XBIZ and AVN
Rivalries can be fun.
When the normal course of things provides neither spoils nor perils of sufficient magnitude to inspire our best efforts, competitors can decide to become combatants. When such is the case, there can be no small disagreements. Every “victory” inflates, and every “defeat” is a bitter pill.
The artificially enlarged significance of trivial matters can transform the mundane into grandiose symbols and it can fuel true progress — but it can also wear you out.
Though there are others, AVN and XBIZ are regarded as the industry’s two primary editorial voices. During the last two years, I have watched the rivalry between them swell, and I have watched friends and colleagues take sides. Though at times certain definitive adjectives have suggested themselves in my mind in connection with one magazine or the other, I cannot embrace them.
Tough call — I admire both rags for different reasons — I guess the question comes down to what it is you’re looking for as a reader when you turn the pages…
Journalism is a truly fascinating field. on the one hand, it is elevated by an extraordinary ethical standard — comparable to the weighty oaths undertaken by physicians and attorneys — the journalistic ideal, reportage, telling it like it was — and only how it was, unembellished, untainted, undistorted, etc, etc..
Sounds like hard work, right — well, i’ll bet it is. i may like to write, but i was never attracted to journalism — maybe it had something to do with what i knew or what i thought i knew about the profession. i met some journalism majors in college — and they were what you’d expect — puffed up with all the idealism that pervades journalism classes, if not newsrooms — lol. and there’s nothing wrong with that — i’m actually something of an idealist in my own way, myself. i define an idealist like this: someone who is actively holding themselves to (or at least constantly measuring themselves against) a standard of their own choosing — the great thing about idealism (and of journalism for being under that umbrella) is that it can take up all the room inside your soul that most people give over to religion, give you that same feeling of righteousness, invincibility and correctness that religious crusaders must get, i’m assuming — but, you get all of that without having to pledge allegiance to a pre-existing, EXTERNAL moral system — not a bad deal, eh — think about it — think about in THIS way — being an idealist gives you all the benefits of religious zealotry (but one, teensy one) and none of the accountability that people face when the standards against which THEY are being measured are not only immutable, but publicly known — which is why there are no religions of one — i’m not saying you can’t be spiritual (easy Tala) — i’m saying that religion gives you the opportunity to disappoint God (or at least to disappoint the people who talk to God and let ya know what he thought about the things ya did) — either way, you’re not alone, you are accountable. but, with idealism, the worst you can do is disappoint yourself —
Now back to journalism, avn and xbiz…
Any of you ever see this movie…?
These guys are idealists, hardcore — and they are also extremely bright and extremely talented — which means, unless you are very, very careful, everything you do decays into self-indulgence. and for an idealist, that is death — an idealist must always believe that (even though he is usually only struggling with himself) that the struggle is a heroic struggle
Sometimes, all an idealist has to nourish him is that feeling of heroism.
I am absolutely certain you are all wondering by now HOW THE FUCK this is going to tie into avn, xbiz and “current events” — lol
As I confessed above, i am something of an idealist. and as an idealist you understand — understand! — hell, it’s idealism’s biggest selling point — that occasionally you have to cross your own line, you have to accept that an ideal (perhaps one you’ve been cherishing for a very long time) has outlived its usefulness, and needs to be replaced with something a little more — shall we say, modern.
Now, as i already said, I am a fan of both outlets, with good friends in both, but i have observed them both trying on new ideals for size — and that’s always necessarily embarrassing — kinda like when someone interrupts you in the middle of going to the bathroom. but i think we should allow avn and xbiz the same tolerance, the same understanding we would allow any FRIEND who was going through a transformative period in their lives — i mean, ultimately, what do we want for our friends — that their behavior never evolve beyond what we have grown accustomed to, or that they develop into the people they need to be — via trial and error.
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RATHER THAN CONDEMN INCONSISTENCY, LET’S OFFER FEEDBACK, INSTEAD, SO THAT OUR “FRIENDS” MAY KNOW HOW WE FEEL — IN THE MOMENT, LIKE A FAMILY WOULD. THIS WAY, IF EVER AGAIN THEY FIND THEMSELVES TRYING ON NEW IDEALS FOR SIZE, MAYBE WHEN NOBODY’S LOOKING, WE CAN BE PRESENT THERE IN THEIR MINDS, AT WHAT WILL PROBABLY BE A NECESSARILY VERY DIFFICULT MOMENT FOR THEM — KINDA LIKE A — I DUNNO — CONSCIENCE –
Now that we’re all feeling so cozy, I’m going to venture an observation that I think applies as much to XBIZ as to AVN (not to mention to Robert and Dustin above) — for an entire industry to have a relationship (or a feeling of relationship) with a news agency is an extremely unusual and special thing. it ties in to some of our oldest human instincts and gratifications. for, in a sense, calling us everyday together to be informed (”nourished”) by you (and GFY is certainly included in the metaphor, but not in the adminition) you are like parents to us — we trust you because we know — like parents — that you struggle on our behalf, in some way — if only to keep the order — lol (Lens ) — most of that trust, and the very thing that makes it possible to feel a relationship with little more than an editorial posture is the feeling that you are looking out for us — give us that and just that, and you’ll have all our loyalty –:)
journalism | ethics | rivalry
