I love that the word "unimaginative" is used to describe STP compared to Pearl Jam. I like Pearl Jam, I have all their records, and have seen them in concert once. I am nowhere near as fanatic about them as STP, but even if I take the fact that I am a musician out of it, anyone with a brain can see how repetitive PJ has gotten, and how much STP experiments, yet STP is unimaginitive?
Anyway, as far as "journalist" goes, a line has been blurred between "journalist" and "guy at home in his pajamas watching Maury Povich". The blogsphere has slowly started eroding away the needle-point edge of the pen, turning it into blunt object that we get beat over the head with until some of us are too stupid to know the difference.
It was fine when Maxim started writing smarmy comments or captions next to photos, or infusing opinion into their articles. But then it spread like a disease to other, more official publications, like Rolling Stone, which is now basically Maxim II, only with the always predictable Republication-bashing article accompanying the issue where John McCain is somehow compared to Hitler, or some other ridiculously biased "article". I have even talked to liberals who are tired of Rolling Stone beating a dead horse.
In the meantime, journalists for big-time newspapers started creeping their opinion into their articles through the back door, and now it's hard to read an article and not know which side of the political spectrum the writer shouts from. Unbelievably, shit actually travels UPHILL in the world of journalism.
Aaron Sorkin, a great screen and television writer hacks away at the hacks in his movies and writings, most recently in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (an highly underrated show, btw). I remember a quote from the show where a character, talking about bloggers and journalists, said, "I'm a fan of credentials. It's like we've all spent the last five years living in a Roger Corman film called 'Revenge Of The Hack'". What's sad is that in the same episode, the character admits that he "has to care [what they say], because everyone else does".
Okay, I'll step off of my soapbox now.
