Damn We’re Hot

D.C. journalists have been doing their best to prove that, doggunit, we’re not a bunch of wiry, pencil-necked geeks. Usually, though, those chants fall on deaf ears, as everyone still maintains that a.) there’s no way that journalists could ever be hot and b.) especially if they’re from D.C.

Until now…Word of our hotness is spreading as far as Seattle. Seattle Weekly’s Brian Miller thinks we can sexy our way out of the MSM slump.

Some of my colleagues bemoan the loss of influence of the mainstream media (MSM), wailing about declining newspaper circulation, staff cuts, and the rise of amateur bloggers on the Web. I say, bring ‘em on–so long as they look like Wonkette (aka Ana Marie Cox) or Yahoo’s new stud-in-the-war zone, Kevin Sites. We should all follow the example of The New York Times’ remarkably well-preserved Maureen Dowd, who, when she purrs her way onto TV talk shows, makes Charlie Rose, Robert Novak, and company look even more like the fossils they are. The MSM is overdue for a makeover. Who wants to work at The New Republic when you could work at The New Republic of Shattered Glass–an office populated with Peter Sarsgaard, Rosario Dawson, and Chloe Sevigny.

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