Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Death Knell for salon.com

Salon.com
Girls gone wild! Introducing Broadsheet, Salon’s cheeky new women’s blog. Today: Dowd-Miller “catfight”? Mary-Hate and Ashley … Plus: Celebrity chef burns women

It’s a sad thing when a publication (print or online) that you’ve come to rely upon for insightful news reporting and interesting feature stories begins to slide from the realm of “can’t start my day without reading it” to the netherworld of “why I am I wasting my time reading this”.

salon.com has, alas, begun that slide and there’s no better evidence of it than their newly introduced “Broadsheet” — a “cheeky new women’s blog”. Argh. “Cheeky”?? I’m embarrassed for anyone even using the word. And there’s simply no reason for a “women’s blog”. It’s a dumb idea. Divisive. Insulting. Frankly, lame.

The truth is, salon.com’s been on the downhill slide for months now and I’ve sort of been in denial over it. I keep waiting for them to publish something fresh and interesting. I mean… they brought back Garrison Keillor! That had to mean they were at least trying, right? Sad to say, even Keillor’s columns have been strangely dull — like they’re rejects from the pile of stuff he’s working on for books or his radio show. Or like he quickly jotted them down the night before they were due. It’s all very depressing.

And where the heck has Cary Tennis been the last couple days? His column has become one of the few reasons I even bother to tune in to salon.com anymore. Maybe he’s bailed. Can’t say I’d blame him.