I was out at Target the other day when I ran into a familiar face pushing a shopping cart full of Reynolds Wrap through the grocery section. \u00a0It was Professor William G. Krieppi, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Hennepin Technical College’s School of Geology.<\/p>\n
It went something like this.<\/p>\n
———-<\/p>\n
KRIEPPI: \u00a0(Seeing me) Hey, Merg! \u00a0Brian Lambert at the\u00a0Minnpost\u00a0<\/em>sure pwn3ed you?<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0Hm. \u00a0I always wondered how one pronounced “Pwn3d”. \u00a0Otherwise – and I know I’ll regret asking you this – what are you talking about?<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: He called you out on your “citizen journalist” nonsense! \u00a0In the MinnPost!<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0Well, I’m glad to see they have such important stuff to cover.<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0Check it out<\/a>!<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0Jeez, it’s only Lambert. \u00a0 I’ve got stuff I gotta do.<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0You are clearly melting down. \u00a0 Why do you hate children?<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0Oh, what the hell. \u00a0 (Types quickly on IPhone) (sotto voce) If I say “That’s a fascinating point”, will you go away? \u00a0(Normal tone of voice) OK, here it is:<\/p>\n …you might want to reader conservative blogger Gary Gross\u2019s take on [whatever Lambo was writing about]. It concludes with this semi-classic threat: \u201cWhat this means is that Gov. Dayton\u2019s words, Pat Kessler\u2019s words and other biased media\u2019s words didn\u2019t have a hint of truth to them. It\u2019s worth noting that ABM didn\u2019t hesitate in using them in their statewide smear campaign against GOP candidates. It\u2019s time for Mr. Sommerhauser and other reporters to blister Alida Messinger, Gov. Dayton and the Twin Cities media for telling the whoppers that they told. If he won\u2019t, citizen journalists like Mitch Berg and myself will expose the DFL for the corrupt political party it is.\u201d Hey, guys, can I see your “citizen journalist” badges?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0hahahahaahahahaaahaahahahahaahahaahahahaaahaaha (shallow breath) )hahahaahahaahahahaaahaahahahahaahahaahahahaaahaahahahahaaha!!!<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0OK…?<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0So where’s your badge, Merg?<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0I don’t have one. \u00a0But then, I used to work as a reporter, and I didn’t have a “badge” back then, either. \u00a0Why don’t you ask Lambert to see\u00a0his\u00a0“badge”?<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0He is teh real journalist! \u00a0What teh hcek\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>a “citizen journalist”?<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0(Groaning wearily) I don’t much care for the term “citizen journalist”, and I never have.. \u00a0And for that matter, the term “Journalist”, either. \u00a0Establishment “journalists” wrap themselves in the term to try to give themselves a veneer of non-existant “objectivity”. \u00a0The problem is, left-leaning establishment journos from the\u00a0NYTimes\u00a0<\/em>down to the\u00a0MinnPost<\/em>, along with the Administraiton, are trying to define the term<\/a> such that only “people who get paid by institutional media outlets” qualify as “journalists”, which is cynical and stupid, but certainly self-serving.<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0Quit equivocating! \u00a0He pwn3d you! \u00a0Maybe even pwn4d you! \u00a0 He showed that you are nothing but a partisan hack!<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0Huh. \u00a0So let’s recap, here; you’re referring to the “objectivity” and\/or “hackery” of a guy who writes utterly-unveiled opinion pieces for a glorified blog, and has appeared for years on the radio as an expressly, even stridently-partisan commentator…<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0 Yes! \u00a0Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!<\/p>\n ME: …who interrupted his “non-partisan” “media” career for a gig as then-Senator Mark Dayton’s press secretary?<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: \u00a0…Hahahahahahahahahaahhahahahaaaahahaaahaahah… (maniacal laughter slowly grinds to a halt).<\/p>\n ME: \u00a0Who’s spent most of his career as a DFL stenographer and snark-bot, \u00a0but who will nonetheless dance up and down and say “You’re not a real journalist<\/em>” because it’s a whole lot easier than explaining why a group of plutocrats and unions have basically bought the governorship and legislature with his blog’s blessing.<\/p>\n KRIEPPI: (stands, blank-faced)<\/p>\n ME: Hey, have a great day, Professor!<\/p>\n (I walk away as KRIEPPI slowly opens a carton of Reynolds Wrap and starts to wrap it around his head)<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n Like I said, i don’t much care for the term “citizen journalist”. \u00a0Partly because it’s stilted and anachronistic, but mostly because In the modern sense of the term, it’s a little like saying “citizen carpenter”. \u00a0There’s no real barrier of entry to picking up a hammer and a saw – or a keyboard.<\/p>\n