Tuesday, March 19, 2013

On Pots and Kettles

After yesterday's posting of my conversation with Bonnie Anderson about CNN's Steubenville coverage, this was inevitable:

Andevers1

I see this periodically about a variety of things I talk about, usually whether it directly applies or not. People love the Pot/Kettle trope, and mostly they love it because it's so fun to say on Twitter in one-word sentences. I get that. And as soundbites go, it's not too shabby.

I do think that it would work better if I had ever actually been a traditional journalist in any way, but I get it.

Her follow up tweet is what's interesting:

Andevers2

Good!

God save me from *ever* being "the appropriate champion of truthfulness". I can't imagine a shittier job title that I have never desired.

It ranks up there with other job titles that people have tried to give me over the last eighteen months: The Great White Savior of the Poor Beknighted Ignorant Chinese Peasantry. Or later, the Great Satan of Lying Whose Lying Lies Corrupt All Who Speak To Him.

Who am I?

I'm a working artist who has made
a lot of work. Some of that work is well known—some of it is not. Some of it is topical. Some of it is lighthearted. Some of it numbers among the largest feats of narrative anyone has ever composed live. Some of it has been part of change. Some of it has been flawed, and was apologized for, and reformed.

So people can bring the snark if they wish—but what that snark says, more than anything, is that you don't know me and you never did.