Hyperspace Clusterfuck Part Deux: Crowd Assembled Before Dan Gross Turns Ugly, Demands Mea Culpa
Strong men also cry. Strong men. Also cry.
Well, at least it’s good to know that we’re not insane. For weeks now, we’ve been hammering Dan Gross (and to a lesser extent, his Gargamel, Michael Klein) for acting like they had no direct involvement in LarryGate®/The Story We Are Above Writing About But…, when the fact of the matter is, the whole thing was largely perpetuated through their respective columns and then fanned out to the media at large. What exactly is wrong with that? Well, a few things:
Gross in particular seems entirely unwilling to admit he was punked on a very crucial level. Forget all this bravado he’s been spooning out about how “I do not discuss sources, ever” lately, because that is just bullshit. This is not Woodward and Bernstein we’re talking about here, this is low-rent professional jealousy that made a puppet out of him. And not for nothing, Wood-n-Bern at least knew who the fuck Deep Throat was. Meanwhile, the whole mess — in which Gross was a pawn, and should admit such status — nearly ruined the career of a woman on the verge of huge success. That she was a woman you probably don’t like is beside the point. (Dogear this topic for later: Is Gross’ column fundamentally misogynist? Only the strippers he writes about know for sure.)
And finally, we’re not the only people thinking these thoughts out loud. Let’s take a look at some of the comments from Gross’ piece yesterday that we’ll retitle, “OMG! MENDTE CAN HAS LOCAL EMMYS?”:
Owie. And what these people are just a few steps away from realizing also — and what has really been sticking in our craw for a while now — is not just that Gross/Klein are fundamentally bad journalists, but also that they’ve very directly lowered the dialogue surrounding what exactly one’s credentials should be for being a celebrated person or what constitutes notoriety in Philadelphia in 2008. By heaping soooooo much attention on anchordrones, Gross and Klein display that they’re just as out of touch as the medium they’re covering, and the outlet they’re covering it for. Go ahead: Ask a young person on the street who Larry Mendte is. Better yet, ask a black person. Ask someone who increasingly gets their news from the Internet (i.e., everyone). The point is this: When all this shit shakes out, these two (but particularly Gross) are just as culpable in this scandal as everyone else involved. And the sooner that gets admitted, the better off everyone will be.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:49 am
“nearly ruined the career of a woman on the verge of huge success” — ummmm, didn’t she do that herself by calling an NY policewoman a dyke and hitting her with a cellphone?
July 25th, 2008 at 11:56 am
My guess is that she wouldn’t have been so quick to freak out had she not been the victim of a covert life and career-sabotage plot for a year or so leading up to that night.
So, no.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Oh, Christ, we all talked about it:
http://www.philebrity.com/2007/12/17/ask-the-lawyer-what-are-the-legal-consequences-for-alycia%e2%80%99s-alleged-hate-speech/
July 25th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
People wouldn’t know who Larry Mendte is because he worked for Channel 3, not because of the Internet.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Conor, talking about it is one thing. Perpetuating it, advancing it — especially given the means — is another entirely.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
This blog is called “Philebrity,” merging the words Philadelphia and celebrity, with a subhead “Philly Media Gossip, Nightlife & Politics.”
And this blog says the Inky and DN are responsible for lowering “the dialogue surrounding what exactly one’s credentials should be for being a celebrated person or what constitutes notoriety in Philadelphia in 2008.”
This blog’s armchair psychologist suggests that the media –all except this blog, of course — are responsible for Lane’s “freak out.” This blog’s logic: Writing about her isn’t the same as, you know, writing about her. This blog has a search box. Type in Lane’s name and see how many posts come up. I stopped counting after 50.
This blog should be renamed Philocrisy — the merging of Philadelphia and hypocrisy.
[Disclosure -- Dan Gross is a friend and colleague.]
July 25th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Brennan-
What a novel sniglet. Now listen: I happen to be friendly with Dan (well, probably not so much after this) and it pains me that he’s found himself in such a fucked position. But he absolutely cannot get a pass for all this until he comes clean and admits profound (even if it is inadvertent, which I kind of doubt) fault. And in defending the home team, you miss a key point: Gross led the charge here. Bragged about his ill-gotten scoops, even. So go ahead back and look at the Lane-related posts on Philebrity. Most of them originate from one story or another that Gross published. As Philebrity does, we merely commented on what was already out there. We are not a paper of record, and as such, not held to the same bar. Sorry, dude, but on the other hand, you have health insurance and we don’t. So suck it up.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
And because Brennan (who, as president of the Pen & Pencil Club and thus someone who ostensibly understands nuance in the media) is a friend and colleague of Gross’s, he lashes out at the critic for a tangential element — in effect blaming the (other) media (for blaming the media) — in a way that would no doubt disappoint him if someone or something he covered critically were defended in the same knee-jerk fashion by someone who lashed out at him not on the merits of the story but for purely personal reasons. Not really so intellectually honest, but, hey — Daily News.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Bravo to Gross for helping create a little controversy about the Talking Head Set. Otherwise, there would be no reason to watch the local news at all. Beyond trying to get a glimpse of Kerri-Lee’s or Alycia’s ass, what do they have to offer? Zilch. The same rehashed “news” that is sooo time dated, it is DOA.
Dan, start sniffing around Kerri and Bolaris or maybe stick a tail on Cecily Tynan. That little firecracker must be up to something.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I like turkey with cranberry sauce.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am
I want residuals if you are going to use my comments as content.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Here’s a thought: it might be possible that Gross, Kline +/or their papers cannot yet comment publicly about their roles, as these are still open cases. Granted, if that’s the case (no [lame] pun intended), they should say more than “I don’t talk about my sources” and explain they’re under a gag order or whatever.