Blogosphere

The Nature of ‘The Beast’

By Maegan Carberry ⋅ August 8, 2008 ⋅   Email this post ⋅  Digg This ⋅  Share on Facebook ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

I started reading Vanity Fair because Brad Pitt was wearing a soaked white shirt as he emerged from a Malibu beach on the cover, thus it was in the context of this undignified marketing ploy that I came to be enamored with the idea of Tina Brown and Graydon Carter and their sexy politics. (I acted as if Clark Gable himself had kissed me on the lips the first time I answered the phone when he called Arianna Huffington’s office. *sigh* How we do grow up …)

I’m more of a Mother Jones gal now, but I’m watching Tina Brown’s project with Barry Diller with keen interest. Gawker reported yesterday on how Liz Smith* leaked the news that the site will be called “The Daily Beast,” a reference to “Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh. I might have preferred something more “Fountainhead”-ish, as Gail Wynand would surely have been literature’s first publisher to embrace the task of filtering The Internets’ mob rule. But considering I’m still grumpy about the Poynter reporter who hates the name of my Editor & Publisher feature, I’m going to be open-minded to another person’s creative thought process. 

*Mandatory Liz Smith love here, as she is responsible for my favorite quote and life motto: “Begin somewhere. You can’t build a reputation on what you intend to do.”