I guess the city’s progressive bloggers are taking the afternoon off.
- - Nashville City Paper editor Clint Brewer speculating on why local bloggers ignored his publication's story on Metro Schools blending education and religion
Yes, I was taking the afternoon off WORKING MY FRACKIN' JOB (which has nothing to do with blogging) so that I could pay the bills.
This jab at bloggers looks like the flip side of the mainstream media's presumptive disdain for people whom they think sit around in their pajamas all day and try to copy what they do themselves. So, if they're not writing about the City Paper's stories, then bloggers must be taking the day off because God knows, we're not doing anything else. It's another example of how the press doesn't get it.
But it's really not that hard to comprehend: you, Mr. Editor, get paid to blog and to write and I don't. I fulfill the aphorism of someone who would write even if not paid for it because I enjoy it so much. It's cheap bombast when journalists say that they love their jobs so much they would report without pay because, well, they are getting paid when they say it. But I write literally without pay, and when Google Adsense does send me a check every 4 to 6 months, I turn around and give it away to local non-profits. Each workday morning I wake up early before my children rouse and I do some research and writing, and then I try to do some more writing in the interstices of my domesticated evening life while more than a few reporters are putting night caps on their happy hours du jour.
So, I'm sorry that I missed your story that was right up most progressive alleys, but I've been forced to live with the mainstream media's abject neglect of many newsworthy stories written by unpaid writers that I thought should have reached a wide audience. So, just suck it up and deal with the lack of attention (or better yet, work on having better relations with bloggers and a user-friendly website).
In the meantime, I'll tell you what: I'll trade your blending-school-and-religion story for my blending-Council-discretionary-funds-with-religion analysis (which you ignored at the time). My article on religion was just as significant as yours. What were you doing when it was published? Taking the afternoon off?
The truth is the CP story wasn't even a story. An overcrowded elementary school uses the big church stage across the street for events. For the most part all religious symbols are covered up. One or two people are perhaps a little uncomfortable. Some kids sang Kumbaya. The ACLU sees no problem. What is the big story I'm missing? Sounds like a pretty slow news day at the CP.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for donating your proceeds to local non-profits. That's a great example that much of the rest of the blogosphere should follow.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're spot on with this post. What an arrogant comment. The CP lost my interest as soon as they dedicated themselves to that unreadable online format, but trash talk like that would seal the deal for me.