The Strange Double Standards of the Mainstream Media

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Michael Wolff is tired, and not just from writing his column over at Vanity Fair and founding the news aggregator newser.com. He’s tired of all these no-name bloggers badmouthing Maureen Dowd. The criticism pouring from the Internet is passe, petty jealousy from a bunch of runts that wish they could work within spitting distance of David Brooks.

And Wolff doesn’t even want you to ask him about Dowd. He’s that over it. He can’t even be bothered to talk about the whole plagiarism issue…except for the length of an entire column.

Wolff just has one question for all you snide little basement-dwelling bloggers out there: “Why are boring people so interested in her?” Clearly, bloggers aren’t preoccupied with Dowd because bloggers have been called parasitic, and now a major columnist in a prominent newspaper has been caught leaching an idea from a well-known blogger. They must be jealous!

She’s titillating to the I-made-the-effort-to-read-the-New-York-Times-and-so-have-got-to-take-it-seriously crowd. She’s catnip to the I-can-be-a-media-insider-too wannabes. She infuriates the I-have-opinions-too-so-why-does-she-get-a-column bunch.

If you got through that poorly written paragraph, congratulations! Now you know that bloggers, who frown upon plagiarism, just secretly want their own column. Wolff then calls the whole scandal uninteresting again…in the middle of his column…his column about the scandal he wants everyone to stop talking about.

At this point, I suggest you kick up your feet and help yourselves to a cocktail because Wolff digresses into a little fantasy about young, popular Maureen Dowd as she must have been in high school. Imagine that thick red mane of hers. That smile. The way she would sashay down the hallway.

Dowd is like some much-vaunted high school type whose success and popularity drive everybody else mad with either envy and spite or inspire a perverse (evidence of great-self-loathing) desire to be her way-too-loyal friend and supporter.

Am I reading a column, or did I just tune into Gossip Girl? Here I’ve been thinking that bloggers had an issue with Maureen Dowd’s plagiarism of a blogger, but apparently we’re in the midst of some high school warfare. Is this all because Maureen made cheerleading squad and is dating the quarterback, Chip?

To read Wolff’s claim that “unpowerful bloggers” are the only ones taking issue with Dowd is really misleading. Many prominent bloggers, and several mainstream news sources, also picked up on the story because it’s news. And the reason it’s news is because plagiarism is a serious offense, even if it’s done by a fairly useless columnist like Maureen Dowd. Wolff tries to explain away Dowd’s plagiarism by pointing out that she only lifted 43 words from Marshall’s column as if that somehow excuses her theft. I’ve also read claims that Marshall’s column was poorly written, so therefore, it’s acceptable to steal his work. Both of these arguments are pretty silly, and would get Wolff kicked out of any university if he tried using either of them to offset accusations of plagiarism.

The issue is important to bloggers – not because they’re petty and jealous – but because this case of plagiarism is a perfect example of how the relationship between blogs and newspapers is more symbiotic than parasitical. While the scale is definitely tipped in favor of newspapers due to their large staffs and budgets, bloggers have shown remarkable reach and resourcefulness in their news gathering capabilities. That’s precisely why bloggers like Josh Marshall, Glenn Greenwald, and Marcy Wheeler have been receiving much deserved attention from the establishment for their contribution to the field of journalism.

Wolff’s tired argument fails to acknowledge that if the tables were turned, and a well-known blogger plagiarized Maureen Dowd, the mainstream media would throw a fit. It would be another example of parasitical bloggers leaching good information from poor, defenseless newspapers. No doubt, Wolff wouldn’t be filled with such an enormous amount of apathy and exhaustion as he rattled off a column about the shameless act of word piracy.

I’m also confused as to why the creator of a news aggregator, which thrives on lots of content, would discourage more input about a prominent columnist’s plagiarism. Unless, of course, Wolff’s provication was only meant to stir up more drama, and more content. In which case, damnit! I’ve played right into his hands. Touche, sir. Touche.

Alas, we’ll never know the answers to these questions. Wolff ends his column with the familiar reiteration: “Please don’t ask me about Maureen Dowd. I don’t care.” The author needs his rest.