I'm inclined to think not

Is this important? At a film festival panel on criticism recently the always controversial Armond White had a few words about bloggers and internet critics and may (or may not) have taken out after one absent blogger in particular.What was meant and said is in some dispute. The 'sphere has been talking about this for the past couple of days, but it really seems to be as much a question of professional standards as journalistic merit. Judge for yourself. (/Hammer To Nail)

UPDATE - Armond White speaks. (IndieWire)

“As NYFCC Chairman, I am representing a organization of professional film critics,” Armond White told me today, when I asked him to clarify his remarks via email. “With the advent of the internet, ‘professionalism’ has been disregarded for the purposes of a speciously-defined ‘democracy’. Without professionalism, journalism is left with amateurism, gossip, cliques. It is destructive to the culture when these things replace education, expertise, experience. It’s never enough to simply ‘love movies’. As I said at the panel, professionals put themseIves on the line regularly and for these reasons, I defend my profession against amateur attacks that never rise to the level of intelligent discussion.”