Boo Friggin' Hoo: Food Critics Want To Take Their Ball And Go Home
The Chron ran an article on Sunday that we really, really wanted to write some commentary on after reading it. "Food bloggers dish up plates of spicy criticism"; subhead "Formerly formal discipline of reviewing becomes a free-for-all for online amateurs."
We really wanted to say something because, well, we think it's a huge load of crap, and somebody, aside from one of the injured parties, has to call bullsh**. For crying out loud, they upset our beloved Tablehopper. They took her quote out of context. How dare you, sirs. How dare you?
So that was Sunday, and here we are on Thursday writing a bit. Why the wait? Well, ranting can be tiresome . . . plus we thought maybe someone else would get to it. But nobody did, and we've been getting emails asking why. And we care about our readers' concerns. Sorry for the delay.
We know from our [insert tongue into cheek] vast media experience that the article's authors probably didn't write the headline or subhead . . . but, gwarsh, how smarmy! "Formerly formal discipline . . . becomes a free-for-all." It's like old, ink-stained media is Real Madrid and Sam, Marcia, and their peers are kindergartners playing AYSO games.
Hello? Whose palate do you think is a closer match to a 30/40-something, net-obsessed San Franciscan:
-- A: Sam of Becks and Posh, who started her blog out of passion (and blessed SFist with her writing for a spell), or
-- B: Michael Bauer, who started a blog in the context of his paid profession because someone over at the House of Bronstein told him to?
Nobody here is saying that traditional food critics don't have value -- an amazing value. We trust Michael Bauer's opinion and rather enjoy him, in fact. But Tablehopper feels like a trusted friend. Becks and Posh is like that coworker you glare at because you want to be just like her. The folks on Yelp are like the rowdy guys you used to hang out with in the high school parking lot (in other words, fun, funny, but turn the BS filter on "high"). Chowhound boards are maybe the smarmy, smart folks that you overhear talking about stuff at the cafe (we trust 'em, but their tastes are probably more refined than ours, in general).
And, Stacy Finz/Justin Berton (and their editor/s)? We're adults. We have a pretty good idea which provides the most value for us. No need to thumb your nose . . . or scold.
That was another thing that really bothered us about this piece. It didn't just talk down to food bloggers and community review sites for changing the boring paradigm-- it scolded them. And, worse, it also presumed to be doing this scolding on behalf of folks like Bauer. Bauer, if you read his blog regularly, seems to be a very even-handed fellow -- we highly doubt that he and the traditional food community at large are quite so dismissive of the blog-o-sphere/net communities as this piece implies they are.
[Mr. Bauer, to his credit, answered some questions about his place in the scheme of things on his Chron blog.]
The article, referring to Sam of Becks & Posh, says that:
"Publicists are reaching out to her with invitations and incentives to come to their clients' restaurants. Breach doesn't believe in accepting free meals, but many bloggers have no qualms about it. The code of ethics from the Association of Food Journalists, an organization for professionals, prohibits reviewers from taking freebies. But bloggers have no such restrictions."
Bloggers' restrictions? Don't make me laugh. Newspapers pay for their critics' meals--and for their critics' time spent dining. By and large, food bloggers pay for themselves. And, honestly, we wouldn't begrude a volunteer food blogger a freebie every so often; restaurants have marketing budgets. If the blogger is trusted by his or her readers and isn't engaging in pay-for-play, well, so what? Still, props to Sam and others that refuse such things.
New restaurants are exciting. Lovers of dining out want to try them, read about them, and hear about them as soon as they possibly can. Why the hell shouldn't we use whatever info is out there? Bauer and his staff, as fine a job as we believe they do, can't cover everything, and they can't do it at the pace food fans want them to. The Web has democratized and personalized our media, our entertainment, our information experiences--we have a lot more venues in which to explore our options. The Web's an amazing tool, one that most of us are pretty good at navigating it by now. Sure, any jerk-off with a blogger account can put his opinion out there for anyone to see--but most can see he's a jerk-off. Anybody who uses Yelp or Chowhound and similar (or reads -ists, or uses wikipedia or whatever else, for that matter) knows that you need to take anything online with a grain of salt! Do you blindly trust what you read in Zagat Guides? Hell no!
We agree that most options on the Web don't have the same gravitas as a tried-and-true food critic, e.g., a Bauer, a Reichl, etc. But all the options out there are thriving because readers want to shape their own reading and information-gathering, and, ultimately, dining experiences. The old critics are still voices of authority, but they're no longer our sole or primary guides.
Hey, newspaper food sections: sorry if you can't stand the heat of a little competition. Chron -- this article was slanted and wrong and not very interesting. Maybe you could learn a thing or two about what people are looking for from Sam, Tablehopper, and other food bloggers.
I mean, we read the Chron's food section regularly -- after (SFist's very own) Jalepeno Girl, Pim, Derek, Greg, Stephanie, KT, Steve & Dan, Cedric, . . . gosh, even after Slashfood . . . and the list goes on . . .