March
2
Blogging: Fast and Loose
Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke insists that she is a journalist/dominatrix--not a blogger. I am tired of bloggers not wanting to cop to being bloggers.
Finke should celebrate her blogger status. Because that's why frightened Hollywood folks tumble over themselves to give her scoops--hoping that they will be rewarded with favorable coverage. Finke's DHD is well-read by the entertainment industry because it's a blog. While trained as a journalist, Finke embraces all that is bloglike. For some reason, she wants to hang on to a traditional journalist identification via her LA Weekly print column-- which she assembles from the best of her blog.
Finke has a fearsome set of blogger tools.
1. Answer to nobody.
No one tells Finke what to write. There is no boss to threaten, no higher authority or boy's club member to appeal to. The studios, agencies, guilds and producers negotiate with--and feed--Finke. She is as powerful as any media-monger since Walter Winchell (the model for Burt Lancaster's gossip columnist in Sweet Smell of Success).
2. Keep it fast and loose.
Finke likes to throw her material up as soon as she gets it, and then add, fix, and tweak throughout the day. And she proclaims her scoops. (While Finke asserts that new rival The Wrap does not break news, Wrap editor Sharon Waxman, of course, blogs back that, yes, she does.) But there are only so many hours. Some DHD stories wind up more reported and refined than others. Some are left pretty raw. And some of the Guild reporting, especially, goes on a bit long for industry outsiders.
3. Lay on the SNARK!!!
Finke throws out plenty of attitude and opinion, as bloggers do, lecturing the Academy on its OSCARS CRISIS via live-snarking, etc. During the Harvey Weinstein vs. Scott Rudin fracas over The Reader, Finke posted reams of insider emails leaked to her by interested parties. Readers scarf up Finke's breathless urgent BREAKING NEWS!!! drama and no-holds-barred Anne Coulter-style nastiness. (Finke herself is thin-skinned and protects herself from misrepresentation by blasting back with threatening emails to offenders' bosses.)
4. Post frequently.
"I check Nikki five times a day!" one publicist confesses. That's because Finke is tireless, obsessively posting 24/7--until she runs out of steam and collapses from exhaustion. Bloggers know no bounds. Smartly, Finke keeps her strong editorial voice separate from the LA Weekly's ad sales department.
Deadline Hollywood Daily, by any definition, is a successful blog--and Finke should own it.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
well said, Thompson! I especially like number 1, which is why I LOVE to own a blog and write whatever the hell I want to. I write at least 4-6 blog posts everyday, it keeps my mind running...
I'm also sick of the "stigma" attached to being a blogger. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CALLING YOURSELF A BLOGGER, FOLKS!!!
Posted by: UGLY DEAF MUSLIM PUNK GURL! | March 02, 2009 at 01:00 PM
Excellent analysis.
I read DHD often, but it often baffles me that Nikki can be so hyper-aware of bullshit from everyone else (which is perhaps her defining virtue), and then be so utterly unaware of her own wild biases, frequent errors, and rather high bullshit factor. Not admiting that DHD is a blog when it obviously is one is just one small example of that weird lack of self-awareness.
Actually, I'd think that calling herself a blog would give her a little more leeway to get away with these things, wouldn't it?
Posted by: indeed | March 02, 2009 at 05:26 PM
I dunno, sounds to me like you're jealous of Nikki's freedoms. :-)
But then again, I'm a blogger too...
Posted by: Dave Taylor | March 02, 2009 at 10:49 PM
It's pointless reading Nikki when she's padding her blog with SAG press releases. Having been embraced by this niche readership of heroic strikers with Greek fisherman's caps and six-figures incomes she now has no choice but to keep the propaganda river flowing. It's a beautiful thing to see.
Posted by: David C | March 03, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Thompson, you devil. I'm thinking "Why is she writing about Nikki Finke?" and it was right in front of me: That picture!! It looks like Miss Subways circa 1947!!
Posted by: john anderson | March 03, 2009 at 01:37 PM
Journalist, maybe.
Dominatrix...definitely.
Posted by: Dixon Steele | March 03, 2009 at 05:09 PM
Her stuff tend to be too inside for me, but I read your her box office reports weekly because she's the first to post up numbers. She's pretty new to box office analysis, and her entries shows it, but content is king.
Posted by: sharonfranz | March 10, 2009 at 06:03 PM
What "freedoms" (?) are you referring to, exactly? The freedom to post items that are incorrect or not the full story or simply hearsay/gossip and call yourself a journalist?
Or the freedom to disseminate inaccurate stories and not be held accountable?
And what serious writer would be jealous of a blogger who's claim to cleverness is a catch-phrase as infantile as "TOLDJA!"??
Ann calls her blog a blog. All she is saying is if that's what you're really doing, don't call yourself a journalist - embrace the moniker. Nikki blogs. That makes her a blogger. I don't think jealousy is a factor in that statement.
Posted by: ADR | April 07, 2009 at 11:01 AM