(WARNING: extreme inside-baseball logistical blog talk ahead) If there’s anything that’s a sign of our times in the shifting journalism landscape, it’s the increasing amount of indignation (and sense of right) bloggers have been expressing at being uncredited when they feel credit is due. Is this a sign that what was once-considered a parasitic medium has now reached a level of legitimacy that it is now suffering from parasites of its own? Yes, according to this inside-baseball but illuminating spat on Brownstoner over what Mr. B said was an uncredited scoop on the Whole Foods Brooklyn news:
Brownstoner,
So you fancy yourself a member of the media now? That’s a laugh. Sit around copying and pasting links all day from actual newspapers and you feel you deserve to be included amongst reputable publications that actually put in work and report the news? Your site offers absolutely nothing of value in terms of news and only exists to help your boyhood UES Manhattan pals sell overpriced real estate.
Go to school, work hard, and get a real job if it’s respect and recognition you crave. Or at least hire writers who know how to formulate sentences. Posting links to other people’s work does not make you part of the media. You write a blog and you run a dirty flea market. You’re no different than the other 100,000 yuppies who’ve moved to Brooklyn in the past decade. You’re quite far from being part of the media elite in this town.
Keep up the good work.
— Posted by EnglishKills in Here’s the New Whole Foods Rendering
The original Brownstoner post that caused the spat:
After we broke the news yesterday of Whole Foods’ decision to go ahead with plans to build on a contaminated lot in Gowanus, Crain’s followed up half an hour later with a story of its own. And while neglecting to give our post a hat-tip, the business paper did come up with some interesting original content: This rendering. Neato.
Interesting to note: EnglishKills appears to be a regular and interactive commentator on the Brownstoner site for the past two years, so this comment seems out of the blue (also: the BK Flea is probably the cleanest flea market I’ve ever seen, but that’s another topic).
The comment created an interesting back and forth among commentators. It’s most likely Crain’s had a story about Whole Foods in its pocket well before the Brownstoner post (it has been big news and followed closely around Brooklyn for years now). But it’s also likely a Crain’s staffer did see the Brownstoner post first: the site (and its reporting) has become an indispensable resource for real estate news. Even so, I imagine Mr. B had half his tongue in his check when typing that post as a snarky swipe on the still-trenchant resistance of traditional media to site new media as the source of a news tip. Continue reading
Inverted Soapbox 