‘Media Diet’: The Atlantic Wire Teaches Us How To Know Everything
Everyone has that one incorrigible media junkie in their circle of friends. You know, the one who greets you every morning with “did you see the latest video of Griff Jenkins ambushing a Congressman?” or “Michael Calderone is leaving Politico!” Turns out there’s an entire industry of those people (if not an entire nation), and The Atlantic Wire has taken on the formidable task of chronicling their information consumption habits. Here’s your semi-weekly Media Diet.
“Media Diet”—or “What I Read”– began close to home in early February with Atlantic political editor Marc Ambinder. It’s part diary of the profiled, part anthropology study for the magazine: take a trip through the average day in the life of someone who has turned their media obsession into a career. The feature’s introduction explains that it began in response to the fear that “other people can read faster, or have some secret formula that allows them to converse knowledgeably at 8 a.m. about an item this morning on paidcontent.org.” You know, that person. “Media Diet” attempts to figure out just how to lead a happy life while simultaneously following your favorite pundit’s every move.
After the Ambinder profile, they soon expanded to some of the biggest names in the business: Tucker Carlson, Andrew Breitbart, Frank Rich, and coming full circle this week with Atlantic senior editor Joshua Green. And with an endless supply of media personalities, Atlantic Wire executive editor Ben Carlson tells Mediaite that “What I Read” is here to stay– “we’ll keep running them as long as they’re interesting.” The key to keeping them interesting, of course, is the people profiled. Luckily, there is no shortage of obsessive Blackberry checkers in this industry, and even if there were, Carlson says it’s not the only place the magazine is fishing for contributors: “we’re looking to expand into entertainment, politics, technology, sports—anything that would be interesting to our readers.” So while an edition of “Sarah Palin: What I Read” seems farfetched for obvious reasons, don’t count out some more creative editions of the series from any and all walks of life—as long as they consume media.
