This is going to be fun. A trio of controversy-courting female journalists is joining the Jewish culture webzine, Tablet. Daphne Merkin, who wrote about her life in therapy for the New York Times Magazine and learned the art of self-exposure from Tina Brown, has been named movie critic, and Elizabeth Wurtzel, who became a literary it-girl after penning her famed memoir Prozac Nation, has been named pop music critic. (Both are returning to beats they covered for The New Yorker, waaay back in the day.) Meanwhile, theater criticism will be handled by another controversial female reporter whose purchase on reality has been called into question: Judith Miller, The New York Times national security reporter who reporting fed the widespread belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Ms. Miller was later imprisoned for refusing to testify about the outing of Valerie Plame’s CIA affiliation.
Meanwhile, Tablet editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse has announced her plans to write television criticism, but we suspect her editing duties will be keeping her plenty busy for the time being.
