Thursday, February 28, 2002

 

Quite a lot has been written in the last few weeks about blogging, the state of blogging, the technology of blogging, ad naseum. As far as I can tell, most of these articles were written by people who don't know what the heck they're talking about. (A list of many of these articles can be found here.) I don't have much to add to this discussion beyond what's here. She made just about every point I wanted to make. Jonno makes some other good points.

In case you're wondering why I keep this blog, it's pretty simple. The last couple of years I wrote for the newspaper were frustrating as hell. The reporting/writing part wasn't that bad. It was column writing that had me pulling my hair out -- and not wanting to write columns anymore. Our kinder, gentler city editor was so damn politically correct that she didn't want to print anything that could be construed as controversial. Her columns consisted of feel-good stories about beanie babies, her son's latest exploits at school and how she felt when she went to her grandmother's funeral. With that mindset, is it any wonder she didn't want me writing about why city council was screwing the city? Then we got the "we're gonna have fun" city editor. I always thought he was a bastard. He actually made me cry once. I was smart enough to do it in my car though. He made other people cry, too, but they did it in the newsroom. So, when he was promoted, he pulled all his reporters aside and, in not so many words, told us he'd changed and "we're gonna have fun." Well, he had fun. He somehow managed to work a (maxium) 35-hour week and make the managing editor believe he was working overtime. Wait. Did I say "work?" It was more like showing up. I don't think talking to your wife on the phone for three hours, then watching and commenting on whatever sporting event happened to be on television can be considered work in most cases. When he felt like it, he'd write columns on hunting, fishing and traveling to see his in-laws. Anyway, with this person as city editor, more responsibility fell onto the shoulders of the reporters who actually cared about the content and running of the newsroom. In short, there was no time to write columns. There was barely time to cover my beat.

Now I can write to my heart's content. I can write about how I feel about issues in the news. I can ignore things I don't want to write about. Most important, I don't have an editor telling me what I can or can't say. It's liberating. It feels good.

posted by Anne 2/28/2002 10:29:00 AM