Glass houses, big stones Part II: Michael Wolff redux

As mentioned earlier this week, Wolff’s piece attacks Adam Moss and his “earnest” NY Mag — which he does after he’s through with Slate and its editor, Jacob Weisberg (who Wolff dismisses as a liberal media-climber); the New York Times (and their apparently Paxil-needing staff); Harvard grads; wanna-be Harvard grads; the New Yorker; David Brooks; Maureen Dowd; and naked man-swimming. (Just kidding about that last one but see? The Times can be funny!).

By contrast, he’ll slap a knee for Roger Ailes, the endlessly droll Anne Coulter, his buddy Jim Atlas, the cheeky devils at Fox, and, presumably, himself. (He neglects to mention the Daily News, hilarious for jokes as well as headlines).

With broad generalizations and a dearth of compelling examples, Wolff sets himself up for attack, and Shafer is all over that — in earnest. (“Earnest?” “Earnest.”) In the headline, Wolff is sloppy and lazy; in the nut graf, he’s a “failed Internet entrepreneur and New York magazine auction loser”; by the end, he’s masturbating in public.

Shafer throws in a little defense with his offense, correcting the record on Slate and then some:

He writes that Slate “is liberal media targeted at other people in the liberal media. Or, even more finely, targeted at other people in the liberal media who are concerned about issues such as the liberal media.” This sounds more like a description of Wolff’s article and Vanity Fair since editor Graydon Carter‘s left turn than it does of Slate.

Meanwhile, Wolff sets up a whole lotta punchlines but we’re too liberal and unfunny to write them. Besides, we totally wrote this post to get Slate‘s attention.

Wolff in Cheap Clothing: Vanity Fair’s sloppy, lazy media columnist [Slate]
No Jokes, please, we’re liberal [Vanity Fair]**
Take My Unfunny Liberal Columnist, Please! [FishbowlNY]***

**(not online yet and hence not as bloggy as Slate)
***Just wanted to have a reason to write that headline