I have been a fan and follower of Michael Wolff for years. Read his stuff in the bubble and afterwards. Even read Burn Rate, his lively, funny and very interesting history of the rise and fall of his Web company. So I get his email every day, with links to his Newser columns. They're usually fine, when I have time to read them. Today though, he's outdone himself so I wanted to be sure you knew. The piece is called "Maureen Dowd is All in Your Head"
Given what Wolff writes about The Dread Plagiarism Incident, I'm not offering any of my own perspectives here. I just wanted to take note of this very interesting discussion of journalist celebrity, aspirational followers and the New York Times in general. Here's a sample:
Here’s my question: Why are boring people so interested in her? Ever since she began her column in the mid-nineties it has been de rigueur among people who, relatively speaking, have no opinions about anything
to have very firm opinions about Dowd. Among a great swatch of uninteresting people she is the officially sanctioned, government-approved lightening rod.
The role Dowd has played is striking. Even in the context of being declared tiresome, she evokes a pretty acid response from a pretty touch cookie. Interesting, no?