The Press’ Rich Connelly follows up this slightly over-the-top blog screed (call me a humorless liberal if you will, but I’ve lost my taste for “torture” jokes) against Kristin Finan’s video blog with another potshot (PDF) in this week’s print edition. I’m not going to be an arbiter of taste here, but I am a little puzzled as to why Finan’s admittedly fluffy effort would engender a reaction as strong as “inchoate rage”. She writes for the lifestyle and entertainment section, not the Washington bureau. What’s the big deal?
Yes, her blog is highly Kristin-centric. But, um, aren’t most blogs about the blogger more than anything else? Isn’t that why most people who read blogs do so, for the personality of the blogger as much as for the content? Since “not reading it” is still an option, I’m not sure what the problem is here.
Maybe the problem is that she’s a professional reporter and is getting paid for this silliness. To which all I can say is “More power to her”. Again, if she were a news reporter, I’d dislike this, too. But she’s a features writer. What else is this but a feature? Judging from the number of comments she’s getting, it’s a feature that at least some people seem to like, too.
In the end, I think it is a matter of taste. Which as I said is just peachy. Maybe it’s that I don’t much care for Chron criticism that’s nothing more than “They’re doing something I don’t like!” Hey, they also print Charles Krauthammer columns, comic strips by dead guys, and way too many stories about golf. Hard to believe, I know, but their audience includes people other than me. Such is life, wouldn’t you say?
Most of the conservative support for torture has moved from frathouse jokes to “quien es mas macho” contests, such as Antonin Scalia’s citation of Jack Bauer in a legal panel discussion.
So I’m surprised, I suppose, that anyone still thinks it’s funny.