Eater National Is Tim Carman’s Lunch

Food writers, serious diners, and new media folks all should spare 30 seconds to read this short, sweet, merciless disembowelment of the national edition of Eater.com written by Tim Carman of Washington City Paper. In a few brief paragraphs, Carman credibly tears the new publication to shreds for unmasking anonymous critics, "play[ing] the submissive bottom for the entire country’s well-heeled restaurant owners," and for using a business model in which the publication "actively sabotage[s] and exploit[s] the working media."

If you're at all a thoughtful consumer of food media, it's a post worth reading, not just for the stands it takes but also for the points of conflict and contrast it limns: old versus new media, content creators versus content aggregators, and diners versus restaurants. Getting food media right is no easy task, but Carman makes his stand on the premise that it's possible to get it destructively wrong.