JOEL STEIN DOESN’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU…
January 2nd, 2007
Prediction No. 1: Joel Stein’s emailbox has already crashed the Los Angeles Times email system. Prediction No. 2: a lot of bloggers are going to be up in arms because of Stein’s attitude toward people sending him emails. How much does Stein not want people to send him email? Ho boy, does he not want people to send him emails.
From this morning’s LA Times:
That address on the bottom of this column? That is the pathetic, confused death knell of the once-proud newspaper industry, and I want nothing to do with it. Sending an e-mail to that address is about as useful as sending your study group report about Iraq to the president.
Here’s what my Internet-fearing editors have failed to understand: I don’t want to talk to you; I want to talk at you. A column is not my attempt to engage in a conversation with you. I have more than enough people to converse with. And I don’t listen to them either. That sound on the phone, Mom, is me typing.
Some newspapers even list the phone numbers of their reporters at the end of their articles. That’s a smart use of their employees’ time. Why not just save a step and have them set up a folding table at a senior citizen center with a sign asking for complaints?
That’s how much Stein doesn’t want to hear from his readers.
And you know what? That’s OK with me, because I don’t read Stein’s columns; he doesn’t say anything of interest to me. So let him pound the keyboard in peace. Don’t email him. Don’t call him. Don’t stop him in the street. Let him be happy talking at you.
I’ll stick with people who want to have a conversation.
It is all about the conversation.
Mike Royko is, no doubt, throwing beer glasses at the back bar in the Heavenly Billy Goat.
Joel Stein: Climbing off the Clue Train
Lots of anger and derision surrounding Joel Stein’s combative op-ed in the L.A. Times, in which he snubs readers’ opinions. Edward Champion writes: “Adapt or Perish Mr. Stein. Op-ed columnists are a dime a dozen these days.” Jeff Hess…
Oh, that’s rich. In fact, by writing that he might as well have set up a folding table at a senior citizen center with a sign asking for complaints… But I’m onto his reverse psychology and I’m afraid all I have for him is a cynical shrug and a “Meh.” Not only do I hold out for the conversation, but the conversation with the people I want to talk to. I just don’t think he makes the list.
Shalom Sue,
First, thank you for stopping in, for reading and, most importantly, for taking the time to write a comment. It’s all about the conversation.
As a writer and an educator I believe that there are too many people in our lives that want to just talk at us. To do so requires no thinking, it’s just a verbal memory dump and not very helpful.
B’shalom,
Jeff
Jeff…
wow, just goes to show what Joel Stein *doesn’t* get about interactivity…
I wrote a piece for Online Journalism Review back in June on journalists and interactivity, and one of the points that was stressed was for journalists to NOT have an emotional reaction every email or comment on what they write. Apparently, Stein can’t imagine not reacting to things…
In my college days, that would have been a sign that he was a tad unbalanced and needed to learn to be more rational. Or that’s at least what my Ethics prof might have said.
Although perhaps some of what he’s hissy-fitting about has to do with the LA Times’ complete lack of policy and guidance for journalists on how to deal with interaction. Remeber the Michael Hiltzik incident? He was the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist whose sock puppetry got found out–which resulted in his losing his blog and column. Part of his “problem” was that no one ever told him that sock puppetry wasn’t acceptable before they let him loose in the blogosphere.
So, Stein will be Stein. He’ll sink or swim according to the powers that be–not necessarily because of too many or too little email from readers…and I’d rather read people who “get” what’s going on out here, not pampered prima donnas.
:-)
T.
Shalom Tish,
I never particularly cared for Stein when he was at Time and I haven’t read anything of his since (with this one exception), but he could have just quietly ignored his Los Angles Times email account (unless the paper is stupid enough to have his public email also serve as his internal email) and left it at that.
No. He’s feeling guilty about something, I have no idea what, and I couldn’t care less what it is.
Adults don’t talk at each other (at least not for long) and I’m not likely to listen to anyone who’s not interested in listening to me.
My third prediction? This will all go away in the next 72 hours and it will be Joel who?
B’shalom,
Jeff
[...] Is what ever Joel Stein has catching? Was there a dead-tree media convention where there was something in the water? The New York Time’s David Carr decided that since he has a blog (gasp! a bona fide journalist with a blog!) that he should let his readers know not to panic. In fact he told his readers that they should: [...]
Who cares? If he doesn’t want to talk, let him be. He has the right to a life. If he wrote everyone back, it would waste his time and he isn’t getting compensated for it.
Shalom Elizabeth,
First, thank you for stopping in, for reading and, most importantly, for taking the time to leave a comment. It’s all about the conversation.
And that’s really my point. If Klein were really interested in not talking to people, he’d gasp not talk to people.
But he had to use his column with its large readership to tell everyone that he didn’t want to talk with his readership; that he’s not interested in the conversation.
How much time do you spend listening to someone who isn’t hearing what you have to say?
B’shalom,
Jeff
I did find that sort of humorous, because he listed his email on his website…but then I thought about it for a while, and it does make SOME sense. He said “Maybe you’re a giant corporation who needs to pay someone a lot to speak at your boring meeting in Aspen. Or maybe you’re a magazine editor who needs to send someone to Hawaii to interview Angelina Jolie and you want to shell out three dollars a word for it.”
So, really, he didn’t invite random fans or Joel-haters to email him, he was sort of looking for a better job…that’s just my perception.
Jeff,
This is the first time I read through this post.
“…I have more than enough people to converse with. And I don’t listen to them either. That sound on the phone, Mom, is me typing…”
I knew a guy like this when I went to boot camp. He was an intelligent kid, but lacked much wisdom. He liked to lecture at and talk at people as well, constantly telling others how he was better than them and such.
At first I really wanted to tear into this kid both verbally and physically. I was intelligent enough to battle wits with him, yet down to earth enough to know when one should just stomp a mud hole and walk it dry.
But I began to realize what the issue really was at the heart of the matter: he needed to be reassured. He needed to be reassured that he mattered, that his intelligence mattered, that when he was placed on a pedastool and praised by “friends” and family, it was all genuine.
So I would walk away. Give him the “meh” and keep doing what needed to be done. My peers began to follow suit. Eventually one night, depressed and alone, he hung himself…okay he didn’t hang himself, but he did realize that no one was going to affirm his need. No one was going to meet him down at his level.
Eventually his tone changed and he began to learn to adapt and to see people as fellow human beings.
I think Joel Stein has that same need. His words echo that of a two year old crying out; “…look what I can do! Look what I can do!”
Maybe if no one meets that need he will hang himself…again kidding. Perhaps he’ll grow up. Intelligence is a wonderful gift, but without wisdom and discernment it is as a loaded pistol in the hands of a child.
Blessings,
Michael
Shalom Michael,
Humans in general have a great need to be liked as part of a community. I think that where we have the most trouble is understanding what that means and how to translate that into action.
Rabbi Hillel wrote: do not do to others that which is hateful to yourself.
Jesus said: do to others as you would have others do to you.
The two statements are similar, but not equivalent. And there’s a reason that every faith system I know of has some version of these maxims at their core.
Thank you for the wonderful insight.
B’shalom,
Jeff