The Long Sad Decline Of The Movie Critic

“What Siskel and Ebert not-so-secretly ushered into being was a new way to get movie clips on free TV. The boys and their natter were incidental to the promotion. They’d convinced themselves they were performing an evaluative function and were extending the film news and commentary business to a new medium. What they were really doing was giving a giant boost to the movie hype business, which rendered their own influence decidedly moot.”