"New York Times" style writer Cathy Horyn goes to town on Snooki

And when I say "goes to town," I mean scribe an articulate and scathing takedown of a figure that doesn't merit an articulate or scathing takedown. Jezebel calls the Sunday New York Times style piece on Snooki "the cruelest profile I've seen in the style section," drudging up comparsions between Horyn's piece and Lynn Hershberg's M.I.A profile. Whether you think either celebrity are fair targets (or if that matters), this article includes less information. (It's a style piece about Snooki, people.)

For example, I did not know that the Sri Lankan ministry asked M.I.A. to stop running her mouth about the politics of its country, but no one has to be told that "lots of 22-year-old women wear revealing clothes, but they may not have [Snooki's] body shape, and it’s a safe bet they’re not rocking a pouf." Ouch?

It's not the most devastating piece you'll read - it's basically an elevated version of every conversation about Jersey Shore you've overheard in an elevator. (For some reason you keep walking in on those.) Yeah, maybe her father said, "I don’t want to say she don’t have talent ..." and even a close friend of Snooki admits that she was "the mean girl in high school." But did Horyn have to go there? There's no point in painting a silver lining around a public figure if there really isn't one - even in the name of balance or objectivity. It could have been less cutting, sure. But again, this is a style piece making back-handed comparisons between Elizabeth Taylor and Snooki Polizzi. And I'm sure Polizzi doesn't even care.