Tuesday, July 8, 2003

SCREW JAYSON BLAIR; THIS IS WHAT'LL GET ME ANGRY: As the de-Rainesification of the Times continues, the Post is now reporting that new Arts & Leisure editor Jodi Kantor might be near the chopping block:
"She's in over her head - and she's very aloof," sniffed one ticked Timesie. Her critics charge that Kantor is larding her section with contributions from inexperienced "old Slate cronies and Web bloggers" - like online journalist Sarah Hepola, who wrote a front-page Arts and Leisure story about "Sex and the City" last month.

This blog has praised Kantor's changes to the section in the past and will continue to do so. Not only do I have a natural affinity for someone who left Harvard Law School to focus on pop culture criticism and online journalism, but I like what Kantor's been doing with the section: smarter analysis of pop culture, taking the "low" as seriously as the high, just as she promised when hired:
I do think you'll see us playing around with the format, thinking up novel ways to cover culture, and developing more regular features and columns. . . .

One thing that 'Arts & Leisure' will not be doing is choosing between pop culture and the more refined arts. These days, rap stars give breathtakingly good performances in Broadway plays, the most beloved show on TV explores Freudian theory with great subtlety, and novels about comic books win Pulitzers.

Here's hoping the Times recognizes a good thing it has going on, and that Kantor is allowed to remain and thrive.

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