Sleazy alternative media maneuvers

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on May 20th, 2006

In Westword, the alterna-rag out of Denver, the following is penned by Amber Taufen:

Standup comedy hasn’t evolved much since the glory days of ventriloquist and puppet. Every so often, there’s a Gallagher smashing watermelons or a musical funnyman like Jack Black, but for the most part, comedy is a dude on a stage with a microphone, plodding through a joke-punchline-new-joke routine. Boring!

Well, all that is about to change.[…]

It gets better.

Taufen goes on to hype a show being produced by a local (Denver) guy who just so happens to also be a columnist for Westword.

Okay, class, let’s review: A columnist for a local lifestyle, culture, entertainment weekly produces a show, then gets his colleague at that same publication to–

1. Hype the production

and

2. Simultaneously trash other similar forms of comedy which might be said to be competing with said shows

This would be a conflict of interest. Write it down in your notebooks.

Could this be a trend? Readers may recall that last July 18, we wrote about a Philadelphia Weekly entertainment writer (“Fool disclosure…”) who was allowed to write an article on the opening of a new comedy club in Philly. In the course of the article, he trashes the comedy scene in Philly and props up the article with quotes from another comic with which he produces a comedy night just around the corner from the new club!

Where are the editors?

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