Cat Marnell: This Is News? This Is Not News.

As a writer, as someone who still uses the term as a sense of identity and to describe a passion of mine, I find it extremely obnoxious the amount of press bad writers and bloggers get, while numerous great ones go under the radar.  It's not that I myself haven't gotten caught up in the latest Lindsay Lohan tragedies that she continues to become entwined in. Looking back, I'm so glad blogging wasn't around during the days I was partying and thinking every stupid decision I made would make a great post.  But honestly, I'm so tired of the wide-eyed, open-jawed reaction the media tries to entice from readers by writing the play by play from one disaster to the next: today it's Cat Marnell, dare I say known for Drugs, Blogs, and Cat Marnell: What Happens When One Woman's Addiction Becomes An Editorial Hallmark?

The truth is, we talk about these people that day, or week, or maybe it creeps back up once the person of said personal disaster dwindles from the spotlight so they create some new nightmare for all of us to gawk at in wonder, how do they do it?  But with information coming at us quicker then ever before, where news becomes old news by the end of a day sometimes, this poor young girl will go on to spend summer nights on the "rooftop of Le Bain looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with [her] friends and writing a book, which is what [she's] doing next."  And what a disappointment it will be when it gets published, wasting money, time, and good talent of the editors that cringe with every page they turn.  Or maybe, I'm completely wrong, and she will get clean and write a powerful piece from a new perspective entirely.  Wishing on one of those shooting stars.

"It will be interesting to see where xoJane goes from here. With the identity of the site wrapped up so tightly in the identity of its staffers and their relationships with one another, there is clearly an endless font of stories to tell. Who has the right to tell them, however, is much murkier." Honestly, I'm not sitting on the edge of my seat wondering when the next piece comes out, but I am anticipating change in how we view situations like this; instead of exacerbating the already ensuing drama, why not let it play itself out or better yet encourage something better, from our writers, and readers, and even the person of said drama. That's probably too much to ask, right?

Anyone who has ever been affected by addiction knows there is nothing special about Cat's rant, otherwise known as her interview with Charlotte Cowles.  Her detached feelings from reality, completely absorbed in her own fantasy; self-described pillhead since she was 15, her aloof and scattered attitude in the end does not hide the fact that she "is really, deeply unhappy all of the time."

I wish this girl time to heal and to discover life sober, and happiness, beyond her wildest dreams.

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