We Report on How They Report, You Decide

As Ben has noted before, the NYTimes seems to be itching to jump into soft news about Hollywood celebrities. They can't quite embrace their inner tabloid, so they adopt a "meta-coverage" approach -- like this Week in Review piece on the Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston breakup. It's a high-minded analysis of "the narrative constructed by magazines like People, Us Weekly and In Touch," dissecting the "unusual sense of vicarious sorrow among readers" who have found themselves "emotionally invested" in the story. Using the untabloidlike nomenclature "Mr. Pitt" and "Ms. Aniston," the NYTimes deconstructs gossip magazine articles and photomontages to find "that hearth, home, family and domestic love are at the center of the telling" and that the Brad and Jen story apparently has something to say about "contemporary emphasis on family and the value men presumably place on fatherhood." Whatever.