Jeannette Walls, the gossip columnist for MSNBC.com, complained yesterday in her
\nnewsletter that there were “nine camera crews from Japan alone” covering Michael Jackson’s
\narrest in handcuffs. I wonder if her own editors ever read her newsletter. <\/P>
\n
MSNBC.com’s entertainment section gave the Japanese a run for their money with eight
\nstories in a row: “Jackson tells fans he’s innocent”; “Liz Taylor says Jackson is innocent”; “Scoop:
\nTeam Jackson goes on offensive with P.I.” (Walls’ column); “Dateline NBC: The case against
\nJackson”; “Newsweek: From moonwalk to perp walk”; “Jackson’s friends react with silence”;
\n“‘Thriller’ nixed from parade lineup”; “Will arrest affect Jackson’s sales?”<\/P>
\n
This from the No. 2 news site on the Web — CNN is first — with pretensions to high-quality, Ever since the departure of its founding editor, Merrill Brown, MSNBC.com has been on a (Full disclosure: I used to be MSNBC.com’s entertainment & arts editor under Brown and left Jeannette Walls, the gossip columnist for MSNBC.com, complained yesterday in her newsletter that there were “nine camera crews from Japan alone” covering Michael Jackson’s arrest in handcuffs. I wonder if her own editors ever read her newsletter. MSNBC.com’s entertainment section gave the Japanese a run for their money with eight stories in a row: “Jackson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-7z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\noriginal journalism? Please. Like the MSNBC cable channel, its sister operation, which
\neditorial mission that is neither high-quality nor original. In fact, it largely consists of
\ngathering wire reports available on almost any other news site and dressing them up, often with
\ndopey “votes” to create the illusion of reader participation. <\/P>
\n
\ndownhill slide as a journalistic enterprise. Brown, too, prized celebrity stories, but he knew their
\nlimits. MSNBC.com’s Microsoft masters forced him out, journalism be damned, and his
\nreplacement, compliant editor in chief Dean Wright, seems happy to execute their
\nwishes. It’s a shame.<\/P>
\n
\nfive months ago after Wright took over.)<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"