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This morning, I count four swimsuit issue ads (six, if you include all three iterations of one rotating ad box; seven, after their overloaded Flash interface went haywire), including four lined up in an S-shaped grid–an odd choice, given the unsubtle nature of the content. Despite the vaunted collaboration with CNN, the featured videos are boilerplate commentary and the nightmare fuel of Rick Reilly dressed like an aging hipster and making Z-grade late-night humor jokes against an Xtreme electronica soundtrack.
Then there are the infernal Access Hollywood-like stylings of Jenn Sterger (who parlayed one college football cheesecake shot (see above) into a gig as a Real Journalist, a tale for our times). Fortunately, “Z Says, She Says,” a video feature pitting old football grump Paul Zimmerman against swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, is in hibernation.
As much as the Web can be credited with destroying culture, its culture of accountability and its opportunities for mobilizing intelligence, human and otherwise, have forced certain aspects of journalism to be more serious and more complex. The race to the bottom of the barrel has become faster and more intense, but the market at the top has opened up. And I hope it finds a space for Sports Illustrated. If not–Gary Smith, you know how to reach me. We’ll talk.
