sympathy for the juice box set

I feel a little inspired by this weird, pointless mini-profile of the not-so-young Turks who are the perpetual fascination of the New York Times. First, though, do read Anne Friedman, who is completely correct. (The Grey Lady is such a white dude.)

When I talk about DC insiderism, I think people tend not to appreciate that when I say I have some sympathy for the people working within the bubble, I'm telling the truth. I feel compelled to criticize the pathologies of the well-connected because political discussion has an impact on political policy and policy has an impact on real human lives. But the really important point is that the petty corruptions of DC are so vexing precisely because they aren't the product of personal failings, but rather are conditioned by the professional and social incentives of DC. If the dynamics that unduly affect the attitudes and convictions of professional bloggers, journalists, and pundits came from obvious and stark choices, they would be far easier to counter. Fighting corruption is at least more direct when it comes in the form of a wad of bills. It's harder when it comes from the soft influence of friendship and the ever-present worry about future jobs. (If a young, inspired blogger feels like blasting the Atlantic, he or she may instead offer qualified, muted criticism, based on the chance of eventually working for that magazine, for example.)


I'm encouraged by this article in that it seems like the bloggers of my generation (late 20s) are coming around to the realization that, new media orthodoxy aside, they are not the same insurgent forces working against establishment media but now firmly ensconced in that media. For sure, there have been many positive changes brought about by the blogging revolution, no question. But for too long, many young, influential bloggers operated as if they could at once maintain their kid-at-a-keyboard pose while rising higher and higher in the cutthroat world of DC media. That tendency led them vulnerable in many ways, most importantly to failing to recognize their own personal biases and blindspots, but also to the kind of vicious professional warfare that the Journolist imbroglio represented. Is Ezra Klein one of the dozen most influential media figures in our country? I think he is. What the Journolist situation showed (and I am firmly on the side of the members of that listserve, at least in contrast to the Daily Caller et al) is that you can't have both the Rachel Maddow appearances and NYT love and still maintain a breezy amateurism.


But it's important to remember-- there was no guidebook for these people. New media members like Klein, Matt Yglesias, Annie Lowrey, Dave Weigel, and Ann Friedman were making it up as they went, and they were doing so in an atmosphere that took new media triumphalism to absurd levels. In that context I can't level too much blame on them for failing to recognize their own power, or for failing to recognize the ways in which they were rebuilding many of the old media biases and impediments to free entry. That so many of them eventually became co-opted into traditional media and think tanks only serves to demonstrate that the forces that shape media bias are more powerful than technology can easily overcome, and that it remains extremely difficult to make a living as a truly independent blogger. And unlike other new media pioneers like Andrew Sullivan, Mickey Kaus, Glenn Reynolds, etc., these young bloggers didn't have a history of working in traditional media or consistent income from day jobs to fall back on.


Lest you are afraid that I am going soft in my old age, fear not. The Cool Kid Crew (which is not the same as the Juice Box Mafia), having marginally changed some of establishment media's many dysfunctions, blind spots, and power imbalances, have been building new ones all their own. I don't think it is fair or practical to tell people not to make friends with those around them, but the cliquishness and social conditioning of being a young hip politico in Washington DC inevitably creates conflicts of interest. It was another weird Times profile that helped crystallize just how social conditions can make dedicated people myopic and insidery. "Those who link together, drink together," goes the profile, which is another way of saying that those who drink together, link together-- the needs best served by professional bloggers will always be the their needs and the needs of people just like them.

(That piece is also handy for giving us an exact date for when the concept of "cool" finally died, as it contains the line "These bloggers are the cool kids who know they’re smart." From Charlie Parker playing a sax to bloggers sitting on a couch in less than a hundred years.)

In any event, I do think that the quotes from the (white male) bloggers in the more recent piece reflect a sensibility that is much more honest about the status of these people-- that is, a status of privilege, firmly ensconced in the establishment, and buffeted by all the usual forces that make conventional media what it is. Ultimately, people like Klein have developed personal brands (ugh) to the point where I don't worry so much about them; they'll be fine. Who I do worry about are the younger set, still trying to make a name, many quite smart and principled, but in a brutally competitive atmosphere where they must constantly ingratiate themselves to those in power and thus are continually pressured to instrumentalize all of their relationships. I have genuine sympathy for them, I really do. I just reserve the right to say when they're full of it.

What's the perfect way for professional journos and taste makers to operate? I don't think there is one. I think that there has to continue to be a number of high profile, truly independent voices who don't live in DC and don't draw their main salary from blogging. The trouble is, well, like mine-- I may have rendered myself unemployable in non-media jobs, would never get offered a job in establishment media, and would feel compelled to not take one if I was. (There's nothing like integrity in that conviction, as integrity requires sacrifice, and like I said-- nobody would be lining up for my services anyway.) But nobody ever said that speaking your mind has no consequences! That's adult life, yeah?

Have as much sympathy and understanding as you can muster for the people in the system; criticize individuals when they make choices that are unprincipled; constantly recognize that the system is inherently corrupting and bent towards protecting establishment power. And try to be less of a dick. (That one may be just for me.)