Robert Guskind of Gowanus Lounge and Curbed is one of my favorite bloggers. He was on the Brian Lehrer show this past week and responded to something that Pete Hamill, an earlier guest, had said about how journalism students should not waste their time on blogs:
What GL Said to BL About Blogging, Pete Hamill, Etc.
"Bloggers post stories precisely because blogs lack newsroom hierarchies and editorial priorities that may have nothing to do with the news. We constantly hear from both reporters and from community activists about good, solid stories in Brooklyn that are killed by editors or that are discouraged in the first place...
On Brian's show, we said that perhaps five percent of the important stories in Brooklyn are reported in the press every week. We seriously misspoke. The figure is probably less than .5 percent. The fact is that there are countless stories in Brooklyn from environmental issues in Williamsburg and the demolition of historic structures to neighborhood development fights and illegal construction that wouldn't get any coverage without blogs...
Could the coverage be more in-depth? Absolutely. Could there be more "shoe leather" reporting? No question. But the fact is that without blogs there would no coverage or reporting of any sort, either facile or in-depth."
Replace the word "Brooklyn" with the word "Queens" and he presents my sentiments exactly.
9 comments:
Amen.
Queens Crap, you are the most important development in preservation in Queens since they passed the landmarks law (which would have been more than an empty promise if you were around in the 60s) and
the first opportuntiy for people in Queens to get the real news since the shuttering of the last real newspapers in Queens (Long Island Press, Long Island Star-Journal.)
My hat is off to you, Crappie.
Around only a few months and already added new words to the language: Art Crappo, tweeder.
Blog forth, good friends, and we will follow!
Ditto, Queens Crap.
It will take a long time for your work to make a big difference, but like the little mammals eating dinosaur eggs, bit by bit your are winning the turf.
Remember that great quote by Ovid: add little to little and soon you have a great pile!
You are head and shoulders above anything else out there.
You have taken Queens preservation into a new level.
God bless you all for the courage and stamina to fight the good battle for the people.
I hope this blog is around for a long long time.
To highlight the point of Crapper's true value, let a reader refer us to any in depth reporting on the depravities of Pinky Gallagher. The paper can be either local or citywide.
OK, then refer us to any reporting on any of our local officials that is beyond press-release stenography or photo-ops of award ceremonies.
Who really cares if the sloppy avoidance of hard hitting reporting is because of editorial policy, advertising, or simple ignorance? The reporting is absent.
So, Blogs like Crappy complete the picture with everyone invited to read and post.
If any of the posts were false, we'd have heard from the politician.
So, again, mega-dittos, Crappy! You fill a big void so well!
Remember this, too: Saint Jimmy Breslin boasted of regularly sitting in the office of Queens Borough Pres Donald Manes watching the mud-crusted booted developers dropping by all day tossing envelopes filled with payoff cash into Manes' top drawer. Well, well, well. Saint Breslin decided that we were worthy of knowing this only after Manes was gone.
Screw Saint drunken Breslin. It's "reporters" (stenographers) like him who watched all the corruption without reporting any of it. I believe that he was very likely just as corrupted as Manes.
Crapper, can you conjure up the famous photo of Abe Hirschfeld (former NY Post owner)kissing his editor Hamill? It's a real hoot!
But of course, the quite-dignified monsieur Hamill.
while i agree with Bob Guskind's riposte to the worthless hack Hammill... & i have the highest regards for QC's--
for those of ya'll who know Queens, please understand that, even if Bob knows more is needed, the "Brooklyn Blogs" are sooooooooooooo skewed by limited geography/knowledge of the borough as a whole, there's still a very very VERY long way to go.
i don't know if anyone here knows an obscure Queens 'hood, i think it's called Maspeff or something. anyway, if you do, think of YOUR place in the usual city dialogue. The Brooklyn bloggers, by and large, ignore the Maspeffs, and the South Jamaicas, and the Woodhavens of Brooklyn in exactly the same way.
which is OK if it keeps rent down but so many of them claim BROOKLYN, it's laughable, and more than a bit racist/classist. imagine if someone in a new LIC condo starts repping QUEENS while excited about-- oooh!-- another new bistro opening?
that said, Hammill is a jackoff (& a LOUSY Brooklyn writer; believe it) & I back up Guskind's critique of him 1000%.
If the sole purpose of a blog is to stir up the filthy muck that pollutes a clean stream bed.....then YOU'VE DONE YOUR JOB WELL QUEENS CRAP !
Traditional media has slowly become an ink and paper refuge.....a fiefdom where lazy reporters find their spot in an elite pecking order..... becoming like grade "B" movie stars !
Continue opening up all those painted shut windows and let the sun shine in !
A good airing out can accomplish wonders !!!
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