James Lileks, columnist for the Star Tribune, received this email from Alex Beam, before publishing his rant yesterday:
James, weren’t you once a talented humor writer? Why are you churning out this web dreck? I can’t tell if these bleats about Rod Serling or the Palestinians are diluting your humor work, because I can’t claim to know it well enough, but I certainly have my suspicions.
Feel free to respond: I am writing a column (deadline: Monday 11 am) on bloggers who might benefit from a less arduous writing schedule.
Alex Beam, Boston Globe
To which James has a nice response, a refreshingly optimistic capital-J-journalist’s approach to web content that avoids the either/or argument so many are riled up about: The newspaper is a lecture. The web is a conversation. Somehow I missed this yesterday, which is unfortunate, because it deserves more attention than Beam’s uninformed rant.
overstated 