In Your World
Let's flash back a couple of days.
Barbara O'Brien, writing for Kos and her own Mahablog, tried to find a reference to the Bronx News, which published the initial story that the Gloria Wise boys and Girls clubs had gone under.
The Commissar at Polituburo Diktat found it in moments.
Writing on the Daily Kos, O'Brien takes a rather overheated whack back at the Commissar:
Some people here on Kos Diaries found the same thing yesterday. One of them called the phone number. Nobody there. Real newspapers have staff in the office on Saturday.
Huh?
I'm not sure that I've ever encountered anyone at the City Pages (Minneapolis' boutique freebie 'zine) on Saturday. I didn't read this until Sunday, so I can't say I tested it on a Saturday but - well, hey, City Pagers (and I know some of you read me) - do you guys have manned battle stations on Saturday? (note to Barbara O'Brien - while I disagree with almost everything about the City Pages, they are a "real newspaper").
I've worked for a few community-based papers over the years, probably analogous to the Bronx News, that were not staffed on the weekends. Forget Saturdays - you could find some Wednesdays when everyone in the shop was out covering something, or having lunch, or something. They were "real" - they wrote news, covered the community, even broke stories nobody else had.
Sort of like Bronx News, it would seem
Anyone within the sound of my voice ever worked at a "real newspaper" that had an unmanned newsroom on a Saturday?
Ms. O'Brien is trying to derogate the notion that smaller, community-based newspapers are "real". Some are, indeed, glorified advertising supplements. She's especially trying to rescue her attempted debunking of the Air America story.
I think it's done, now.
Posted by Mitch at
August 1, 2005 06:06 AM
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Just passing through, I'm liking the blog by the way.
Posted by: HumanityCritic at August 1, 2005 10:57 AMNihilist in Golf Pants has a REALLY funny Top 11 today on Franken-gate.
Posted by: Dave at August 1, 2005 11:00 AMDidn't realize you spent your saturdays hanging around the cp offices mitch. There are generally a few people in the office on the weekends, but certainly nobody would be answering the phone.
Regarding your post about "The Blotter" from some time back: the redoubtable Brad Zellar has not worked at, or written anything for, CP in a long time. According to a quick search of the CP archives, his byline last graced the paper in October, 2004. He has never written anything for "The Blotter." Whichever posts of his you purportedly enjoyed were the work of your imagination. Zellar now works at the The Rake.
Perhaps you should spend some time actually reading our "boutique freebie 'zine" and affiliated blogs if you are going to offer critiques of them.
Posted by: Demko at August 2, 2005 01:03 PMHmmmm. It's a conundrum. On the one hand, read the CP before offering critiques. On the other hand, don't.
Tough choice.
Very, very tough.
(Look, Paul - I've been as effusive as any conservative should be in my praise for the CP's reporting, which is frequently excellent. You want me to do that, AND refrain from lambasting G.R. Anderson and Molly "Agent 008 From Da Hood" Priesmayer? As if.).
(And while I've never hung around the CP offices, I DID call over there Sunday, just to be safe. And I've worked at enough small newspapers to excrete more knowledge about papers like the "Bronx News" in a day than Babs O'Brien will ever know).
However, Paul, you're still changing the subject. According to Barbara "Ban All Dissent!" O'Brien, the CP is "not a real newspaper?"
All this, and you want me to keep track of Brad Zellar? AND to differentiate the versions of the house blog he's been in? I suddenly feel like getting hammered and watching soccer and...HEY!
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