With all the blog awards going on right now, I propose another. The J. Lo Media Slut Award. Who should be on the list?
Glenn Reynolds - For simultaneously slamming mainstream media, while never rejecting an offer to show up on CNN. "Just make sure you give me more air time than Wonkette."
Amber Frey - "No, I'm the victim. Not the murdered wife and baby. Look at me. Sad eyes. Sad eyes. Buy my book."
Those two would top my list. Who else should appear?
Well, me of course. I talked to a Times reporter about mommy blogs the other day. "11D is a mommy blog?" It is if you're going to put me the Style Section, baby!
I just had fun googling to find out who else he talked to. The article hasn't even appeared yet, and already I've got all the dirt.
The interview went okay. I'm getting better at this interview thing. I didn't give him a twenty minutes soliloquy on de Tocqueville. But I couldn't help e-mailing him later with more points. We bloggers like to control our image, and it's difficult to hand over the reins to an outsider.
The reporter seems like a good guy and unlikely to slam the mommies, which is good.
It is officially the weekend, there's a chilly Saranac waiting for me, and blogging must cease. I'll tell you more next week.
Wait, you can't be a mommy blog -- you've already been profiled in the Chicago Tribune as an academic (ex-academic) blogger!
Posted by: Mo Ryan | January 14, 2005 at 11:49 PM
Re: Amber Frey -- I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw that she had written a book, but I was. I just can't understand her apparent need to benefit from this horrible situation. I'm sure her justification would be something like making sure her side of the story was told accurately . . . but a young woman and unborn child are gone. Her family and friends mourn. And Amber Frey's doing Oprah?
Posted by: Laura | January 15, 2005 at 10:51 AM
I would be careful talking to the New York Times. A lot of bloggers say that they are notoriously anti-mommy. Word has it they aren't fond of apple pie either.
Posted by: Frolic | January 15, 2005 at 09:17 PM
Isn't it "hand over the reins" ? As in the kind you use for a horse? I see this online all the time, but I don't think "reigns" is right. Sorry to nitpick.
I think the NYTimes isn't anti-mommy, but they seem to profile a lot more upper-class moms than anyone else, i.e. the infamous article a few months back about affluent white women taking time off from work to be moms...hope your interview is more realistic.
Posted by: emjaybee | January 16, 2005 at 07:02 PM
Mo - heh. Fooled 'ya. I'm an inconsistent blogger, so I can fit into lots of categories. There are pro and cons to that. BTW. Thinking up a post on the babes of Lost. Hubby thought Battlestar Galactica was okay, but he liked Lost better.
Emjaybee -- thanks!
Laura - Amber makes me gag.
Frolic - Yeah, I'm a little worried about the direction of the article. I'm not sure if the NYT is more anti-mommy than other media sources. But I think in general, there is a lot of condescension towards women with kids. Today, I was mentioned in some anti-kid livejournal blog, and I'm being flooded by hate-filled hits. Bad karma, man. I don't really get why feel the need to read my blog, but they do. Whatever.
Posted by: Laura | January 16, 2005 at 10:35 PM
Laura: My wife still gets people trying to comment on an anti-child-free rant she wrote a few months back. Amazing how that crap lingers.
I have high hopes for the NYT article. The reporter called me back and asked me additional information about my wife's blog, how we coordinate our blog efforts, when my mom started blogging, etc. Seems like the focus will be more on blogging as a family phenomena rather than on "mommy blogging" per se.
Posted by: The Zero Boss | January 17, 2005 at 02:12 PM
Did David say when the story would run? He interviewed me too -- I know I'm not a mom, but I am talking about women's weblogs in my dissertation, many of whom are mothers -- and I forgot to ask him.
Posted by: Clancy | January 18, 2005 at 01:29 PM
Did David say when the story would run? He interviewed me too -- I know I'm not a mom, but I am talking about women's weblogs in my dissertation, many of whom are mothers -- and I forgot to ask him.
Posted by: Clancy | January 18, 2005 at 01:32 PM
Sorry, Clancy. I don't know when it will run. I didn't ask David either. Probably not for a while, because those feature pieces have a long shelf life.
Posted by: Laura | January 18, 2005 at 08:07 PM
He's going to give me a heads-up the Friday before it runs. I'll let you know.
Posted by: The Zero Boss | January 21, 2005 at 12:11 AM
Thanks! I can't wait to see what he has cooked up.
Posted by: Laura | January 21, 2005 at 09:20 AM