On Monday, May 10, President Barack Obama announced his nomination Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, to fill the seat soon to be vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan — the current Solicitor General and former dean of Harvard Law School, and the first woman in each of these offices — is a distinguished lawyer and a worthy nominee. Expect her to be easily confirmed.

Elena Kagan Princess BriderOn Above the Law, we’ve covered the Kagan nomination with our traditional high-low mix. The highbrow fare has included a personal essay by my colleague, Elie Mystal, on the experience of studying under Kagan at Harvard Law School; a thoughtful, historically informed analysis on the required credentials for nominees (fun fact: you don’t need a law degree); and an exegesis of a 1995 law review article Kagan wrote, in which she described Supreme Court confirmation hearings as a “vapid and hollow charade.”

Alas, to be honest, the story of the Kagan nomination is a bit boring (partly due to Kagan’s superb credentials, and partly due to the caution she has shown in her professional and personal lives). So we’ve had to spice up our coverage with more lowbrow fare, including an Elena Kagan look-alike contest (with some arguably unflattering options), irreverent musings on rumors that she’s a lesbian, and a humorous look at a Craigslist ad entitled “40-something SJM ISO Elena Kagan.”

We’ve taken some flak for this more edgy fare. For example, our commenters have condemned some of these features as “insane” and “disturbing,” “in the gutter,” and “a new low for ATL.”

Again, to be candid, some of these criticisms made me feel guilty. Although I’ve been blogging now for six years, and blogging “professionally” (i.e., for a living) for four and a half years, part of me still craves respectability and approval. I was raised as a good Catholic school boy. I went to a prestigious college and law school. I clerked for a federal judge, worked at a top law firm, and served as a federal prosecutor. I was raised to be respectful — of my elders, of institutions, of people in positions of authority. Writing irreverently on the internet about such people and institutions is still something I’m not completely comfortable with.

But I’m getting there. As I tweeted a few days after the Kagan announcement, I am “the editor of ‘a legal tabloid’ – emphasis on ‘tabloid’ – and need[] to stop feeling guilty about that.”

is the editor of “a legal tabloid” – emphasis on “tabloid” – and needs to stop feeling guilty about that. #media #journalism #iamabadpersonless than a minute ago via Posterous

And, at the end of the day, how much is there really to feel guilty over? We are giving our readers what they want — as reflected in the fantastic traffic that our most gossipy stories tend to generate. With respect to Kagan specifically, our coverage is simply putting online what people are already talking about anyway, over lunch or at cocktail parties — for example, her sexual orientation, or her celebrity doppelgängers. Before the rise of the web, such conversations would not have been memorialized anywhere; they’d vanish into the ether, and the historical record would consist of the dignified, sober news analysis of the New York Times and the Washington Post. But in the digital age, where technology allows millions to immediately communicate their unfiltered thoughts to the world, there’s now a place for these discussions to be recorded. Public figures like Elena Kagan need to accept and be prepared for candid — and yes, sometimes cruel — commentary.

Is this better or worse? I honestly don’t know. But it’s the way of the world, and there’s not much point in fighting it.

To all the readers who condemn, say, the Kagan look-alike contest, or our coverage of the lesbian rumors, ask yourself: If you find this so repugnant, then why are you here? Why are you reading Above the Law, a self-described “legal tabloid”? You may posture and criticize this type of material, but at the end of the day, you’re reading it (as we can tell from our traffic statistics, which we monitor obsessively). Your actions — clicking on the post, commenting on it, emailing the link to several friends — speak louder than your words.

A wise person once observed that in a democracy, you get the government that you deserve. The same could be said of the brave new media world: in the internet age, you get the journalism that you deserve.

David Lat is Managing Editor of Above the Law, a Breaking Media site.