn to the melodrama, not the faux-athleticism.
Why would you review a movie if you hated the previous installments? How could you appreciate the finale of a reality show if you hadn’t seen all of the ups and downs of the previous installments? The stock answer to questions like these is that movies and episodes should be able to stand on their own, but that’s bullshit. The fact is, Star Wars and American Idol are considered simple, low-brow entertainments[4]Which they mostly are, but so what? that aren’t worth expending any mental energy trying to understand. If it’s this popular, it must be crap, right?
Salon can still be counted on to contribute some great investigative journalism and their political commentary is first rate, but their knee-jerk contrarian posturing has grown tiresome. They’re like the angsty teenagers who you knew in high school who would constantly mutter to each other about how much everybody sucks, but never make any effort to get to know the objects of their derision. Yeah, Truffaut is better than Spielberg and Elliot Smith is better than Britney Spears[5]My examples, not theirs., but there’s no need to be a snob about it.
1 : And I’m not the only one.
2 : I think Survivor is unwatchable garbage, but I couldn’t get enough of Boot Camp.
3 : To put it another way, they’re like the people who constantly complain that pro wrestling is “fake”, but fail to notice that fans are drawn to the melodrama, not the faux-athleticism.
4 : Which they mostly are, but so what?
5 : My examples, not theirs.
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What’s most infuriating is how predictable their culture coverage is. They remind me of certain Los Angeles types, you know of whom I speak. They ADORE David Cross and yet have somehow never seen an episode of Mr Show, nor do they know who Bob Odenkirk is. They’re stating their opinions in order to gain social approval. It’s all ego, and it’s all rich kid ego at that.
What infuriates me further is reading their positive culture coverage. In almost every case, if Salon positively reviews a film, it’s crap. Meandering, pretentious, and let’s face it, dripping in self promotion, they’re everything that sucks our side of the fence, and worse, they’re out of touch, upper middle class twist with no perspective, and no sympathy for people who don’t share their Ivy league backgrounds.
And don’t even get me started on their idiotic business coverage.
Anyway, the real crime isn’t the attitude, nor their disposition. I read pitchfork media and the pretention there makes salon look like Might magazine. The problem is Salon’s out of touch cluelessness, their narccisism, and their shitty, clumsy writing.
Comment by Ross A Lincoln — May 26, 2005 @ 11:33 am
So just watch FOX. And FOX News. No highbrows in sight. Sedate and happy, la la la.
Thanks for pointing out that “wrestling” is, in fact, soap opera for men too insecure to admit they watch soap operas. Next time, be sure to point out that most “reality” shows (including junk like “Judge Judy” and worst of all “Dr. Phil”) are completely choreographed if not outright scripted.
Comment by Happenstance — May 26, 2005 @ 12:50 pm
I never read Salon’s cultural coverage. Why would I read about culture? That’s the one thing I can do on my own. I need to read intelligent, in depth, liberal-minded reporting of things I don’t have time to understand, like AT&T’s tax evasion schemes or the OECD’s prediction, made yesterday but unreported here, that the United States will have a $900 Billion trade defecit next year. I don’t care what they say about Star Wars, and it’s not what I pay them for, so they ought to get out of the business of culture entirely. Except for their free music downloads. I like those.
Comment by The Voice of Reason — May 26, 2005 @ 12:52 pm
Sometimes I think that Salon has no conclusive identity. They always take the contrarian point-of-view, which is perfectly fine because the best way to understand something is to see it from both sides. But they always take the contrarian view. I don’t even need to read Salon to know their take on things. I realize that they’re trying to respond to other magazines or whatever but by doing so they’ve positioned themselves such that Salon is ancillary to the world at large. It’s just stupid.
Comment by Sean — May 26, 2005 @ 1:06 pm
How can you like Boot Camp and not Survivor?! Balloon animals will only take you so far, Greg. Plus, Survivor casts more Gregs and Greggs than any other reality show. Submit!
Comment by Kyle — May 26, 2005 @ 2:50 pm
The problem isn’t that they’re “highbrow”, it’s that they’re contrarian snobs.
Comment by Ross A Lincoln — May 26, 2005 @ 3:32 pm
Salon’s movie reviews are generally guilty of everything you’ve accused them of, and it’s refreshing as hell to hear someone else say it. And though their strategy of assigning people who’ve never seen a show to review a show’s season finale is pretty goddamn retarded, I’d like to point out that Heather Havilresky’s TV criticism is almost always awesome. She knows what it is to love a dumb show and not care, and she’s not afraid to write about it.
Comment by briantologist — May 26, 2005 @ 5:36 pm
Great post Greg. You get it. Everyone should be allowed guilty pleasures (I call it “escapism”). We like them precisely because they’re brainless and fun. We can’t be serious all the time. People shouldn’t have to apologize or feel embarrassed because they like something. I think the problem comes if it’s only the brainless things you like, that’s when you have a problem.
Comment by Unstable Isotope — May 26, 2005 @ 5:56 pm
Well, while I’m picking
I don’t know if I’ve been lazy or if Salon has just been particularly irritating lately, but I have been swiping at them for their lifestyle crap a lot lately. (Except for Rebecca Traister, whose writing I like a lot.)…
Trackback by Pandagon — May 26, 2005 @ 6:46 pm
I gave up on Slate about a year ago because “contrarian posturing” had pretty much become its stock in trade, always wrapped in layers of condescension: “Why Everything You Think You Know About [topic] Is Wrong.” I think Salon has a way to go before it gets that bad, but I agree that it’s been sliding downhill for some time now.
Comment by Uncle Kvetch — May 27, 2005 @ 12:18 pm
I think this is really a symptom of a larger disease. We’re all being taught, gradually, that the only response to something you disagree with is hatred. Think of the nasty rhetoric that got tossed around during the last election (and the one before that); it’s now trickled down to pop culture. Salon is not so much an Evil Empire propagating such nonsense as the Court Jester aping what the kind does until it’s part of his normal behavior. But then, that’s a phenomenon that Salon might have covered, once upon a time. Oh, and Elliot Smith is not better than Britney Spears. He’s just dead.
Comment by Poetdoc — May 27, 2005 @ 2:17 pm
I stopped reading Salon a few years ago when I sent off an off the cuff to salon entertainment grinch Charles Taylor (as I recall) and the guy took a stripe out of me for making such an inane comment. Thanks Mr Taylor, I’m sure you’ll have a long and illustrious career responding to your readers like that. I complained to him and the editors about his behaviour and got no reply. I sent them an email cancelling my subscription, and they begged me not to go. Fuck Salon, they’re a bunch of money grubbing suits posing as left-wing hipsters.
Comment by Mr F — May 28, 2005 @ 8:07 am
what is it with the star wars bashing?… nobody acts as if it’s dante or shakespeare (who was pop art in his own day!) and yet people feel this need to criticize mercilessly (even though it’s harder to shoot fish in a barrel, than to go after star wars)… still eric boehlert is always worth reading.
Comment by a-train — May 28, 2005 @ 2:52 pm
Slate totally sucks, by the way, and so does their inane collaboration with NPR, “Day-To-Day.” Salon does some of the contrarian for the sake of being contrarian writing that yoou’ve pointed to, but at least they’ve got Tom the Dancing Bug.
Comment by Joe — May 29, 2005 @ 6:00 pm
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.
Comment by antonio hicks — May 30, 2005 @ 7:39 am