Syracuse University quote machine Robert Thompson once again faced off against the pop culture expert competition today on ABCNews.com, whose entertainment stories may or may not exist only to get soundbites from these type of people.
Earlier this month we cited Thompson for not scoring a quote in an article when other "general entertainment knowledge professionals," like Buffalo University's Elayne Rapping, did.
This time around, Thompson did score a quote, but it was on page two of "Owen Wilson's Tell-All or PR Ploy?" — and came after a bite from Rapping. Ouch.
Watch out, Robert Thompson: Looks like your monopoly on pop culture soundbites might be facing some competition.
Every lazy reporter's dream, Thompson regularly supplies quotables on everything from American Idol to High School Musical from his office suite at Syracuse University. Thompson is usually referred to as a "pop culture expert." Around Jossip HQ, he's referred to as "Syracuse University's best branding mechanism."
Imagine our surprise, then, when ABCNews.com's Emily Friedman found multiple pop culture experts at universities who are not Robert Thompson for an article about legal liability at reality TV shows.
Today In Thompson is our semi-regular report on Syracuse University pop culture professor and professional quotation Robert Thompson — and the press' endless appetite to engage him in soundbite. Multiple times a day, you can find Thompson expounding on this celebrity or that TV show, ad infinitum. More to the point, it shows how lazy we can be in showing how lazy journalists can be when it comes to getting "insight" from "experts."
Oh no, it's been over a month since our last Today In Thompson. But fret not, concerned Syracuse University trustees: It's not for lack of material. On any given day, you'll find Bobby T. making the press rounds. Like today, for example. CONTINUED »
Today In Thompson is our semi-regular report on Syracuse University pop culture professor and professional quotation Robert Thompson — and the press' endless appetite to engage him in soundbite. Multiple times a day, you can find Thompson expounding on this celebrity or that TV show, ad infinitum. More to the point, it shows how lazy we can be in showing how lazy journalists can be when it comes to getting "insight" from "experts."
It's a slow news Monday (well, for some fields) which means we're digging into the weekend for this edition of Today In Thompson. Watch as everyone's favorite professor of pop culture (read that again, because it's his real title) expounds on professional wrestling, the iPhone, and G-rated movies. CONTINUED »
Today In Thompson is our semi-regular report on Syracuse University pop culture professor and professional quotation Robert Thompson and the press' endless appetite to engage him in soundbite. Multiple times a day, you can find Thompson expounding on this celebrity or that TV show, ad infinitum. More to the point, it shows how lazy we can be in showing how lazy journalists can be when it comes to getting "insight" from "experts."
• "So you get a lot of bang for those bucks, assuming it's something that everyone wants to see." — Discussing CNN's decision to give Paris Hilton air time, Forbes
More "Today in Thompson," after the jump.
• The upfronts are here, the upfronts are here! ABC and CBS pick up dramas, NBC hopes to attract Dungeons & Dragons crowd by focusing on Sci-Fi and fantasy.
• Meanwhile, The Apprentice is "missing" from the new fall lineup. (Alternate phrasing: NBC to The Donald: You're fired.)
• Scientologists incur wrath of deranged BBC reporter.
• Rupert Murdoch attempts to placate the Bancrofts by creating a special, imaginary position just for them.
• Pop culture professor Bob Thompson only gets 80 media calls a day? We get, like, 200—counting all the complaints.
CONTINUED »
When CanWest News Service's Misty Harris contacted us for a story she was doing about Robert Thompson, declining the opportunity to run our mouths had about as much chance as Mischa Barton's The O.C. character being resurrected. To revel in the irony of giving a soundbite about Mr. Soundbite? And the guarantee that all of our professors and peers from Syracuse University's Newhouse school would read it? Too much to pass up.
But more so, Misty's pitch gave us validation: We're not the only ones so fascinated by Thompson, who claims the title of "director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television" at Syracuse University. While a naive undergrad at Newhouse, happily punching out editorial for the student newspaper, we oft happened upon Thompson — but like most Americans, our encounters usually took place in the press, reading his musings on American Idol or Michael Jackson. Thompson maintains the most luxe office of all esteemed Newhouse faculty, meanwhile, putting even the dean's digs to shame. And what's he do all day? Watches TV, and answers the phone. If you're a reporter in need of a soundbite, whether for an article on Survivor or YouTube, Thompson is your man. And that's why Syracuse University loves him: he's their best PR marketing tool, shaming New York University and Columbia with his ubiquitous press mentions.
So while we continue to doubt Thompson's ability to do much more than deliver skillfully worded Best Week Ever-isms, we do bow our heads to the fella: He's celebrating his 25th year of teaching — and the 20th anniversary of his pop culture expertise.
The professor of pop culture punditry: Syracuse prof has found fame as media expert [CanWest]
Robert Thompson Faculty Profile [Newhouse School]
Related: All Robert Thompson coverage
As TV Guide readies its reinvention (complete with ginormous rate base slashes), Slate's Bryan Curtis gets into the nitty gritty history of the dilapidated magazine that's now trying to be one-part In Touch and one part Reader's Digest, complete with Robert Thompson name drop!
Who knew it ventured into politics in its 52 year history? From European suspicion to investigation bias on the news networks (there were only a couple back then, and thus no need for TVNewser).
Just as Wired served as the wry watchdog of the Internet Age, TV Guide's early editors gave their new medium a thorough working over in a weekly editorial called "As We See It." They came down in favor of inter-network bloodbaths and against canned laugh tracks. They mocked the religious quacks who called TV the "cancer of the soul." They jeered the British attempts at commercial-free TV and dinged the masses panting after newfangled color sets ("don't hold your breath").
And now there are publications like this one, that scoff at TV Guide's attempt to stay relevant. But we sure will miss all those grids — Time Warner's interactive guide just isn't the same.
Whee, the Christian Science Monitor is weighing in on the blogging craze. They're quick to point out that mainstream media are "running scared" with reader and viewership levels declining, but without a quote from Robert Thompson we're not sure we can believe it.
But let's assume, for a moment, that major publishers and broadcasters are scared. Frightened, even.
"Mainstream journalism," however you want to define it, has been under siege so long it's hard to keep track of all the people, things, and outlets that were or are still going to destroy it.
Yes, indeed, very hard to keep track. So let's not do that, mmm-kay?
You know there's meta-meta coverage in the midst when media critics start grabbing soundbites from other media critics, brewing one big Friendster network that nobody outside two degrees concerns themselves with. Otherwise referred to as Howard Kurtz's Rolodex.
Marketwatch's Jon Friedman, who earnestly believes most newspapers do a good job of reporting the news, turns to fellow talking head – and Jossip recurring theme – Robert Thompson from Syracuse University for glib statement on the future of .. oh hell, media something or other.
"I am noticing that the news networks are trying to look more balanced," noted Bob Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. "Their biggest problem is perception. Viewers seem to think they have a conspiracy against the American people to present only one side of the news."
You can practically count the dollars-per-word Thompson collects from the university.
This exciting new technology called "podcasts" has been done to death in the media, but we were actually enthralled with the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter take. Not because he points us to any new subscription software or distribution services, but simply because there was not one quote from Syracuse University's pop culture professor Robert Thompson.
It's like Kieswetter actually researched podcasting instead of phoning upstate's resident all-things-media expert. And for that, we're issuing a Jossip-approved applause.
Editorial Director
