July 9, 2004

Today is the day to put on the rally cap.

Buy my book!

There are a lot of bloggers. However, there are very few who are known on a first (blog) name basis to the rest of the Internet. Today's interviewee is one of those. She is the proprietess of Wonkette, Washington DC's answer to Gawker. She has been called vain, trash-mouthed, raunchy and inaccurate, but she has been called that by the likes of the Village Voice, Andrew Sullivan, the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor. Plus, hot off the presses, she has been recruited by MTV news to cover the Democratic Convention. So yeah, sorry, despite all the work you do, her blog is still more widely-read than Jenniferzblog.geocities.com.

The Ana Marie Cox Interview: Slightly Less Than Twenty Questions

Do you think that the current fascination with bloggers is a fad? If so, when do you predict it's due to crest and why?
Depends on whose fascination you're talking about. The mainstream press's coverage of blogging will definitely fade as blogging itself becomes more widespread. The countdown to a crest began when Glenn Reynolds got the NYT to make a correction about his name, and it reached a midway point when Time magazine did a story on blogging.

But people will blog long after Wal-mart starts selling "I'd rather be blogging" t-shirts. There are fashion/trend cycles and there are obsessions: I know this will shock folks, but people didn't suddenly stop doing zines in 1998, either.

It seems that unless you're in political office, the only way to get famous in DC if you're a woman, is to sleep around, get murdered, or report on said escapades and murders. Agree?

No.

But you probably want more than that. . . Well, let's start with the exceptions, who are the town's "serious" female political journalists - Judy Woodruff, Karen Tumulty, Candy Crowley, Dana Priest, well, it's nice to realize that I can't name all of them. These woman may have reported on Lewinsky or Condit, but they're not famous for it. They're famous because they're good journalists.

It's true that they are not that famous, but who in DC is? Can an average American name any male Washington figure who isn't a White House occupant or gunning to be? There's sexism in Washington, and it may even be worse here than most places, but getting people to stories that aren't about sex or violence is an even bigger hurdle to fame.

If you're not into politics in DC, what do you think is the second most talked about issue?
Probably revolves around commuting: either the traffic or the notoriously vigilant parking police.

When I lived in DC, I liked the town, but felt like it lacked a universal personality, i.e. an East Coast sophistication, a Southern hospitality, a Midwest friendliness, possibly because most people who are there are not from there. Do you agree? If not, what IS the town's personality?
Well, there are many Washingtons - I think that there is a local culture most of us in the media don't experience that is profoundly Southern. You catch glimpses of this among the very rich and the very poor, the families that have been here for generations. The media-politics axis here has its own culture, too - it's a more deferential version of New York's media class, perhaps. People are more polite here and geekier at the same time. DC professionals place a premium on keeping up cordial appearances, despite whatever feuds or party allegiances might exist. Everyone is friendly in person and everyone invites everyone to parties. The geekier aspects come out in what people talk about at those parties - it's exactly what you'd think. Even when people get drunk, the gossip is about administration comings and goings and bureau hirings and firings. . . Affairs are noteworthy to the extent they effect the rhythms of politics or coverage of politics.

You describe yourself as a 'failed journalist.' Where did you fail, and why?
I would think that not being able to find steady work counts as failing.

You get some unflattering critiques along with your mountain of press. Does it ever bother you, or are you able to let it roll off you? Is it ever personal? Why do you think that is?
It can get personal, of course it can get personal. Anyone who says they can listen or read a daily barrage of slurs and attacks and just let it roll off is either a sociopath or lying. The trick is to keep going despite the attacks. Whenever a criticism or a slam hits me particularly hard, I try to figure out if that's because it's touched on a truth or if I'm just feeling sensitive that day. If I feel hurt because the person has - perhaps inadvertently - touched on something that is a genuine weakness, well, then I have to think about what I might do differently, if there's a reason to regret or apologize. The only way to get through being attacked every day is to believe in what I'm doing. Which might sounds awfully pretentious for a girl who makes dick jokes all the time, but it's true.

Elizabeth Spiers said that she used a different persona when she wrote Gawker. Is this the same with you, or is the Wonkette we get the same Ana Marie we meet?
I'd say Wonkette is Ana Marie after a few too many margaritas.

Speaking of which, Michelle Mankin, in light of the whole Washingtonienne to-do, mentioned what Jessica Cutler's parents must think or know about her. Do your parents chime in with thoughts about Wonkette?
Yes. They seem to like it, which is great. I come from a very vulgar family, where fart jokes were a regular part of dinner conversation - they sort of broke the tension between political debates. And my parents know me well enough to realize that the jokes I make about myself are largely just that.

If you were an outside reporter/blogger looking in on the Washingtonienne affair, without knowing Cutler, is there anything in particular you would focus on/parody?
Tough question. I think I did a sucky job with my interview of her - I came across as sort of star-struck. I don't think I was - I think I was just woefully unprepared. But that would be a start. I wish that I had been harder on the men involved, too, so someone else might have fun with that. Like, the Bush appointee that she had sex with probably makes a fraction of $300K - where's his book deal?

Are you working on a book? If not, would you work on something in the vein of fiction-gossip? A bloggy Kate Lee book? Or something completely different?
Not working on anything right now. Just trying to get twelve posts a day up is hard enough.

Was your sense of humor influenced by any particular people, places or experiences?
I was a chubby, uncoordinated red head with coke-bottle glasses and freckles who didn't figure out until well into junior high that telling people that "reading" was your favorite hobby was not a great way to make friends. And we moved around a lot - I would be mocked by a different group of popular kids almost every year. It sort of sucked, but when people laugh at you, figuring out reasons to laugh at them is an important coping mechanism.

My parents were also of the hands-off progressive school when it came to what kinds of things I could read or watch, and that freedom probably influenced me almost as much as any particular source. I remember getting a TV for my 10th birthday and staying up late to watch SCTV, but my mom also used to read me to sleep with Shakespeare. (Macbeth gave me nightmares.) I didn't learn to make high-brow/low-brow distinctions until fairly late, which doesn't mean that I'm not a snob, just that I'm a snob about which season of the X-Files is the best as well as about Trollope novels.

How did blogging guru Nick Denton come across you and TheAnticMuse?
I really don't know. I sort of assume that he stumbled across it via TMFTML, which he probably saw via Gawker. . . but I've never asked him.

If Hillary Clinton were to be John Kerry's running mate [ed. note: this question was written in the pre-Edwards days] , what would you get ready to 'riff' (if you will) on?
Well, the ice-skating opportunities now available in hell would be a start.

It seems to me, but maybe I'm wrong, that the online must-reads prior to sites like yours and Gawker were literary sites like McSweeney's (although I may be wrong.) If you could forecast what may evolve from where you are, what would you see happening in the future in terms of online writing/entertainment? (Other than more porn.)
What about literary political porn? Really, I'm terrible at this stuff. Some people have big plans for crap like audioblogs or videoblogs, but that stuff doesn't seem like it fits into the way people consume online writing now - i.e., something you do while procrastinating at work. I think it sort of depends on where the technology takes us, but the idea of instant commentary on current events is a pretty strong one. . . I imagine it could be ridden out in various forms for awhile.

Has your life changed much since doing Wonkette? What are you going to do afterwards?
I am later to most things now. I used to be very punctual, but now There's always something more to blog. Or an email to answer. Or someone to instant message. So I always get out the door at least 15 minutes past when I meant to. Other than that - the lifestyle itself is not much different than freelancing, just busier. I am in general over-committed. I should have finished this questionnaire about a month ago, for instance.

What's with Air America? Why isn't it doing better?
Bad business model. . . trying to roll out with a full schedule seemed like folly to me then, and it doesn't seem to have worked. Better to have come out with one strong show and then built on that. As it is, they have, what, 12 hours of mediocre programming. Nothing's a must-listen, nothing is a real flagship. . . they wanted to introduce the Rush of the left but the model forced them to try to create the Rush/Hannity/G. Gordon Liddy/Dr. Laura of the left all at once. The programming itself, well, I have my problems with it but programming doesn't have to be good to succeed. And I do think the market for liberal news exists.

Do you ever receive tips that you're afraid to post, real or not?
Of course I do.

How does it feel to be the 98th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Am I still 98th? Surely I'm much further down the list by now, and because I was so late getting this to you, I feel ashamed to be that number.