MY PROBLEM WITH THE Q-WORD
The other day, Ted asked in a comment if my problem with Queerty is all about the typos. That's a question worthy of an explanation.

But first, some points of clarification:

1. I am certainly not immune from tpyos. They happen to everyone.

2. On the other hand, if you present yourself as a news source and call yourself a journalist, yet publish carelessly edited (or unedited) content 90% of the time, I consider you fair game for mockery. Sometimes the mockery is of the 'gentle tweaking' nature; sometimes of the 'eye-rolling how-the-fuck-do-these-morons-remember-to-breathe' nature. Depends on my mood.

3. Queerty is hardly alone. Over the years I've amused myself and my small band of occasional readers at the expense of Gawker (several times, as a matter of fact), Gothamist (ditto), New York magazine, The Advocate (many, many, times), the Associated Press, The Blade, Gay City News, and -- of course -- 365gay.com.

But let's face it: Queerty just asks for it. It seeks to be a snarky, gossipy news source, and I think that's a fine goal. Their downfall, in my humble opinion, is in the execution. Instead of snark they give us immaturity, and while their news content can at times be quite good, it is undercut by juvenile asides and frequent cluelessness. My thoughts:

* If you want to present your site as sharp and snarky, maybe you should have a passing acquaintance with the concept of 'satire.' Otherwise you come off as artless and, well, stupid.

* If you want to present your site as newsy and 'in the know,' maybe you should at least make half an effort to spell people's names correctly... especially when the correct spelling is right in front of your face. Otherwise you come off as lazy and, well, stupid. (Oh yeah... this was pretty egregious, too.)

* If you want to present your site as authoritative and mature, maybe you should avoid childish name-calling and... well, I really don't know how to describe things like this. And... what can I add about this? I'm pretty sure Queerty isn't written by tweens, but maybe I'm wrong.

For what it's worth, Queerty is a spawn of Jossip, which has given the world its own share of gems (see this and this, for example). Like blog-father, like blog-son., I suppose.

So, yeah, I mock, I joke, I tweak, and sometimes I even get angry. And while I'd like that site to get its act together, the daily Queerty readership is probably 185,000 times the readership of this blog, so they can (and maybe should) continue to not even know or care that the FARBlog exists.

In the meantime... well, I entertain myself, if no one else. As Little David also commented, they make a damn good target.



(PS: It was fun going through the archives and linking to a sampling of the news items I've mocked over the years. Good times...)