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Sparkle (0)
August 8, 2007
TO: Kathleen Deveney - Asst. Managing Editor, Newsweek; Jon Meacham, Editor, Newsweek
CC:Mainstream Media outlets, BlogHer.org, the entire Blogosphere
FR: ExpectingExecutive
RE: Newsweek, August 13, 2007, Volume CL, No. 7. Pages 44, 45. Family: Yummy vs. Slummy
Dear Ms. Deveney and Mr Meacham,
As you are well aware, it has been a news filled few weeks. I have to say that I continue to be disappointed with the ever increasing use of sensationalism in the news media. An attribute once reserved to pepper Hollywood related reporting now saturates every aspect of mainstream media news and it is really unnecessary. The coverage of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the Sunday debates and now the men trapped in the Utah mine has been no exception. However, it is Newsweek that has forced it's way past the generous boundaries of my tolerance with the media.
I am, for the record, furious!
The August 13, 2007 Newsweek squandered two entire pages...pages 44 & 45...when you allowed Kathleen Deveny (with Julie Scelfo) to publish an article that might have easily been confused with a run of the mill mother-hack rant found on the general blogosphere, NOT in Newsweek. Shame, shame, shame on you!!!
Ms. Deveney, may I call you Kathleen? Kathleen, I would like to know I what I have done to you to deserve your broadly brushed personal criticism? Are circulation numbers so high at Newsweek that Jon Meacham has given you the green light to to alienate your current and future intelligent maternal readers by referring to me, and others, as narcissistic mommies?
Do you really want to know why YOU think I am a "narcissistic mommy"? HEY LADY - IT'S BECAUSE I READ NEWSWEEK. I read and absorb all of the fear based reports and studies and surveys and expert opinions that mainstream media - LIKE NEWSWEEK - continues to publish insisting that I, the narcissistic mommy, must read so that I may adequately protect, feed, nurture, medicate, educate and provide for my child! I read your "newsmagazine" and then you offend me for intellectualizing what I read. Come off it.
If I sound mad - good - I am. I am truly tired of shiftless journalists. I am "fed up" with lazy copy editors. Am I to quietly accept being overlooked, offended and used by mainstream media while Kathleen gets two full pages to have a bizarre pity party about the very subjects she insists on promoting?
I, too, know all about this trumped up mommy war. But, let me let you in on a little secret sister. Don't tell anyone you heard it from me but, there is no mommy war! The media continues to abuse this destructive, abused and played out phrase. Is it just my imagination or is this invisible mommy war the media's favorite topic on slow news days? Give it a rest already. The media loves to create and cover a good cat fight...just look at The View. Please, please, please stop using the "mommy wars" to make a mockery of women.
Raise the standard, I dare you!
On that note, Kathleen, I have to ask you, what has happened to your writing? What is the root cause of your transformation from intelligent business writer to authoring today's published article titled Yummy vs. Slummy? Why have you abandoned your writing talents and replaced your once thoughtful and provocative articles with boring, unhelpful and banal content? And, why on earth are you taking Julie down this mindless journalistic path with you?
Do you honestly believe that I am the slightest bit interested in Brittany, Paris, Nicole or Lindsay? Do you really think that the your media obsession with these young women is more important to me than my concern about the sharply rising costs of sending my kids to college? To borrow your phrase, "I am bored to death with talking, hearing and reading about" twenty-something Hollywood creations and their train wreck lives that have been fabricated and financed by mainstream media. I don't know these girls you continue to insist that I should. Their girls and their lives make no sense to me. Besides, I don't have time in my narcissistic mommy day to think about them. According to your article, I am much too busy bothering you by talking
