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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

New York Times Calls LAist "Lazy"

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It's always fascinating when old media attacks new media, and today's example takes on yours truly, LAist.

In a piece about Best Of lists on websites, the New York Times leads with this oddity: "As any media consumer knows, this is the season of the list."

First of all, in this, the era of YouTube and TiVo and 54 million blogs, is there really such a thing as a "media consumer"? Isn't everyone a media consumer at this point? Secondly, shouldn't it be "'tis the season for lists?" Maybe we're being defensive. Moving on...

In the next paragraph, the Paper of Record takes a shot at the largest group of folks who link to the NYT daily: blogs.

In the blogosphere, the top 10 moments of 2006 tend to involve navel gazing. Kyle Bunch of Blogebrity.com offered his list of the “Top 10 Blogebrities of 2006” to Laist.com. They included Jason Calacanis, the founder of Weblogs, and Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com. At No. 1: Ze Frank, whose daily videos take on subjects ranging from trade sanctions on North Korea to which fresh fruits are best for wearing on your fingers.

So the editor of Blogebrity writing about one guy who made millions selling his blog company, and another who could make hundreds of millions selling his blog company is navel-gazing? When Yankee beat writers submit year-end stories about the Bronx Bombers, is that navel-gazing too? We in the blogosphere consider it, you know, writing about what you know. Something the NYT should think about doing.For example, how can you write a piece about Best Of lists on the Internet and not mention the exhaustive and ridiculously wonderful Fimoculous' list of Best Of Lists? As of this morning it contains 575 lists from all over the web, including several -- from, omg -- The New York Times.

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After the jump we will present to you our Top 10 20 24 Best New York Times Best Of Stories of 2006.

Fucker :)

(And no, we won't call you lazy for not knowing about the best-known best-of list-of-lists, we'll just call you 20th century, out of your element, and quaint.)

24. Year in Art - Roberta Smith

23. Year in Review - Television (Alessandra Stanley)

22. Year in Review - Art (Holland Cotter)

21. Year in Television (Virginia Heffernan)

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20. Year in Art (Michael Kimmelman)

19. 100 Notable Books of 2006

18. Network News Anchors of 2006

17. Classical Standouts in a Mozartean Year (Some Even by Mozart)

16. Top 10 Best in Pop Music (Jon Pareles)

15. The Year in Opera and Classical Music

14. Top 10 Best in Pop Music

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13. Top 10 Best Music in Jazz and Pop (Ben Ratliff)

12. Top 10 Best Music in Jazz and Pop

11. Year in Review: Video Games

10. Top 10 Best Books of 2006

9. Best Movies of 2006 (Manohla Dargis)

8. Best Movies of 2006 (Stephen Holden)

7. New York Times Magazine's Best Ideas of 2006

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6. Top Ten Best in Pop Music (Sia Michel)

5. Buzzwords of 2006

4. Top 10 in Theater (Charles Isherwood)

3. Top Broadway Top 10

2. Best Movies of 2006 (A.O. Scott)

1. Top 25 Librarians (.PDF)

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