http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/weblog/oped/archives/2005/06/steinblog_loveh_1.html#comments
The above link will take you to a very limited blog at the LA Times on which we are allowed to post on only two subjects - parents and students in school, and your opinion of Joel Stein.
Joel, who?
Yes, I know. No one knows who he is, which is why they are plugging him on their blog. And as I suspected, since only his friends know who he is, they seem to be the only ones posting so far. However, with all the major plugs this blog has gotten in the blogosphere, I am amazed at how few posts there have been.
Lastly, since the TIMES edits and reviews before they publish posts, here is my uncensored post below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for the alleged convergence of Joel Stein and humor, I understand the basis of the theoretical construct. Take a self-identified loser, have him make deliberately pompous and idiotic statements about other people - and then label it cutting edge satire.
Hey, it worked for Pauly Shore - so why not the Times?
The problem with this particular theory is that the few people who appreciate this type of humor - would never be caught dead reading the LA Times.
As partial proof of this, I write a blog that is partly about the LA Times; I am also in the film and TV business; I also wrote and sold many TV pilots back in the day; and, yet, I have not once heard one person mention Joel Stein. And even when I called around to people I know who would be in his target audience and I asked them what they thought about Joel Stein - out of twenty people, not a one of them knew who he was.
There is an even larger problem, though. There are many people in LA who might be interested in the story of a so far unsuccessful sit-com writer trying to make it Hollywood. Unfortunately, though, the LA times will only hire people who are not from LA and who know nothing about LA to write about LA, which is why no one in LA cares about the LA Times.
Anything to do with LA has been deliberately extracted from the paper.
This is why we have do not have a column about a writer who grew up in LA and has many common shared experiences with Angelinos. This is why the paper is filled with stories about Red Socks/Yankee fans.
Now a column by someone who has spent years dealing with the ins and outs of the Hollywood might make for an entertaining read. But a column filled with cultural references that mean nothing to people to LA - will be ignored, just like the rest of the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/weblog/oped/archives/2005/06/steinblog_loveh_1.html#comments
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
I never heard of Joel Stein until your link sent me there. And despite the annoying New York references, this week's column was not that bad. But then I read his previous work - and it was horrible. Really, really unfunny. I guess they waited until he wrote a column that actually had some real (if New York) humor in it before they tried to push him.
You are completely right, though, about the Times no longer having an LA voice. I could give them the names of fifty writers in TV alone who could write a much funnier and far more LA specific humor column. But the Times clearly has not interest in LA writers. And even if they were, finding LA born and bred writers is a little hard when no one at the LA Times knows anyone in LA.
I didn't think Joel 'Stingless' Stein's column today was all that funny - but it towered over the dreck that hack usually writes. But why waste time talking about him? There's nobody left at the LA Times even worth talking about, much less reading. Stick with the real thing, the New York Times.
Wasn't he the guy who wrote for Time and did weird interviews? Sort of a center to left Jonah Goldberg?
What's he got to do with LA?
Loved your post on the LA Times weblog. And as a person who is of the generation Joel Stein is supposed to appeal to, all I can say is that he is just another reason wny not to read the LA Times.
Post a Comment