Brow Beat

The Slate Pitch Twitter Meme

Slate’s pop critic, Jonah Weiner, published an article Wednesday arguing that Creed—a band dismissed by “critical gatekeepers” as “derivative blowhards with a self-righteous Christian agenda”—is severely underrated. This contrarian take has outraged the gatekeepers of conventional wisdom. And even fairly unconventional members of the commentariat, such as Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias, have roundly condemned Weiner’s—and Slate’s—taste. Klein suggested yesterday that Slateshould be burned to the ground,” and Yglesias called the take “ridiculous.”

Did Weiner’s Creed defense also set off a new Twitter meme? About 15 hours ago, tweets with the hashtag #slatepitches started circulating. These tweak the magazine for its contrarian bent, suggesting story ideas like “Suicide: Why it might not actually kill you.” Maybe it’s contrarian for us to say so, but some of these are quite brilliant. A few of our favorites so far:

Have an idea for a Slate headline? Use the hashtag #slatepitches. Be careful what you wish for!