Bad Whiskey Writing IX

By Richard Thomas

Every time I pen a new chapter on whiskey writing on the web that should be professional, but sadly misses that mark, I hope it will be longer than four or five months before I have enough material to justify returning to the subject. Alas, I was again disappointed. Chapter 8 was in February, and just barely four months later a pile of dreadful material in need of clearing away.

For starters, I must roundly condemn most of the mainstream media for their knee-jerk repeating of the March 2016 Scotch shortage scare story by CNN Money’s Sophia Yan. The article written by Yan repeats many of the simplistic, tired points of the standard whiskey shortage fearmongering story, but where Yan truly sinned was in relying heavily on whisky investors and investment consultants, whose advice on whether or not there is a genuine whisky shortage is compromised by their obvious self-interest in promoting such a shortage.

Several dozen trained journalists working for venues as disparate as The Telegraph and Death and Taxes credulously cited and repeated Yan’s article in a shocking, widespread failure of critical thinking. This website led the fight back against this tsunami of yellow journalism, one that was picked up by the minority of outlets in the mainstream media that didn’t participate in the clickbait orgy.

Dazed And Confused
Beyond the sad spectacle of dozens of reporters running a story built on sources that were anything but impartial, this February article by L.A. Magazine was just plain confused. It was titled “9 Types Of Whiskey You Need To Know,” but should have been titled “9 Whiskeys I Like.” As a guide to types of whiskey or whiskey terminology, it was so befuddled that it blurred more lines than it clarified.

As a rule, I don’t think disagreement over a top picks list is justification for calling the list bad, because the very nature of doing a Top Ten invites quibbling over the choices. However, this Top 5 Bourbons list by Julie Peirano for Cheat Sheet is the exception that proves that rule, because all five of her choices are so pedestrian (and random) that I don’t believe they would appear on anyone’s list except for hers. All five are good bourbons, but none are Top 20 material, let alone Top 5!

Finally, Smarter Travel posted an article about the Jack Daniels Distillery that made two factual errors in a list that was merely seven items long. First, it repeats the myth that Jack Daniels’ death came when he kicked his safe and died from infection in one of his toes. While Daniels died of blood poisoning in 1911, this myth was convincingly debunked by Daniels modern biographer, Peter Krass.

Second, it states Tennessee Whiskey isn’t bourbon. That Tennessee Whiskey is, in fact, a major sub-category of bourbon was settled three years ago when the State of Tennessee passed its new whiskey law, implicitly defining it as such.