[pkteison]

Vanity Fair still does real journalism, where a reporter goes and finds information to write an article about.

Have you read their article on Iceland's financial crisis? http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland2... I can't write them off as worthless hollywood fluff after reading that.

[hollerith]

>Vanity Fair still does real journalism

I do not disagree, but I think grandparent's point is that a magazine filled with profiles of billionaires and ads for luxury goods is maybe not the most credible publisher of criticism of materialism and the evils of the idle rich.

[potatolicious]

Maybe not the most credible, but perhaps the most appropriate - after all, Vanity Fair's audience is also the type Dubai wants to attract.

[sethg]

I think most rich people want to believe that they are not merely rich people—they want to believe that they are working (if they work) and spending for a higher purpose than mere consumption. The article does not condemn the citizens of Dubai for having money; it condemns them for being both cruel and crass (the Russian word nekulturny comes to mind).