Those of you who had a little too much to drink last night (and are, therefore, contending with morning crankiness, a throbbing headache and an almost irrepressible urge to vomit) may wish to avoid Gawker alum Doree Shafrir’s article in this week’s New York Observer about media personalities and the increasing importance of “branding.” Not just because it quotes Julia Allison (again) without disclosing the author’s indirect – or possibly even direct – hand in Allison’s rise to fame overhyped mediocrity* but because it quotes Times’ media columnist David Carr doing his best impression of a self-important elitist trying to come across as humble.
As Carr explains:
Sometimes when I go places I feel like a really big deal???but I wonder how big of a deal I???d be if my last name wasn???t New York Times. I???m not addicted to that, but I???m ever mindful. When people are kissing me on both cheeks, one of those cheeks says New York Times. I???m not under any illusions, but there are people who have left the gravitational pull of the organization they represent.
Funny, that’s exactly how we feel when people are slamming doors in our face and yelling, “Get lost, Jossip!” Meanwhile, is David ‘NYT’ Carr secretly prone to blowing air-kisses at his frenemies or are the aforementioned cheeks a sly (even “cheeky”) reference to all the ass-kissing that goes on behind closed doors at the Times‘ HQ? Either way, we’re glad he hasn’t let any of that transient media notoriety go to his head.
After all, if this is Carr’s attempt at being understated, we’d hate to see what he was like if he felt like a “really big deal” all of the time.
*Although that’s duly noted!
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