Gangsta Journalism

What do Gawker and the New Yorker have in common with rap music? According to The Assimilated Negro, they are both selling you "ego and authority", or what he calls "FiftyCentism". This is a mode of capitalism that he argues "cultivates an 'intelligence' predicated on protecting and manipulating what you know. for your own gain. this runs in contrast to a more buddhist or zen approach to 'smarts' which stresses empathy."

He doesn't much like the dominance of Get-Rich-Or-Die-Trying capitalism, but thinks we're stuck with it.

blogging as a medium might allow for an evolution out of this. the direct one-to-one effect of blogging means any given individual can buck/change the system. and readers are getting more options. but it doesn't change the fact that we are suckers for Authority. we want someone, whether it's 50 Cent, Jay-Z or The New Yorker, to tell us what to do.

That may be true, but I think T.A.N. is downplaying the way a more empathic capitalism -- call it the selling of authenticity -- has become increasingly profitable. From the venerable Body Shop to the body-consciousness of Lululemon, from Seventh Generation's planet-friendly suds to the farmer-friendly practices of the countless urban farmer's markets that have sprung up, there's a whole empire of capitalism that is all about empathy of some sort or another.

Whether that is something that belongs in journalism or rap music is another question.