"This is the most cowardly, selfish, arrogant news conduct out there today. What the fuck is 'video and photos posted on the Internet'? How does that help readers? It's as if I can go to www.internet.com, and there, on the first screen, will be the video and photos of the snowball fight and the maybe-gun-wielding cop. 'Posted on the Internet' would be acceptable if this were 1997."
-Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple, reaming the poor dim Washington Post over its lousy, terrible, no-good coverage-and meta-coverage-of the now-infamous D.C. snowball fight with bonus cop-gun-pulling.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
4
Is started as a happy, happy snowball fight--and how many people have been torn new ones so far?
Brilliant.
"Linking is a huge sign of weakness---you just can't do it."
I wish I had a nickel for every time I have run into this frustration w/ an online org. I would be bale to buy a hammer and smash them all in the face.
I liked this piece very much.
I especially enjoyed Wemple's observation that the Washington Post eventually linked to the City Paper's and others' correct accounts of the incident only to demean and belittle them - and then made sure that the link the WaPo's own story spanned much more text than the other links.
All in all, this is a pretty awesome take-down of WaPo by the City Paper.
I must say that Internet.com is a very helpful site.
No snowball fight video/coverage, though.