Thirty years ago this summer, the late Glenn Shelton wrote one of his HIRED HAND columns for the WICHITA FALLS (Texas) RECORD NEWS. Shelton, who wore his cultural conservatism proudly, made a remark alleging that young people would have been more willing to go to Vietnam if they had been listening to Glenn Miller instead of The Beatles.
In the year 2009, Tim Rutten--LOS ANGELES TIMES columnist (who used to whine about the decline of the Los Angeles he knew in columns of two decades ago), husband of superlawyer Leslie Abramson (defender of the Menendez brothers) and also the ghostwriter for Johnnie Cochran's autobiography-- vents some disdainful observations about Michael Jackson, American inability to value the kind of high culture Tim Rutten adores, the fears that Old Journalism will crumble further in favor of coverage-determined-by-number-of-online-hits and oversaturated coverage of celebrity deaths: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rutten27-2009jun27,0,7268941.column
To be fair to Rutten, he probably has at least half a point about how cable can be monomaniacal about covering one Big Story while ignoring other things happening in the nation and the world.
But, to me, he's no more than a rich man's variant on Glenn Shelton--peddling the same kind of persnickety contempt and fearfulness.
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