Michael Wolff Spins



One has to admire the media savvy of Vanity Fair Media scribbler Michael Wolff. Not only does he get Graydon Carter gushing over his big beautiful lips, but his ability to spin to his advantage in the new york media fishbowl is legendary, his spin is muscular, Wolffean even in craft. The Corsair can only aspire to the attain at some later stage in his media development a "Wolff-like spin", with it's elaborate Wolffean subtext with touches and tints of the Wolffish. And what not.

Michael Wolff is, quite frankly, talented at what he does, which is write on the media from the dual perspective of a once and, quite possibly future, media owner and, secondly, as a media journo, despite the New Republic's unfair critique (subscription req) of his political analysis. The Corsair has traded a few emails with the man and he seems a solid guy. The Corsair remembers a funny story about Wolff in rare spin mode. He had been selected in 1999 for the Silicon Alley Reporter 100 List, which, at the time was a prestigious list of the New York digeratti. Wolff used the opportunity to spin to the newspapers that there may be a feud at the SAR 100 photo shoot because some of the invitees might not like what he wrote in his chronicle of a failed dotcom Burn Rate. Several stories were written on the possible feud to the delight of my then-boss Jason Calacanis, another sultan of media spin.

Anyhoo: On the question of What Was Your finest Michael's (Restaurant) moment, Wolff spins to Fashionweekdaily, bringing it all back to a subject he really cares about, namely, himself:

"When [then President] Clinton was scheduled to be at Michael�s for lunch at the same time George Stephanopoulos was. Clinton was seated at the front table with Robin Williams, Diane Sawyer, Joe Armstrong, Billy Crystal and Liz Smith. Somehow, the team at Michael�s just seemed to know that I would be in with George that day. Loreal (one of the maitre d�s) at Michael�s called me that morning to let me know that they knew I was having lunch with George that afternoon, and to also say that they knew that George and the President hadn�t spoken in five years. She warned me that the President was also coming in and there could be some awkwardness. It just goes to show their omniscience and their total celebrity pandering masked as absolute discretion."

Namedropping: A minus (The mention of Loreal was de trop)
Human Interest: A
Self Referential: A
Calling George Stephanopoulos By His First Name: A
Overall Grade: A-



Above: Wolff slyly gravitates towards the Steve Kroft-Jim Cramer power nexus. (image via NYSocialDiary)