After her vitriolic lashing at the entree of JC Penney onto the sacred soil of a thin, fashionable Manhattan, peppered with some corporate marketing recommendations, The New York Times' Critical Shopper, Cintra Wilson issued a rebuttal to her critics on her blog, which was then taken down (according to the Cut). Then she posted a "you know I didn't mean it that way" sort-of apology (and how were we to know that, exactly?). Then finally, late last night, she posted a more formal apology.
We're assuming Wilson's nearly instanteous redaction, subsequent defensive talk-back to her critics and then, finally, something resembling a partyline attempt at job preservation, came as a result of the blogosphere's ruthless corps of commenters, who unleashed their fury at the writer's controversial review yesterday (this blog included).
We certainly understand the need for shock-value reviews in today's struggling journalism world -- and Wilson's been known to wax philosophic in her reviews before, but we think it's pretty evident that Wilson pushed the envelope in this particular case, especially considering the paper in which it was published.
