I couldn’t help noticing a few “off” notes in the Freeploid’s story about the state Democratic Committee’s failure to endorse Bill Sorrell. Hints of desperation and insecurity from Gannett’s Biggest Little Paper in Vermont (New and Improved, With Lots of Bright Colors to Distract You From the Shallow News Coverage). First, this:
With 28 committee members voting, Sorrell needed 19 votes to win the two-thirds majority required for an endorsement. When the votes were tallied he received 16 votes. The Burlington Free Press first reported the results via Twitter shortly after the vote, then on www.burlingtonfreepress.com.
Isn’t that just a little bit tacky, to congratulate yourself on getting the scoop? Not once, but TWICE? “Hey, looky here! Serious news organization, breaking the news!” As they say about excessive touchdown celebrations in football, when you get to the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.
But was the Tweet in full color? We 21st Century readers can’t absorb content without lots of purty pitchers to soften the harshness of pure text.
The Freeploid then went out of its way to avoid mentioning certain political blogs, first in quoting TJ Donovan:
“Bill Sorrell is a good Democrat,” Donovan said Saturday afternoon while attending a political bloggers’ picnic at North Beach where the committee’s earlier vote was a buzz of conversation.
If the Freeploid were being consistent about this, it would have referred to the Democratic Committee meeting as “a gathering of top Democrats.” And it would have described the venue as “a public recreational facility on a lakeshore.”
It again went generic in quoting the picnic’s co-host and grillmaster (well, co-grillmaster, with Arnie Gundersen):
“I would say stunning is the word, to not be endorsed by your own party,” said state Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden, who was hosting the political picnic at North Beach on Saturday afternoon and is a Donovan supporter.
That generic “political bloggers’ picnic” was, of course, the annual Hanburger Summit, a tradition of several years’ standing that not only rousts Phil and us GMD folks out of our mothers’ basements every summer (despite our fear of the bright yellow ball in the sky), but also attracts a goodly swarm of top politicians. It has a name, Freeploid, and we have a name.
“That generic “political bloggers’ picnic” was, of course, the annual Hanburger Summit, a tradition of several years’ standing”
Which does not apparently deserve an article unto itself. A REAL newspaper would have sent a reporter to write about that event.
Too bad Vermont doesn’t have a newspaper…
Of course, when I checked out The
Bizz, er, Buzz, the Freepy’s, um, blog, Hallenbeck had written that Sorrell had received 12 votes. And the actual total was 16 yes, 12 no.Didn’t waste one of my Freepy freebies by going back to see whether she ever changed it.
So much for the big scoop.
NanuqFC
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust. ~ Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
GMD should add a pop up about having X# of free views left. And then print out a daily summary on 8 1/2 x 11 at a Union shop. and be sure to dedicate 50% of the area to little league scores. Then 30% to adverts. Then 19% to AP wire stories. Add a ‘pick of true day’ and 1% local news. Call it done.
But I’d guess the Freeps would still call it a ‘blog’.
Wonder what VT digger is called? What did they call The Tigger?
that Ms. Hallenbeck obviously found her way over to the “Hamburg Summit” in order to mine for comments, but wasn’t sufficiently curious to get her facts straight about the nature of the event that was so conveniently provided for her purposes.