Maximum condescension achieved.
Surf watchers are rubbing their eyes in
disbelief, this morning, after reading, then re-reading,
Stab’s Sam McIntonsh’s stunning admission that the premium
surf blog is openly and proudly collaborationist. The usually cool,
calm, collected co-founder, as handsome as any man who has ever
sauntered though our world, came undone after the latest “surfer
interview” featuring World Surf League Chief of Sport Jessi
Miley-Dyer.
Healthy and honest criticism for studiously avoiding “tough
questions” floated instantly on BeachGrit and on
Stab’s own comment forum leading McIntosh to let everyone
see him sweat in a wildly ill-advised defense titled Risk Reward: The Dickhead
Index.
In it, McIntosh declares, in the day of social media, modern
media is “essentially worthless” and is only as successful as the
access it has. From there, he discusses how Stab received
the 2024 World Surf League championship tour schedule a few hours
early plus the aforementioned sit down wherein Miley-Dyer was not
asked about former CEO Erik Logan’s departure because it would have
been “radioactive.”
After a definition of “access journalism,” McIntosh takes the
opportunity to boast that Stab holds its editorial
meetings at the exclusive Soho House Malibu while patting the
subscription website on its back for not outing a “surf talent’s”
relationship with celebrity that would have brought “untold traffic
and notoriety” and stays “buried to this day,” even though the
eagle-eye’d can now likely suss out the involved parties.
Finally, McIntosh punctures George Orwell’s famed quote
“journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed:
everything else is public relations,” by bragging that in being
spineless, Stab is able to bring the world stunning
masterpieces like Peter Schroff and Hayden Cox shaping a board
together even though they used to have beef.
All honest and fair as it relates to what Stab is and
what it does, though does seem unnecessary to publicly admit and,
also, infantilize its audience, spooning baby food into eager
mouths.
Maximum condescension.
The real troubling bit, I suppose, is when McIntosh sets up an
either/or between HBO and The New York Times then Netflix
and “celebrity gossip.”
Per the
piece:
“Storytelling 101 is giving our audience something they
don’t know. Education and entertainment are what we try to do.
There’s a reason the NY Times doesn’t make TV shows. There’s a
reason HBO doesn’t do celebrity news. They are two very different
types of media.
Given their access with superstars, can you imagine how well
Netflix or Disney could do celebrity gossip? It would be
otherworldly. Can you imagine how tough it would be for the NY
Times or TMZ to flip and start trying to secure talent for
documentaries, series or events? Harley Levin is a gent who would
struggle to get a return phone call.”
Aside from butchering the name “Harley” Levin, the statement is
wildly and completely ridiculous. The New York Times makes
all sorts of entertainment. HBO does all sorts of celebrity news.
Furthermore, Netflix and Disney do all sorts of celebrity gossip
and TMZ makes all sorts of documentaries. Further furthermore,
where is the line drawn, exactly, between “celebrity gossip,”
expose, whistle blown, scoop?
The aforementioned can, anyhow, can straddle because they have
enough audience to do so and, therefore, are actually needed by
politicians, actors, etc. If The Gray Lady, HBO, Netflix, Disney or
even TMZ waved the white flag, a la McIntosh, and declared, openly
and exactly like Stab, “To the rich and powerful, your
secrets are safe with us. Screw the lowly unwashed masses. They
will taste what we choose for them to taste and they will like it
and they will love us for it…” they would be completely
pilloried.
Oh, they each might operate that way, from time to time, or most
the time, but to claim that as modus operandi and be both proud and
patronizing in equal measure?
Wild.
The fact that McIntosh perspired so plainly about Jessi
Miley-Dyer not getting asked why Logan got the boot? Like, the
World Surf League shouldn’t be held to that low, low, low, low bar
of accountability after the former CEO was pushed in all of our
faces for years?
Again, wild and especially in light of Stab’s Google
byline reading “Trusted media of core surfers everywhere.”
I guess, in the end, Stab becoming the in-house
“trusted media” provider for the World Surf League is a good thing
for us, as its video content is generally much better than junk
that comes out of “the global home of surfing” in Santa Monica.
Enjoyable interstitials during contests while waves are being
missed instead of that static “stay tuned” screen to be
expected.
Thank you, Stab. May we have another?
