In May I interviewed blogger, journalist, and author Ana Marie Cox for The Grape. Cox has worked for a plethora of magazines, newspapers, and websites and has often appeared as a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show. I’m sharing the audio from the interview, or if you prefer, a transcript is provided below.
Note: At this time I can’t find the final version of the transcript, but this one should be fairly similar save for a few typos on my part.
I was hoping you could start out by talking about the differences between working as a blogger and working for traditional newspapers and filling in for Rachel Maddow on her show.
Sure well I think that the thing is with a lot of those things the differences are disappearing. That’s not to say that there aren’t any anymore but the differences used to be a lot more pronounced. I think temperamentally I am still best suited to working for nontraditional publications but the kind of work that you have to do these days at a traditional publication is more like blogging than it used to be.
With that, where do you see blogging changing, if it will change in the next 5-10 years?
I think we are probably going to have to come up with something besides calling it blogging because it is basically so ubiquitous that like I am trying to think what the metaphor would be. We don’t really talk about phone calling; we just talk about talking to people. We don’t specify that it’s over the phone. We just think of it as a form of communication. I think that it’s going to be a little like that with blogging. Blogging is just writing. We also don’t talk about newspapering or magazining although the way you communicate does have an impact on what you say it’s just another way of writing, of putting words into the ether.
What do you think right now, is one of the biggest stories not receiving attention from the mainstream media?
That’s a good question. I was thinking about this recently because a friend of mine recently was traveling in Africa and you know and wrote me and sent me pictures of all of these terrible floods there that wiped out a lot of roadways and bridges which of course had this trickling effect in interrupting people’s food supplies and markets and everything else. And I was thinking about the tragedy with the oil spill in the gulf which was happening when we in Washington were having our big social event of the year – the white house correspondents dinner and I was thinking that if you were aware of every tragedy happening in the world right now, it would be hard to function. Which is not to say we shouldn’t be – that’s sort of just a general – there’s always a tragedy happening and there’s always something we can do about it. For my friend actually as a welcome back present, usually I’d get her flowers or a drink; I actually wound up giving her money to an African food organization to make me feel less guilty for two minutes. But thinking about America and American politics and what is happening in America, it’s hard for me to judge what’s not being covered because I get such a – I read so widely. It’s interesting to me that – if I could say one thing for sure I think that the coverage of the Health Care bill did an enormous disservice to the bill and the way that Americans who will be receiving that coverage. I think that it has to get better because we’re going to start using that system soon and I think thatpeople are just really misinformed about how it works. And that’s the sort of thing that you can’t say that the health Care debate wasn’t covered, right? It was covered. Do you know how it works? I mean I kind of know how it works
Vaguely?
Right and so we were having this massive national debate about this thing that very few people, including people that were covering it, really had a firm grasp about how it works. It was sort of like – it seems as remarkably, I was going to say unprofessional but that’s not the word I’m looking for – disingenuous. Give the appearance of having covered a debate but really only having covered the debate about the debate.
You were touching on the White House correspondence dinner. I remember you tweeting a lot about that from there. Can you talk a little about it?
Sure! I had a great deal of fun. It was more fun this year than it has been in the past. I think that it felt very different. I wasn’t nearly as wonky and as sort of Washington centric in a way. I think that has to do with the fact that the Obamas are still such celebrities and when I started going to the correspondents dinner when Bush was still president the celebrities were definitely B-List and they’re not B-list anymore. I mean I guess kind of. I’m not really sure what counts as A-list, really. *laughs* So there are actual celebrities there – people who would be recognized by people here. That was fun. I did red carpet coverage with ABC with that. What was really hysterical about that was my partner rick cline, my partner in coverage, were the only sort of hard news reporters on the red carpet. Everyone else was from ET or Inside Hollywood or Access Hollywood or whatever they are called. Even the person from CNN was their entertainment reporter. When the political celebrities came through they saw us and were like thank god because we were familiar faces to them and they were a little freaked out about answering questions from Access Hollywood and whatnot. Although I have to say, Scott Brown, new senator from Massachusetts was very comfortable.
How do you balance your personal politics with doing journalism objectively?
Well my approach is to be very upfront about what my personal politics are. I don’t believe – I believe in fairness more so than objectivity. I don’t think it’s possible for me to be objective. I know that there are people who try to make that their goal. I know that there are people who strive towards it more than I would ever be able to. I just try to be clear that objectivity is not my goal that I am seeing everything through a very specific lens but by the same token I try not to go into a piece of writing having an opinion that is too fully formed. Or, if I have an opinion I try to be aware of what that opinion and try not to pretend that I’m walking into this with a completely blank slate on the subj. and when I do my reporting I am honest with the people I talk to about what I think and I think it’s worked out pretty well.
I feel like conservatives generally feel like they’ve gotten a fair shake from me. I actually think I upset more progressives and liberals than conservatives and partly because progressives and liberals expect me to treat with a gentler touch because I personally am a liberal. But there’s always a lot to make fun of in politics no matter which side you’re on and I tend to do that. Also conservatives don’t have a monopoly on stupidity, sadly. It would be great if they did. Yeah when I think back on it, I’ve probably come out of reporting assignments with conservatives with better, warming feelings sometimes than when I have covered liberals.
You have covered a lot of DC scandals. Is there one that you were particularly excited about that is especially juicy?
You know the Eric Massa thing recently was awesome just because it was so weird because he invoked fracking at one point and that gave me a chance to do something that I’ve always wanted to do which was talk about the overlap between sci-fi nerds and political nerds. I think there is one obviously. Also, ticklefight is a great word. There used to be a zine called ticklefight. That’s a good name. That should be a good band name.
I mean almost any time a politician gets in trouble there is fun to be had. I personally don’t ever want to be the person to break up a marriage or get someone fired or get some1 tossed in jail, but it happens and when it does happen, it’s the reactions to it that usually provide more of the humor. Like when David Vitter continues to try to be a straight-laced republican, moral guardian after having been outted as a client of prostitutes. I mean that’s funny. Also I really liked The RNC scandal recently – the RNC dropped some money at a bondage sex club recently. That was kind of perfect.
But I have to stress that there’s so much going on in Washington even when there aren’t scandals. It’s kind of a silly place. It’s so much though that whenever people go somewhere with big ideas and taking themselves pretty seriously there’s going to be a certain amount of absurdity and hypocrisy]. That doesn’t lessen their goals or the importance of what they want to do. It’s just a point to keep in mind.
We’re a year and a half into the Obama Administration. What are your feelings on how that has been working out?
Form the point of view as a voter I am only mildly frustrated. I think that he has tried to follow through on a lot of the campaign promises that he made. He’s followed on a big one, not to the degree that I would like, on healthcare, but he’s made more progress than anyone else. I think finance reform and human rights he has also made some steps, and forein relations in my mind was stronger in that area than most people would have ever thought he would be. And those are all my thoughts as a voter.
My thoughts as a writer are deeply frustrated. They’re not transparent. I don’t think that that’s something that for the average voter is going to come up or bother them that much. It’s difficult for me to make an argument that if he was more transparent thins would be better about our lives or the country, but it’s the standard they set and they are not holding themselves to it. It’s just frustrating. I don’t think they need the press’ evil on them in order to do good work. There’s also a degree to which that shows an amazing amount of hubris because it does presume that they would do good work if we weren’t watching them. I guess this is one of the reasons why I’m a writer and why I’m a journalist because I do believe it’s better for people to know stuff than to not know stuff. I just take that as a given that that’s the case. I mean that it’s better for the President to answer questions than to not answer questions. I think it’s better to have them appearing on C-Span than to not be appearing on C-Span. I don’t think that they’d be that much different. It’s just better for people to know what’s going on and they haven’t done that. And also on an even more insider-y level their contempt for journalists is very apparent. And that is something that again the average every day voter doesn’t bother them or affect their every day world very much in the way that things happen and unfold in Washington, and it’s one way that they are very much like the bush admin. I hope for my own sake, in sense as a voter and as an American, I hope they don’t get put in the same position as the Bush administration where that contempt comes and bites them in the ass because that’s what happened with Bush but a lot of other things happened with Bush. One of the things that happened was when they were riuding high in the polls and didn’t need the help of the media they treated the media badly. Then when they started to go wrong and they started to need help, they didn’t get it. I mean then again I don’t know what difference that makes, it oculd have made a difference of getting some bipartisanship through whatever I don’t know. As an American I hope that Obama doesn’t get to a position where he has such a low approval rating with such horrible things happening with the press that that could happen.
I know that you wrote a book a few years ago, is a non-fiction book in the works?
I would like to write a non-fiction book. I was supposed to write a non-fiction book. It’s funny the world now changes so fast. As soon as I settle on a topic, it’s hard for me to be certain that it’s going to continue to be intersteing and pertinent for a few years. I mean if you look at the people who wrote Obama books, they all came out so fast. It’s incredible. I couldn’t write a non-fiction book that fast, but I remain really interested in doing one and I also think right now, working at a monthly magazine, I have this hope that working at a monthly will make me think about thigns in a time frame that is much more book friendly, sort of changing my metabolism a little bit.
What do you like about working for GQ?
Well I like it a lot. I love my editor, Dan Fierman – he’s fantastic. I love that they consider politics important and respect their reader’s intelligence that they don’t jhabve to treat it as news you can use. It’s not like that you need to be voting on this issue so you need to know X,Y,and Z. there is an interesting story here to be told about a political issue which I think has- there’s two ways to get people’s attention I nthe world. Maybe more thatn two but the two that I am used to seeing all thje time are short, blog burst type things where there are funny snarky bits of information and logner stuff that tells you a story. I like now that I get to do both. I also like that I don’t just write about politics for them .I nthe next issue I have a hotel review coming out so that’s a nice change of pace for me.
Is the Oberlin Inn going to be in that?
It won’t sadly. It was for the June issue so it couldn’t happen.
What do you think makes for a good blog?
Even if a blog doesn’t directly interact with its readers, a blog is something that is more like a conversation than any other type of media and I think that it has to have a good personality. Oit has to be something you want to spend time with. Even if blogging has a reputation for being, kind of a quick hit snarky, it still has to be consistent so it’s like sitting down with a friend over drinks or something so that you know you are going to enjoy this time you spent. I think that there are a lot of sort of technical things too: shorter is probably better, x many times a day, stick within a general subject area. I think all of these are subservient to the idea that it be a persona or a personality that you like. Cause when you think about my twitter feed, I don’t have a blog anymore I have a twitter feed and that’s usually about politics but it’s also about my dogs and my cats and food you know and shit that I find funny and space stuff and science fiction. It’s a very accurate description of who I am. I do take it for granted that if people are following me that means they enjoy hearing about this stuff. They don’t necessarily like me but I think they want to spend time with that persona.
I would think that people that would follow you would like you.
I don’t know maybe. I know I have a lot of conservatives who follow me who sort of mock me. There’s a lot of blogs that I read but it’s not like I like the person but I am intrigued by it, I’m fascinated by it. So it doesn’t have to be liking me. I don’t think that it’s false modesty. I can honestly say that there are blogs that I read – I don’t know if I’d like the person or not but I’m fascinated by the stuff they put out.
It’s like Seinfeld. You don’t like any of the characters but you want to watch it.
Right!
What advice do you have for Oberlin students who interested in going in similar career paths?
I have a whole speech on that. I’m going to try to boil it down. It is way more important to enjoy what you are doing and be challenged by it that how much money you make what yr title is or how you work for. I have personally found that decisions I have made about my career and doing things that I love have worked out well. When I have tried to get more money, or pick more prestige or more influence or done the thing I thought I should do those things have not gone as well as when I have done something that I enjoy doing. I mean I do feel like I have one of the best jobs in the world and I have had that job for a whole I am grateful every day. I try to think about how lucky I am, every day to do this thing that I love. Every day. Some stuff sucks too but I love talking to people and learning new things and making fun of stuff and traveling and making sense of ideas and I get to do that. Yes I also have to do expenses and pay taxes and do paperwork but I get to go to the White House and I get to meet people who are making important decisions. I get to have input on some of those decisions. It’s true that people make fun of the White House correspondence dinner and people try to defend it as work but you know what it’s also just like how. For me it’s a reminder of what an awesome job we have. These celebrities want to come meet us and learn about what we do. I don’t want to sound like I think I’m all awesome I just try to be grateful for it, this is the sad part, who knows how long this will last. I mean I hope there is still room I in the future for the kind of stuff that I do. But I am determined to do it while there still is. While I can still draw a paycheck for it I am determined to enjoy it.
