Catfights in The Swamp

One of my favorite guest speakers and the Queen of Snark herself, Miss Ana Marie Cox of Swampland/Wonkette fame, is caught in battle of wits with Nation columnist Eric Alterman over Time.com's inability to cater to the liberal market. Seems like Alterman doesn't believe Cox is living up to her job description, and he made his feelings very clear at John McLaughlin's post-White House Correspondents Dinner brunch.

Yesterday, Gawker labeled the discussion a “catfight”, and today linked to the transcript.

My favorite part:

ANA MARIE COX: Actually, I would love to hear my job description from you. Yes, what is my job at Time?

ERIC ALTERMAN: Why are you being so hostile to me?

ANA MARIE COX: I’m not being hostile, am I?

I think I was in the minority of people who thought Cox was an interesting guest speaker; I guess I just have a thing for snarky, outspoken blogettes. But to those in class who thought she was being snooty -- you're not alone, apparently.

Derick Vollrath @ Tue, 04/24/2007 - 2:29pm

I think it's somewhat frightening how difficult it's proving to be for Swampland to capture the liberal market, especially when every one of their bloggers comes from the left side of the political spectrum. It's almost like you have to be foaming at the mouth or something in order to appease these people.

If you ask me, Swampland should just not engage those comments that try to pull its coverage to the left (or the right, for that matter).

Ben Parsons @ Sat, 04/28/2007 - 7:09pm

I think Cox feels obliged to engage them. In her own words from our interview: "If people make intelligent arguments it’s an insult not to respond intelligently."

Connie Kargbo @ Sun, 04/29/2007 - 9:32pm

Very true, Ben. By ignoring their comments she's inhibiting the very dialogue that sets the blogosphere apart from traditional media.

The only question I have is why is Swampland trying so hard to prove it's liberal? Just blog!

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A group blog exploring our media world. Produced by the Digital Journalism: Blogging course at New York University, Spring 2007.

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