Frank Mickadeit

[aggienaut]

   Every day the Local section of the local paper, the Orange County Register, is emblazoned with the face of this guy in the image here as if we should worship him like a god. "FRANK MICKADEIT ON PAGE 2!!!" is always under it as if we should be falling over ourselves with excitement that yes, miracle of miracles, like yesterday (and the day before, and the day before), he has once again seen it in his heart to benevolently share his wisdom with us on page 2.

   I once actually read one of his articles and it was the most shockingly vapid gossip (About "The Real Housewives of OC") I think I have EVER seen in a self-respecting (or not) newspaper. And apparently vapid gossip about "the Real Housewives" is a favourite topic of his.

   So yesterday I was commenting to mother on how I think its odd that his column is very prominantly advertised every single day with his hideous visage (in colour!) in the upper right hand corner of the section front page. To reconfirm that his writing was indeed drivel I decided to actually attempt to read it. Despite my low low expectations, I was actually shocked by how bad the article was.

   And now, if I could prevail upon you to humour me and read something that will utterly fail to keep your interest, I invite you to share my confusion as to why this guy is even published by
( reading the article in question HERE )

   Now this actually inspired me to write a letter to the editor. Only not a "letter-to-the-editor" but one actually intended to be read by the editor. If you would like to read my rant letter before attempting to read his article it might make the latter more readible by actually giving you something to look for in it (I critique why exactly the article is terrible).

Dear Editor,
   I have to ask, do any editors actually read Frank Mickadeit's articles before they go to print? I was commenting to my mother today about how his photo is always emblazoned on the front of the Local section but when I actually read his article once it was some utterly vapid gossip about "the Real Housewives of OC." To highlight the point I decided to actually read his article for today, and it utterly exceeded my
expectations as miserable drivel.

   The first half of the article, "Janet Finally Gets Her Own Party's Nod," is an ostensibly newsworthy subject. HOWEVER, he fills it with references to people we've never heard of as if they're our high school classmates or something, and references to presumably in-party drama that is left completely unexplained (why would "Mike Shroeder" potentially prevent Nguyen from getting the endorsement, and why do we care he's specifically at Lake Como?); and fills a third (of the first half) rambling about how people might not have known an absence counts as an abstention rather than a no, despite the fact that with a 44-14 vote this lengthy discussion of the voting is utterly trivial.

   What really has me confused, however, is the second half of the article. It has nothing to do with the first half or the title, and moreover, does not appear to have a point! It is a meandering ramble about how he met some writers back in college and they didn't like him but then he went to a party and amused them and now they're all real newspaper columnists. While the first half is badly written, its this second half that really makes me wonder if anyone reads his material -- or did he just impress the editors so much
at a party by talking about Buddy Holly that they just give him carte blanche to hang out and write stuff?

   His articles are bad and not in the morbidly bad way that leads to me occasionally look at the Family Circus comic to see how much it'll make me groan. I originally missed the call to action at the end of his article (which presumably is what the second half is leading up to, and does not appear to justify the long rambling lead-up) because I was having serious trouble paying attention by then, and when I had my mother
read the article to give me a second opinion she kept getting distracted by the smallest things such as the
train on the page.

   I know one negative review won't spur you to action but I for one cast my vote that you either can the guy, don't accept future drivel-filled articles from him, or at least stop emblazoning his face across the Local front page as if he's the messiah.

Sincerely,

Kris Fricke

- 30 -

   So yeah. But seriously. Especially my former Aggie writer friends, am I insane or is this guy shockingly terrible?

   Anyway, much to my utter shock, only about two hours after I sent off the above email, the "Editor and Senior Vice President" or the OC Register wrote me back. O= I really wasn't actually expecting anything more than a form response sent by the office intern if anything.

Dear Kris Fricke,

   Frank Mickadeit is an acquired taste. Many people read him regularly and are ardent fans; others, like you, find him nonsensical. Frank, obviously, writes for the former group. So he has adopted a shorthand style of writing who have come to understand some of his obscure references.

   A wide variety of people with many different tastes and interests live in our community. We try to reflect that diversity in our newspaper and Web site with our own columnists as well as voices from the community. We do also publish Frank on the Web. You can find him here: http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sections/news/columns/frankmickadeit/ We have also provided a place where interested people can blog on our site.
   So if you care to comment on Mickadeit, feel free. Thanks for writing.

Ken Brusic
Editor and Senior Vice President
The Orange County Register

   Anyway I'm not going to argue with him, but I think his "ardent fans" probably largely overlap with the "ardent fans" of "the Real Housewives of OC" and other such sordid day-time TV / gossip-column type drivel. Which is fine, I guess, if it makes them open a newspaper, but I think advertising him like he is the hero of the Local Section puts way too much emphasis on that and, IMO, makes the paper look bad.

Comments

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I think the best reason to read the Register is to see what the Libertarians are thinking...
...and to do the crossword puzzle, of course.

[shamster.livejournal.com]

this is hilarious and made my day much better.

or maybe it was that I read your post while eating chicken massala and rice and goat curry?

In either case, awesome job on getting an editor to reply!

[(Anonymous)]

your own livejournal's really not that different from what you denounce as drivel...

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

haha how do you figure?