"It's all designed to blow our minds, but our minds won't really be blown…"

I get bombarded on a daily basis, by emails from PR and marketing firms in the food/wine industry. Some of these are press releases, and others are merely round-ups of headlines from major publications. And it never fails to amaze me just how much crap is being written and read out there. The worst are, of course, the many holiday pieces, repeatedly telling you which wines will pair best with your turkey, which are the romantic Valentine wines, which to bring to your next barbecue, and which make the perfect Christmas gifts for the discerning wine lover. Bleck.

But lately, the headlines are so inane I actually struggle to believe they can keep a straight face when they propose the idea to their editor:

Wine Suggestions for soon-to-be President Obama (i.e. “Put down the beer”)
Fruity, But no Trip to the Candy Store (a synopsis of gay-friendly wines?!?)
Value-Priced Wines from France do Exist (duh.)
Five Things to Watch for in 2009 (including Giants’ golf handicaps and Madoff investment strategies)
2008’s Most Memorable Wines (for those wine critics who DON’T already have Alzheimer’s)

photo by Gary Trask/Casino City

The one that really got my goat, however, came in yesterday from the apex of journalism known as Casino City Times. The article was titled “Wine Entrepreneur Takes Center Stage at Affiliate Summit”. No big deal, right? The ONLY reason I bothered to click on the link was because the first paragraph read as follows:

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -– Wine entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk was making his keynote address at the sold-out Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas Monday morning when in the midst of his spirited speech he began dropping a few expletives.

THIS, my friends is what has become of mainstream media. Reporters from Sin City, the adult playground where gambling, whoring and debauchery reign supreme, can’t seem to wrap their little heads around the fact that someone might curse every now and then, in the middle of what happens to always be a very passionate (and articulate) speech. Rather than focus on the message, this jackass focused on delivery, including infantile rants like, “his not-fit-for-Sunday-School choice of words.” Grow the fuck up, will you? Are we not adults? Why does it take you several paragraphs to get to the crux of who GaryV is and what he does? Why was it important to preface it all by putting a microscope to a couple of curses? Belching, I would’ve understood. Farting, even better. But swearing? THAT is newsworthy? And in Vegas of all places? I’m rendered speechless—sort of.

Tagged as: Gary Vaynerchuk, journalism