The media and the "alpha girls"

This is a rather old article (2002) but, except for the last couple of paragraphs, is compellingly current. I was alerted to this b/c the author died today and this article won a pretigious blogging award. You might want to skim the lengthy early section (though very well-written), discussing high school cliques, and get to the sizzling political commentary/media critique. A brief excerpt appears below.

http://rittenhouse.blogspot.com/2002/11/al-gore-and-alpha-girls-enduring-power.html

Monday, November 25, 2002
James Martin Cappazzola
AL GORE AND THE ALPHA GIRLS
The Enduring Power of Cliques in a Post-High-School World

Not long ago a newly found colleague, if I may call him that, lamented the harsh tone adopted by many webloggers. (He did not put this comment directly to me, but we both knew he well could have.) My response was that webloggers, some of whom I find smarter, more eloquent, and more perceptive than a sizable portion of their professional counterparts, do not share the punditburo’s status anxiety and do not join with the punditboro in enthusiastically casting aside whatever principles they might have in a craven effort to curry favor with their colleagues.

The media’s Betas, in their quest for higher professional status and a more public personal profile, fear nothing more than alienating the industry’s powerful Alphas. And for this reason, Betas hold back, mute their voices, temper their criticisms. Regularly. Consistently. Shamelessly. The Betas know who the gatekeepers are. They know that arguing too strongly against eliminating the estate tax would hurt their chances of appearing in The Wall Street Journal. They know that any hint of recognition that the Palestinians are human beings and not animals will result in their being permanently blackballed by the New Republic. And they know that expressing opposition to school vouchers or the privatization of Social Security will keep them from securing a plumb appointment in the Bush administration. The media consumer is poorly served by this rampant but well hidden journalistic deceit.