AMC: Deep Soap: How NOT to introduce a recast

[Sylph]

Dear Lord... If even the bloggers have to "kiss someone's ass", this industry is truly dead and buried. Done.

[MarkH]

Ah, I don't care. I enjoy reading what you write, regardless...because it is written with such...style. "spread your MacBook for trash" is an amazing line.

Yes, it blurred some lines...there is no denying it. But while some of the bloggers gushed more (Roger Newcomb, Patrick Erwin), others worked harder to maintain objectivity (Bibel, Fairman). And Bibel and Fairman are not really bloggers in the classic sense. Fairman is trying to build an independent "soaps news/interviews" outlet. A former employee of Soapcity, he's tried to parlay his connections into a satellite radio show and regular columns for an Australian TV mag and occasional pieces for The Advocate. So, he's really in the "soap journalism" world... For Bibel, it's more complicated. She's an editorialist, but she is paid for her work by Fancast. She's doing lots of reviews of primetime serials and reality shows, plus her regular soap opinion column.

Does every blogger have to be the Drudge Report? And is Drudge not himself bought off?

I honestly honestly do not understand where these "standards" and "rules" and "shoulds" come from.

[Sylph]

German academism. I wonder in which ways did your German experience shape your scientific approach/research.

[marceline]

A very nice entry. But I have to disagree with her on one point: Zach was a Grade A dick long before Kendall's coma.

All of journalism is in a state of flux. The old world is dying and the new one hasn't been born yet so at the moment we're in purgatory. The standards and rules will be made up as people try things and fail. Did Bibel's trip to Peapack ruin her credibility? That's up to each reader to decide. Should GL not have issued the invitations? I wouldn't say that. After all they were fighting for their life. We certainly know plenty of "old style" soap journalists who sell their consideration like Thai whores. *coughBrancoHinseycough* We'll see that in the blogosphere too.

[MarkH]

Long story. The Germans are remarkable in their insistence that academics be well read, and be able to bring a well-supported line of argumentation to any discussion. It is also encouraged to have a perspective (even if one doesn't actually espouse it) in discussion, because it is in debate that truth emerges. To that end, in America, the "question period" after a talk is often a quiet one...audiences have little to say or ask. In Germany, question periods often went much longer than the presentation...because each member of the audience wanted to show what they were capable of...how clever their thoughts were.

Academic discussion, in my genman experience, was a competitive team sport.

I do see that in all your threads and posts, and it is part of what I enjoy.

What I didn't enjoy about academia in Germany, though, was the "no bullsh!t" approach. If you were on the receiving end of negative review...it was withering. There was little respect for the well being of the recipient of criticism...only the logical argument.

While I have tried to retain that respect for the line of argumentation in my work, I definitely have embraced the North American art of criticism, which is to balance the negatives with the positives. I have been told, in my professional life, that when I deliver the equivalent of withering criticism, folks don't really notice, because it is wrapped in a cotton ball of love and respect. And that is sincere. I can usually find things to admire and respect, and I want to make sure that the recipient knows that, too.

You'll see that approach in my view on soaps.

[MarkH]

Man, you folks and your use of creative "ladies of ill repute" metaphors. Definitely spices up these threads.

[Khan]

I feel like I'm watching an old episode of "Firing Line," with William F. Buckley.

[marceline]

Well whoring is whoring. Regardless of whether it takes place in a brothel or on a blog.

[Khan]

Or at the Starbucks Coffee counter at Kroger.

(beat)

Not that I would know anything about that.

(beat)

Well, I had to pay for my groceries, didn't I? Who are you all to judge, anyway?!

[marceline]

EXACTLY! I think anybody who's worked a service job: retail, restaurant, desk clerk knows what it's like to feel that special kind of dirty at the end of the day.

But getting back to Bibel, if she was upfront about how she got backstage at GL, doesn't that show more integrity than say...the columnist who goes from hating something to raving about it with no apparent motivation?

[Khan]

Excuse me, but did I say I worked for Starbucks? I said I whored myself there. That's all.

[marceline]

...and the Pepsi exits the nose and hits the laptop. Good one.

[R Sinclair]

Well, I did for two years up until 8 weeks ago... because I wouldn't whore myself. I hate that company and everything about it!

Child, please. Don't get me started.... but since you have, IT'S A CULT!! I SWEAR! IT'S A CULT!!!

Oh... I might as well address the topic:

Thank you, Bibel... for stating the obvious. With a fresh new perspective and fabulous insight like that, you and Tom Casiello could save the entire genre in one keystroke!

Okay, I'm done being downright catty.

[MarkH]

The coffee's better than McDonald's, though. McCafe, my butt.

And back to the thread: I guess we're now holding bloggers to some high standard?

[All My Shadows]

They've done that themselves, of course, with the help of people who somehow can't form their own opinions without being told what's good and what's bad by others (coughNelsoncough).