Careful, Scoopy, arts coverage is a vipers' den of homosexualists.

Frank Rich moved, at The New York Times, from liberal theatrical to liberal political criticism. At last the heaving sahara of the bozarts has seen its conservative savior self-anointed: Scoop Dog, his blog's Doctor Who-like transformation leaving The Palmetto Scoop all new- and yet somehow not (Wesley Donehue tweeted, "As I said, new @palmettoscoop design, same ole hatred") is upset about SC's poor national rankings in crime stats. He wonders if it's because of the state's poor education system. (Wait a sec, we'll get to the Frank Rich comparison shortly).

As usual, he's got no solution, but at least it's a change of target from his year-long complaint that public funding of Gay Pride events result in increased crime, while linking it to an incredible array of other social ills: see, e.g. here (it helped cause the Columbia city manager's retirement); here (it's also anti-taxpayer); here (it results in no money for Christmas lights; funny, though, when it comes to holiday cheer and generosity of spirit we always thought Scoopy more an Old Man Potter in the making); and here for literally lubricious suggestions that funding of NAMBLA will be next when deserving Old Confederacy bigots are being short-changed (tied in to his campaign against foreign gay tourists spending money here, including, presumably, to offset the baleful effects of the RuPaul concert in Columbia that scared him so badly).

But it's the concert hook that got our attention in light of another Scoop Dog v.2 post today. Responding to layoffs in The State's arts beat reporting staff, Scoop made a striking announcement:

STATE NEWSPAPER LAYOFFS THREATEN ART COVERAGE IN COLUMBIA, ARTISANS NOT HAPPY

Like a swarm of angry, Venetian mask-wearing party-goers from Eyes Wide Shut, the local artists of Columbia are making their wrath known regarding the recent firings at The State newspaper.

The Columbia Free-Times, which, of course, has absolutely nothing to gain from the demise of The State, gleefully pushed the issue with a piece in this week’s issue.

Free Times has verified that arts and entertainment editor Mark Layman, veteran arts writer Jeffrey Day and features writer Natasha Derrick are among the victims of the cuts [...]

Many in the arts community have long felt that coverage in The State was already relatively scarce given the city’s position as the arts hub of the state, but that this shortcoming was at least somewhat offset by the paper having an experienced team specifically designated to the fine arts.

“We have to assume [now] that they won’t have a full-time arts writer at The State, raising issues of quality of coverage,” says Wim Roefs, owner of Columbia’s if ART Gallery. “Will it be consistent? Will the level of expertise be there?”

I can’t answer those questions for Mr. Roefs, but I can tell him that The Palmetto Scoop will be picking up where The State is leaving off.

And that includes arts. Of course, I don’t know a damn thing about the local arts and entertainment scene [well, with one exception, see above- WLJ], so he’s more than welcome to send stuff my way and I’ll cover it.

Just send it to the Tip Line. The password is Fidelio.

It's always a good start when an erstwhile arts critic can't tell the difference between an artist and an artisan (Waldo, his eyebrow famously arched, commented, "The boy can offer in his defense that both words have 'art' in them"), but the possibilities offered by a man who's claimed to have been reinventing SC politics for years, to no discernable effect, offers to do the same to the arts.

Grab a beer, gentle readers, sit back, and wait for the trainwreck.

UPDATE: Tuesday, 8 am: Scoop's headline now says, "Artists." And v.2 TPS now seems to exclude the posting time stamp that made comparing his "scoops" to other bloggers and news outlets such fun.