Monday, August 10, 2009

"Journalist" Whines About "Bloggers"

A Washington Post journalist named Ian Shapira has written a lengthy whine about bloggers.

It appears that he wrote a nice little piece that was cited by a blog called GAWKER.

He felt good about getting attention on the net -- then his boss wrote him and gave him hell because Gawker had "ripped off" his piece by quoting it.

I started thinking about all the labor that went into producing my 1,500-word article. The story wasn’t Pulitzer material; it was just a reported look at one person capitalizing on angst in the workplace. With all the pontificating about the future of newspapers both in the media and in Capitol Hill hearings, I began wondering if most readers know exactly what is required to assemble a feature story for a publication such as The Post. Journalism at a major newspaper is different from what’s usually required in the wild and riffy world of the Internet. And that wild world is killing real reporting — the kind of work practiced not just by newspapers but by nonprofits, some blogs and other news outlets.

It puts to mind an image of a dinosaur contemplating the mammals who eat the eggs.

Okay, young man, listen up: you don't DO "real reporting." You report what the Sultzbergers and the leftist community organizer fans at "Pravda on the Potomac" want you to report on and write what they pay you to write. Nothing more.

As for the kind of "real reporting" the MSM does--do you mean reporting like Jayson Blair's at the New York Times? Stephen Glass at The New Republic? Jay Forman's "Monkeyfishing" story? Dan Rather and his Bush memoes?

You claim to be a younger journalist 'who writes about the millennial generation'. Have you ever interviewed members of that generation who are working to end the horror of abortion? Who support Sarah Palin? Who are opposed to the congressional health care boondoggle? Who want to see us take a firm stance against jihado-fascism? How about those your age who are serving in the military? (And btw, if you haven't served, why not?)

And in the unlikely event that you did, did the Washingon Post print it?

No?

Maybe there's a reason why.

Let me tell you a bedtime story.

Once upon a time, *In 1980 I was 18 and a freshman at Michigan State and wanted to be a journalist when I grew up.

My mother had been a journalist; my elder brother was a journalist; I had won the Detroit Press Club's top prize for student journalism in my senior year in high school.

My professor called me into his office for a meeting halfway through the fall term.

"You're pretty conservative."

"Yes." I made no bones about it. "Of course I am. I'm prolife."

"Nobody with your views belongs in journalism. Nobody will hire you; hell, you won't even get into the third-year courses. Either rethink your politics or get used to the fact that you have no future here."

So I changed majors--and eventually became a lawyer.

I now run my own blog, and with no remorse quote, within legal limits, (it's called FAIR USE, jack!) from droids like you who either lied about, or told the truth about, holding evil views in order to get advanced or hired by the MSM.

Either way, I have NO sympathy for you. AT ALL.

BLOG ON!

For the future is ours!

*Note: All this note from asterisk forward I left as an answer on his article.

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Keep your meme clean. Thank you.