Vanity Fair still does real journalism, where a reporter goes and finds information to write an article about.

Have you read their article on Iceland's financial crisis? http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland2... I can't write them off as worthless hollywood fluff after reading that.

Vanity Fair is a bizarre magazine. One day they'll publish a penetrating article by Michael Lewis on the Irish financial crisis. The next day they'll have a great article about a team of English mountaineers, two of whom died on Mont Blanc. Then they'll turn around and do a huge cover story on Justin Bieber. If they publish something I care about, I'll find it extremely interesting and well written, but the other half I find completely inane.

I like Vanity Fair subscribe to the magazine. It's named after a 19th century novel by Thackeray, a satire on society. I find that the magazine, like the book, mocks society and points out it's flaws, being hypocritical and opportunistic.

At the same time the magazine itself is opportunistic, and perhaps hypocritical. It's a very interesting magazine. Lots of good reading.

But failed hubris is in their usual scope.