You’d think that the man whose national profile was famously made and cultivated by whining about his experiences with Dell would think twice about calling out someone who thinks they are being ripped off.
Not Jeff Jarvis. He’s transcended that now. As the omniscient prophet, seer and revelator of new media, he knows what’s best for everyone and has the power — nay, the obligation — to proclaim the winners and shame the losers in the brave new world he created and sustains through his immaculate intellect.
Yesterday’s New York Times Opinionator column provides a full summary and analysis, including a thought soundbite from Jay Rosen – but here’s my shorthand version.
On Sunday Ian Shapira wrote a stinging opinion piece in the Washington Post annotating how he believes Gawker ripped off his work, and in the process Shapira made the strong case that while ”old media” news sites rely on the snark brigade for validation and referrals, new media has nothing to crow about and undermines itself when it’s basically derivative of and dependent upon the hard work and enterprise of others.
Though he owes much of his own fame and career to mewling about being ripped off, Jarvis opined on Twitter :
Whiny WaPo scribe mewls abut Gawker post on his story-then says Gawker was its No. 2 referrer. Hello link economy. http://bit.ly/aVsPj
So I hope Jeff doesn’t mind if I dog his pompous, pedestrian musings for a while to take this “link economy” for a test drive.
P.S. In a similar vein, Stanley Bing also had some thoughts this week on Twitter as an ego-enabler for Jeff Jarvis .
Great line:
Jarvis may not be interested in what’s actually coming out of corporations because he’s mostly reporting on the landscape of his own mind.
