For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.
Traditionally we think the fashion editor of a newspaper should
stick to the fashion industry and not get involved in politics.
But not Robin Givhan, who oversees fashion coverage for The
Washington Post.
Givhan achieved national
notoriety for a July 20, 2007, column
in which she focused on Hillary Clinton's cleavage during a
speech on the Senate floor. In essence, Givhan felt it was
of journalistic value to become aghast by what she perceived
as a low-cut neckline. Givhan called it "unnerving" and "startling." It "was
more like catching a man with his fly unzipped," Givhan
wrote, "Just look away!"
Now, we should note that The Washington Post has a long history
of dumping important profiles of progressive advocates in the
Style Section, but Givhan has further muddied it up by needlessly
and inexplicably applying slashing "fashion critiques" to
politicians and even their families.
Givhan was nominated for this week's Media Putz by a noted
journalist wishing to remain anonymous. The journalist wrote
about how far Givhan had strayed from fashion writing into
a stiletto cattiness well below the limbo bar of the most basic
journalistic standards.
We excerpt a bit from a recent "fashion
article" in
the Post that Givhan penned about John Edwards:
"His body language doesn't match his workingman wardrobe,
either. He has a tendency to underscore his points with a familiar
gesture that surely must be attached to the gene that harbors
political striving: the thumb jab. To hammer home a sentence,
he pounds away at it with his hands curled into a thumbs-up
configuration. Does anyone other than a politician jab their
thumb into the air as they speak? Who has ever witnessed thumb
jabbing on the factory floor? In line at McDonald's?"
What in the world does the above paragraph have to do with
fashion writing? It sounds like Peggy Noonan after a martini.
Robin Givhan, please send us a photograph of you at an "after
party": we'd love to do a fashion review of your attire
and gestures. We'll send it off to the National Enquirer. That's
about the only place that would publish it.
For setting a new low in "fashion coverage," Robin
Givhan you are awarded the "Coco Chanel" BuzzFlash
Media Putz of the Week Award.
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