Mole Flap Shows Media's Need to Get Over Itself

Forbes blogger: Outlets obsessed with self-image
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 12, 2012 12:30 PM CDT
Mole Flap Shows Media's Need to Get Over Itself
   (Shutterstock)

The Fox News mole story may have generated lots of headlines yesterday, but it's "about the weakest cloak-and-dagger story imaginable," writes John McQuaid at Forbes. Outed mole Joe Muto hasn't offered much beyond the mundane so far about the inner workings at the network, he notes. This could have been great stuff. "Instead, you get the sense that the guy was just angling for a book contract."

So why all the fuss? It's yet another example of how "our media workplaces are obsessed with image, and in most cases that amounts to the aggressive policing of—and inevitable exposure of—meaningless trivia masquerading as vital information," writes McQuaid. If the navel-gazers working at media sites can't tell the difference when "handling their own affairs, how are they going to be able to do it when they cover the real world?" (Fox News chief Roger Ailes, meanwhile, disses Gawker with a he-must-be-kidding line to the Hollywood Reporter: "What is Gawker? Is that that pornographic website?")

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