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Friday, May 21, 2010

Anonymity Fail !

I understand I am supposed to be sincerely concerned about the future of journalism and to appreciate brilliant thought and writing and, especially, not to be obsessed with celebrity gossip but ...

I can't help noting that Maureen Tkacik doesn't quite name a name in her outstanding essay "Look at Me!"

She wrote about her experiences with AOL, Abercrombie and Fitch and

"a sixteen-year-old small forward from Akron wrote me an angry two-way pager message when I respectfully declined his invitation to party in his hotel suite following a high school basketball tournament,"

Then later mentions

"Abercrombie and LeBron James and AOL"

Hmmmm. I'm sure James is just one of many super young super star basketball players with a sense of entitlement from Akron.

Also it's just a coincidence that this took place some time in a 12 month period including September 11 2001(known as the day LeBron James turned 16 years and 286 days old).

Now I understand that it is hard to negotiate anonymity over a 2 way pager (even though I just learned that 2 way pagers exist or used to exist -- I'm not in touch with 9 year old youth culture). I feel fairly alert, although, I suppose that if I were really hep and with it, I'd consider "basketball star for Akron" to be as explicit as "LeBron James."

Tcacik doesn't seem to have much concern about the privacy of others (and pushy guys demanding sex deserve to be called out by name). But I mean really, she turned down LeBron James !?! Is nothing sacred ?!?

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