Bill Keller Attacks The Huffington Post, Aggregation
In his upcoming column for The New York Times Magazine, Bill Keller takes aim at sites like FishbowlNY, and shoots to kill. He rips the media at large for creating a culture that allows aggregating sites to flourish, and even says that Arianna Huffington once aggregated him in person:
How great is Huffington’s instinctive genius for aggregation? I once sat beside her on a panel in Los Angeles (on — what else? — The Future of Journalism). I had come prepared with a couple of memorized riffs on media topics, which I duly presented. Afterward we sat down for a joint interview with a local reporter. A moment later I heard one of my riffs issuing verbatim from the mouth of Ms. Huffington.
Keller goes on to call those who critique the media, “oxpeckers who ride the backs of pachyderms, feeding on ticks.” We just looked up oxpeckers, and though they’re kind of cute, we’re still taking this as an insult.
Of course it’s not surprising for Keller to hate aggregators, as we’re part of the reason that old media is losing steam. But before Keller compares us to another weird animal, maybe he should check the pages of the very magazine where his column appears. Back in there somewhere is a section called “Last Month on The Internet.”
Your move rhinoceros.
