Old Media Is Eating New Media's Pulsating Heart

This week, there is so much love and glamor and just barely news floating around you'd think it was August, or the summer of sharks. But it's just that odd period of convergence where the mainstream media is clapping its hands and the rest of us, quite suddenly, are a bit embarrassed about all of the attention.

First off, Ross Catrow and John Murden were tagged by Style Weekly in the annual Power List for their impact on the way Richmond does the business of communicating news and information. Yes, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. That's Ross and John for you.

Then, Brandon Fox and I were slathered with the buttery love that is Richmond Magazine's annual Best & Worst list -- Buttermilk & Molasses landed the Best Weblog Produced By White Men Over 60 and Brandon Eats was awarded second place for being cute.

But the kicker was the media attraction to the satire that is Tobacco Avenue. Their Gene Cox story got picked up by WRVA as a news item and all sorts of kooky coverage ensued. Ol' Melissa Ruggieri at the Times-Dispatch even covered it:

Today’s minor flap with local blog Tobacco Avenue and WRVA morning host Jimmy Barrett didn’t prompt more than a shrug from the man at the center of the (fake) story — Channel 12 anchor Gene Cox.

In case you didn’t hear, the blog http://tarichmond.com, which is clearly a “Daily Show”-type site of satirized news, reported that Cox went “absolutely ape****” that Style Weekly didn’t include him in its annual Power List. 

This morning, WRVA’s Barrett mentioned the story, which some listeners may have perceived as fact, and turned it into his Question of the Day on the WRVA Web site...

... Barrett couldn’t be reached for comment, but Cox was unruffled by the trifling situation.

“I don’t really care,” he said Thursday evening. “The only thing that bothers me is if someone were to think it were true. I didn’t hear it. I never listen to WRVA, but I guess somebody does. I didn’t know about it until I got to work and someone sent [the blog post] to me .¤.¤. I know I’m open game because I hang my face out there.”

Apparently, the problem with being relevent is that people start paying attention to you.