Progenitor of ‘New Journalism’ Complains about New Journalists
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Old people these days… As soon as they achieve the status of legendary journalists, they’re given license to spew adorably misinformed bits of crazytalk alongside dazzling rhetoric with little to no public recognition of the crazytalk part. So it was when Tom Wolfe, the father of “New Journalism,” came to Ithaca College to talk about journalism this past Halloween Eve. He called blog readers “tribal people,” equated bloggers with rumormongers who spoon-feed misinformation to said unsophisticated people, and insinuated that online journalism, even when based off of pre-existing newspapers, will contain no reporting. These opinions are rather unsurprising given that Wolfe has recently blamed the entire financial crisis on the fact that it’s hard to read stuff on “the computer.” (Perhaps fellow computer-ignoramus John McCain should consider Wolfe as his economic advisor.) The old bat’s quasi-senility is totally forgivable, but it’s worth examining some of his crazytalk mostly because it reflects opinions that are widely held among other old bats.
