The Ubiquity of Jack Shafer

Where did Slate's Jack Shafer come from (link via the very cool Gawker)? All of a sudden Shafer is all over the media like The New York Times' RW Apple on a cheesecake! Is he a Raelian clone? Has there ever been a more ambitious and successful online media personality covering the media? How does he do it? Every day this man figures out an angle to get him injected onto the media landscape. And boy, are we jealous! (And you thought the green eyed monster was the post-St. Patty's Day hangover)

Since The Corsair is so very bored with David Brooks(zzzz), we are now going to turn our attention to a media persona worth our snarky level gaze. So, without further ado, we inaugurate Shafer Watch (which is like Baywatch without all those meaningful jiggles):

Thursday March 11: "Publishes" tirade against our pals Gawker and Wonkette on Slate, "The Heaving Pukes Who Write Gawker and Wonkette." Upside: Gains attention from Poynter.org, which is important. And the Wonkette-Gawker reprisal means greater exposure. Downside: Reprisal? Payback is a bitch, Shafer; payback (sotto voce) is a bitch. Performance: B

Sunday: New York Times Book Review, bashes Jayson Blair, for the umpteenth time, on behalf of all journalists, in the Old Gray Lady. Upside: The last word on the media story of the year. Downside: By Sunday, March 13th, Shafer was a little behind the curve, no? Performance: B Minus.

Thursday: Apparently he wasn't the last word. Apparently, more needed to be said about Jayson Blair. "I played a small role in the Blair aggrandizement with a negative review of Burning Down in the March 14 New York Times Book Review." Really, Jack? Thanks for the disclosure, seeing as no one who reads your Slate piece would otherwise be aware. Upside: More media attention. Downside: Looks like you are stretching it a little bit thin, Shafer, especially when you have to rely on this sort of thing: "Allowing Jayson Blair to judge the ethics of a writer�or publication�is a little like green-lighting Joseph Mengele to lead a malpractice investigation of Marcus Welby." Let's leave Mengele out of this, Jack, and while you're at it ... we liked Marcus Welby. Performance: C plus.

Who knows what Jack Shafer will do next, but we can count on one thing: it will be covered by the media. But we don't playa hate here (shifts uncomfortably in seat) ... okay, maybe we do, but -- you -- don't playa hate, congratulate. And Jack Shafer is worthy of the kudos, he has somehow become as big a story as the people he covers in the media. Tell us how to do it, Jack ...