From the Department of Evil Media

For some people, it's just never good enough. GQ editor Jim Nelson decided the other day to deliver a sarcastic little missive about the media's coverage of the ongoing Jasmine Revolution:

One day it was a normal media universe: newsreaders tossing harmless inanities at each other, cooing over video of some overgroomed terrier at the Westminster Dog Show, or warning us that residents of Wisconsin "are bracing for another winter storm." (People up north must really get tired of "bracing"—that's all they do!) And the next thing you knew, our TVs went totally Al Jazeera, with caught-off-guard networks having to report twenty-four–seven on countries most Americans couldn't point out on a map—again, much like Wisconsin.

Putting aside the tweeny-LOL-sounding "went totally Al Jazeera," there's nothing really wrong with this observation. But watch where he goes next:

It was jarring, awkward, and, I'll say it, entertaining. I love watching journalists when they start acting hugely interested in stuff they never cared about, the look of half-baked consternation they give when they have to get "up to speed" on certain subjects, such as Arabs.

So which is it, GQ? Yes, news coverage on the average day here in your United States of Manhattan is for the most part insipid and pointless drivel, agreed. But when said media finally pivots around when faced with the prospect of breaking important news, they should be, what, mocked for doing their job? Read on as Nelson goes from twittery snark to quasi-offensive and, finally, utterly pointless:

Eventually, it became fun to Know Your Middle East. On CNN, that handsome young black anchorman who looks like he would never get his hands dirty with newsprint acted completely starstruck when talking to a real-life foreign correspondent. The guy was an Aussie, as they often are, and pointed at maps with a worldliness that said "I know from Shiite!" Gosh, said the anchorman, you're a foreign correspondent. And these countries are all so different. Where of all the places, of all these countries, would you most want to...go?

As satire goes, Spy it ain't. Stick to your day-job, GQ, pondering on the importance of new developments in denim or putting together Megan Fox slideshows, and leave the media analysis -- not to mention mocking writers who actually risk their lives to report what's happening -- to people who actually watch and read the news. Howard Kurtz doesn't cover Fashion Week, and thank god for that. (Hat-tip to Mediaite for pointing out Nelson's piece originally.)