But Conor Friedersdorf, the libertarian columnist at The Atlantic, has a more complex answer. Much of the reason that American media organizations fail to accurately cover important stories on a combination of audience interest and business pressures; cable news infotainment is more common than well-researched 10,000-word magazine pieces because most Americans prefer the former. (The American Conservative/The Atlantic)

On that happy note, here's the rest of your media news:

WTFOIA? The Associated Press has found that a number of Obama's political appointees are using secret email accounts, which could hide their emails from Freedom of Information Act requests. (AP)

Tom Goldstein, publisher of the Supreme Court-focused blog SCOTUSblog, will contribute coverage to NBC's coverage of upcoming Supreme Court decisions. (Politico)

New York magazine's television critic, Matt Zoller Seitz, is taking over as editor of RogerEbert.com (FishbowlNY)

Fox Business News rejected an ad that criticized Fox News contributors Erick Erickson, Juan Williams, and Lou Dobbs for sexism. (Huffington Post)

And finally, an extensive investigation by Mother Jones reveals that New York's Approval Matrix is actually a Cartesian plane, not a matrix. (Mother Jones)

Via The New Yorker.com.

New York associate editor, senior hyphenate, and softball coach Ben Mathis-Lilley has been plucked by Buzzfeed to be their new senior editor.

Mr. Mathis-Lilley indeed edited his share of pieces and Intelligencer items for the magazine, which he's been at since 2004, when he started as an editorial assistant. Reached over email, he explained:

"I'm definitely sad to be leaving New York Mag. It's a great group of people who are really easygoing and funny but also terrifyingly competent and intelligent," singling out editors Adam Moss and James Burnett, "who have against their better judgment let me propagate my weird jokes and obsessions in their magazine and Intelligencer section, respectfully."

His lasting legacy, however, may be as the guardian of New York's back-of-book-but-first-page-you-read feature-turned-TV-show, The Approval Matrix.

As for who's taking over the Matrix for him, he wasn't sure. "I actually don't know. But," he added, "I would say the main requirement for the job is a willingness to abandon self-respect and just cravenly beg the other editors and staff writers for items."

At Buzzfeed, we're told he'll be working on beefing up sports coverage alongside Jack Moore (and putting some of his Harvard-learned tennis proficiency to good use, perhaps). He'll also be working on politics with Mr. Smith, who registered his excitement about the new hire this evening to The Observer: "He's just a brilliant guy and great generalist. "[Buzzfeed executive editor Doree Shafrir] and I are very pumped about it."

Concerning the move, Mr. Mathis-Lilley explained: "I love the cleverness and humor of the Original Buzzfeed videos and memes and lists (particularly The 21 Absolute Worst Things In the World), and I don't think it's possible to be an editor or writer and not be excited about a group of people who believe that essays and stories and reporting also work alongside that stuff in Our Current Media Landscape. Who are confident enough in that judgment that they're putting their money where their mouth is."

"What I'm trying to say is that even though I don't start for two weeks I've already promised Peter Bergen $75,000 for a 125-page story on Uzbeki oil politics and I KIND OF don't have permission to do that and I'm looking for the right way to break it to Ben and Doree."

Given the coffee game over there, we're sure they can find the cash for it lying around somewhere.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

We’re not talking Keanu Reeves. We’re talking Ben Mathis-Lilley!

The Transom has learned that a team of veteran New York TV producers are currently working to turn New York magazine’s Spy-inflected back-page feature, the Approval Matrix, which is assembled by associate editors Mr. Mathis-Lilley and Emma Rosenblum, into a pop-culture TV series.
We’re told the idea originated with development executives at NBC Universal’s Bravo, who then signed on Michael Hirschorn, the Ish Entertainment founder and reality TV guru known for bringing a version of the British show I Love the 80s to VH1, to help translate the feature to the small screen, with the help of New York magazine editor Adam Moss. (Mr. Hirschorn is a former New York executive editor himself and writes TV and cultural criticism for The Atlantic.)

Each week, the Approval Matrix, described as a “deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies,” takes 32 cultural happenings suggested by staffers and places them on a grid, ranging from “despicable” on the left to “brilliant” on the right, and “lowbrow” at the bottom of the page to “highbrow” at the top. This past week, for instance, the Approval Matrix sized up R. Kelly’s low-budget, yodeling video “Echo” as somewhat lowbrow and slightly brilliant. Ralph Fiennes’ performance in Clash of the Titans was deemed mildly lowbrow and highly despicable.

The Approval Matrix debuted in November of 2004 as part of Mr. Moss’ redesigned culture section.

According to a Bravo spokesperson, no casting decisions have yet been made. Mr. Hirschorn did not respond to a call seeking comment, but this week his byline popped up in New York above a short analysis of CNN. “Sitting down for 22 minutes to watch a middlebrow mix of politics and weather that’s too proud to dabble more than passingly in the latest Hollywood crack-whoredom,” he wrote, “seems … inefficient.”

Translation: The network is middlebrow, and mildly despicable.

And … action!

fgillette@observer.com