Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Good News, Ninny Lovers: David Carr To Write About Himself In Third Person Year-Round.

The Bagger is back! Already.

Yes, for those of you who can't wait to get started with your Oscar predictions for next year (at the moment, Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man ranks as 2009's leading contender for Best Actor) here's some good news: the NYT has quietly disclosed that its Carpetbagger blog will now run year-round, and become an all-purpose dumping ground for the paper's Hollywood coverage.

There's no arguing that David Carr can write, and the NYT continues to be so starved for style that it now has to milk his talents in every conceivable venue. He already writes a weekly Monday media column for business, frequent Arts & Leisure profiles, and regular stories for the Arts section -- and now will maintain his Bagger persona throughout the year on the NYT's popular Oscar blog.

But does the world really need yet another Hollywood blog, or more of Carr's grating Bagger persona? There's already the superior Deadline Hollywood Daily by Nikki Finke, not to mention the trades, "The Wrap" (former NYT reporter Sharon Waxman's new blog) and New York Magazine's excellent "Vulture" blog.

In a period of dwindling resources and scarcity of talent, it seems a shame that the NYT wants to waste yet more of Carr's time on frivolous coverage of the entertainment industry. He's a thoughtful guy when it comes to media and business, but his column often seems tossed off in a spare moment or two.

The Carpetbagger blog made sense for a few Oscar-crazed months out of the year. As a daily blog, though, it seems too much about not enough.

But that's just the NYTPicker's opinion. The Bagger would no doubt disagree.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Carr writes in his sleep. And it shows.

Anonymous said...

Whether or not someone likes Carr or not (I think he's talented, but cringe at the bagger stuff) you're right about this being a waste of resources.

One thing worth pointing out, though: You mention the two months of the year when people are "crazed" about the Oscars.

Sorry, but nobody is really obsessed with the Oscars anymore, save for the people who write about them. Simple test to prove this: TV reaches a wider audience than the movies. Music reaches a wider audience than the movies. The video game business is bigger than the movies. Would you devote a full time reporter to the Emmys, the Grammys or the Video game awards? I think not.

Anonymous said...

Just what the world needs, more celebrity coverage. Thank you, new York Times.

Anonymous said...

I also believe it's a real waste. The Oscars were last year. But if the movie industry wants to keep buying full page ads, well, I think it might be worth it to put up with The Bagger. Can we just get rid of the third person? That's all I ask.