In this whirlywoo world of social networking, blogging, vlogging, Facebooking, Googly mapping, tweeting, twittering, twitting, twatting, and twanging, the role of the critic has been thrown into question. Why, the argument goes, should one bother reading 400 whole words from a film critic like Roger Ebert when that same one can get a nifty 140-character review in literally seconds? As media outlets continue to downsize, those few writers who can eek out a living as critics are asked to do twice as much work for half the money. But against all odds, one critic has managed to harness the possibilities of Internet to serve his critical impulses.
Like so many critics, Craig Whinerose’s beat is poo. A graduate of the journalism program at New York University, Whinerose quickly established a name for himself as one of the top poo critics in America, soon netting bylines in The Village Voice, Spin, Turd Aficionado, Better Bowls and Bowels, Shit! Magazine, American Defecator, Poop Scoop, and Harper’s.