Wolff: MySpace Users Are "Backwards People"

Sam Gustin writes: Media pundit Michael Wolff, author of the new Rupert Murdoch biography, The Man Who Owns The News, thinks MySpace's users are uneducated riff-raff.

"If you're on MySpace now, you're a [expletive] cretin," Wolff tells Jon Fine. "And you're not only a [expletive] cretin, but you're poor. Nobody who has beyond an 8th grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people."

As a result, Wolff argues that MySpace faces "the distinct possibility that it can go down to nothing," referring to the company's valuation, which is routinely mentioned in the $20 billion range.

I dispute Wolff's characterization of MySpace's user-base, especially the thousands of independent bands which have used the site to connect with music consumers in a whole new way.

And even if Wolff is right, which again, I dispute, I can't help but think of a quote that Wolff, a longtime media critic, must surely be familiar with: this classic line from H.L. Mencken, the legendary last-century journalist and critic.

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."