Today, the 'S' Stands For 'Sad'
An Associated Press insider told us a little background on that totally radical asap story we "grooved on" yesterday.
The Vegetarian vs. Meateater feature was part of the original asap pitch, and an early version of it was included on a CD-ROM test-marketed on, presumably, tweener zombies in some Long Island mall or something — where the AP ever got the idea that 13-year-olds needed their own damn wire service is still a little fuzzy, but they've done their darndest to cater to the Livejournal crowd through targeted condescension and "a look that could best be described as 'Tiger Beat meets early Commodore VIC-20 graphics whiz.'"
The meat-eater (you remember — with the dick jokes and the David Spade-lite one-liners) is former AP Beijing bureau chief Ted Anthony. And should this asap thing fall through (heaven forefend), Ted's negotiated himself an escape clause from the Great Experiment in Idiocy: guaranteed return to National Writer status. It's a fallback the other asap employees don't have, alas. So, for their sake, read yesterday's piece on blogging with cell phones (the first-person! in an AP story! madness!), and pity the poor asap staff writers.
