There’s a certain kind of flattery associated with being the subject of a parody. In this modern age, it may be the best indication that you’ve finally “made it.” After all, for something to be worth parodying, it has to be relevant enough for other people to get the joke. If the new Milquetoast Xpress parody site (created by longtime Mountain Xpress critic David Connor Jones) is any indication, we’ve finally joined the big leagues of local media.
With plenty of sarcastic nods to both the content and personalities that make up the Xpress — including a whole section devoted to reporter David Forbes — it’s hard not to appreciate the time and effort Jones put into the parody site. Even the “wanna write?” page, the project may just be the tongue-in-cheek start of a “new independent weekly newspaper right here in the land of the sky.”
Now that’s funny.
Who knew David Forbes was such a force to be reckoned with…according to the parody, he’s close to being the next Edward R. Murrow.
He can drive one to insanity and bust up a business at the stroke of his pen…..I’m impressed.
Hell yeah! When can I pick up an issue of this new rag at a gas station, restaurant, etc?
Too bad it’s not cleverer. I could make much better fun of me.
. . .(created by longtime Mountain Xpress critic David Connor Jones) . . .
Other than a letter by David Connor Jones criticizing coverage of URTV, are there other issues he has had?
Do they have to be issues he personally had?
What other issues would they be, Johnny?
Who can spot the “Best in Show” reference?
Sorry, not “Best in Show”, but “A Mighty Wind”.
Eh. I’m not a fan of Xpress, but Mr. Jones appears to have way too much time on his hands. Perhaps he should channel some of his energy into staring his own, legitimate newspaper. Then again, sitting back and criticizing other people’s work is so much easier.
Might be funny if it wasn’t just so… creepy.
Unaffiliated Egoist,
perhaps you have too much time on your own hands.
Rube: Forbes is not so much a “force to be reckoned with,” but a problem to be resolved.
Boatrocker: I think that day might eventually arrive.
Ken: I feel pretty sure you could submit something lampooning yourself, cleverer or not, and it would get published. Like the Xpress, of which the Milquetoast is simply a parasite, the benchmark for publication is not very high.
Curious: I can thing of plenty of other issues with the Xpress that one might have, besides its negative coverage of URTV.
-Zero in depth coverage of our Health Insurance congressman, Heath Shuler.
-Zero coverage of Belle Chere city embezzlement scandal.
-Zero coverage of upcoming city council votes that actually matter locally, like the recent vote to exclude city input on the development of new city structures up to 175,000 square feet. (Bill Branyon can ramble about it after the fact until the cows come home.)
-The fact that the arts an entertainment “journalist” has a moto that reads: “Deciding which shows you should see, so you don’t have to.”
-The fact that no there gets that Forbes can’t adequately cover a “controversy.”
Good one, Dustin. You must be personal friends with Mr. Jones.
A rudimentary comparison between the Milquetoast Express and Forbe’s blog shows a vast difference in levels of intellect. One is light years above the other.
http://thebreakingtime.typepad.com/the_breaking_time/2011/01/tedtopia-the-new-global-elite-and-its-discontent.html
Ye gads, look at all the work Forbes has put into this blog! It is almost like he is a full time national blogger and a part time local journalist! (Maybe this explains why his Xpress work is so poorly done and poorly received by the community.)
Just think what his URTV and Buchi and Cecil Bothwell articles could have been had he put a quarter as much time into getting them right!
It is difficult to read this “out of this world” blog linked above that Forbes supposedly creates all by himself each week and reconcile it with the writing style evidenced in his work for The Mountain Xpress.
I wonder who actually reads this stellar blog of his? It was supposedly begun back in 2008, and seems to have been updated weekly, and yet I see almost ZERO comments on ANY of these “articles,” which are merely editorials and opinion pieces about national and international events and music videos and comic books and presidents and civil rights leaders and gang slayings in mexico and really everything under the sun. Unfortunately, I could not find any hard journalism here. Local or national. ZERO investigative journalism.
But if this really is all his work, then I can only throw my hands up and say, “Alas! If only he would devote half the time he must spend on his mish-mash flytrap blog to an article about a local matter for the Xpress!”
What do you say, Forbes? Put down your blog-in-a-vaccuum and just try to thoroughly research and accurately represent the multiple perspectives of a single local story. We will all be much better off.
[BS-o-meter: I suggest you turn your meter towards yourself. My little Milktoast Xpress site is a passing joke, it is not supposed be “journalism” reflecting multiple perspectives of issues that effect our community. Comparing one man’s passing joke to another man’s ostensible calling in life is itself BS.]