18 Comments

1. POSTED BY State Street Pete  |  March 27, 2009 @ 2:23 pm

   That’s quite a line up to be associated with…
   “For more info:
   Annenberg School for Communications, USC
   Baristanet.com – Online citizen journalism and “Hyperlocal blogging”
   Columbia Journalism School
   Instapundit.com
   The Montclair Times
   Newser.com (News Aggregator)
   Newspaper Association of America
   Philly.com
   Politico.com
   The Poynter Institute
   Talkingpointsmemo.com
   tmz.com (Celebrity News)”
   Of these others Talking Points Memo is my fav, along with its sister site TPMMuckraker, both give a good name to news blogs.
2. POSTED BY Tom Traubert  |  March 27, 2009 @ 2:49 pm

   I agree completely. To be on a list with Glenn Reynolds, though, is slightly more… troubling.
3. POSTED BY cathar  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:17 pm

   I wonder if a rep from the Montclair Times will be asked how the paper feels about all the “borrowing” from it by the Baristas. And if the Baristas in turn will be asked about their news-gathering efforts. Or lack thereof.
4. POSTED BY Tom Traubert  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:23 pm

   You should probably just thank them, Richie, providing you with a venue through which you can so incessently and tiresomely shout into the void. Otherwise it’d just be you and the cats, no?
   What does it say about a man who chooses to spend so much time of his time in a place about which he has nothing good to say?
5. POSTED BY Tom Traubert  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:24 pm

   Lotsa typos in that one…
6. POSTED BY walleroo  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:30 pm

   I think of it as sort of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Once the blogs have sucked the life out of the newspapers and tossed them aside like dried husks, they’ll rise and assume the news gathering role.
7. POSTED BY walleroo  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:32 pm

   Until then, they just suck.
8. POSTED BY Debbie Galant  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:36 pm

   It goes both ways. They sucked this one from us.
9. POSTED BY walleroo  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:56 pm

   That’s the spirit, Debbie! Does this mean you’re hiring editors for $250k plus benefits and car service?
10. POSTED BY anti-cathar  |  March 27, 2009 @ 3:58 pm

    Debbie, your argument barely holds water. The Montclair Times story is actual journalism, containing quotes from officials, quotes from NJ Transit riders, and has an actual beginning, middle, and an end. Your story is nothing more than a anemic attempt at a “scoop.”
    Baristanet seems to have fallen into the same trap that so many blogs and bloggers fall into, believing that quantity of content is more important than quality of content, and that the first-to-publish means something more than it actually does. If all you care about is advertising revenue and click-throughs, then your blog’s voice and content will suffer. It’s happened over and over again; I’m not surprised to see it happening here.
    Seriously, when was the last time we saw a real piece of journalism at this site? The entries tend to be 50-75 words long and often do nothing more than repeat (poorly, usually) content that was produced elsewhere. There is so much to report upon in the Montclair area, but the B’net authors have probably discovered that real reporting takes time, effort, and talent. I’ve little evidence of these things here at Baristanet.
    But keep it up. Your readers will leave and you’ll be left with an empty shell of what once was, populated with nothing more than bitter and delusional readers and commenters who turn every post into a personal war. Oh wait…that’s already happened…
11. POSTED BY walleroo  |  March 27, 2009 @ 4:23 pm

    Baristanet seems to have fallen into the same trap that so many blogs and bloggers fall into…
    Namely, being on the right side of a trend.
12. POSTED BY Iceman  |  March 27, 2009 @ 4:32 pm

    If I’m contacted to be on the show representing the dissenting voice, I need an Agent. SSP, aren’t you a lawyer? I also will need a hairdresser, makeup artist, personal trainer, personal assistant, PR Flack, (I’m guessin that would be u Mrs M). And one of the codicils in my contract must require the removal of all brown M&Ms. And no one in the studio is allowed to look me in the eye.
13. POSTED BY cathar  |  March 27, 2009 @ 4:47 pm

    Since I love making enemies, oh fellow who’s named after a Tom Waits song, I hope I can consider you a firm one.
    But I also recall a time. not all that long ago, when the Baristas seemed to promise a better take on localized journalism, bid fair even to outshine the Star-Ledger back when it still had editorial resources even though it didn’t much deign to use them. Expectations once ran high, in other words, for realistic coverage of a very interesting grouping of interesting towns. Those days seem to be gone.
    Leaving us, Tommyboy, with a few staunch defenders like yourself. But not really much else, other than a faint taste of the tiresome Jeff Jarvis. There is definitely way too much massaging of advertisers, to a degree which might shame the most whorish of trade magazines.
    “Anti-Cathar” (I trust I can count on you too as an enemy?), I also think you might have missed the crucial point that Baristanet, if nothing else, has surely proven a “bully pulpit” from which Debbie Galant could vend her novels and praise her friends. In that way, this site is kind of like an old Leonard Lyons or Walter Winchell “Broadway” column, if without the sheer relish the latter guy seemed to bring to his journalism. That the relish is lacking here seems obvious from the typos and general lack of clarity in so many of the items. (It recalls for me the heyday of Deirdre Day McLeod’s weekend gig here, for which I was probably the mildest of her many critics during her tenure.)
    And of course, now there is “Patch” as well-funded competition of a sort, though the funding part probably depends much on the Times’ not-endless patience with such ventures.
14. POSTED BY Spot The Looney  |  March 27, 2009 @ 4:48 pm

    If one lives by the trend, then one will suffer the trend.
15. POSTED BY Conan  |  March 27, 2009 @ 4:51 pm

    Iceman — CBS is your enemy! You want to be on Fox News, or CNBC, or QxygenMACHO. Stay way from those unwashed, commie, girly-men, wacko, dope-smokin’, left-leaning-liberal pinkos at Black Rock! They might confuse you, and then what would you do?
16. POSTED BY complainerpuss  |  March 27, 2009 @ 7:28 pm

    Not to take anything away from the journalistic hard work of both the Montclair Times and Baristanet, but if you want to pick nits, it was actually me who broke this story back on December 18, 2008 12:00 pm.
17. POSTED BY Pokey  |  March 28, 2009 @ 9:04 am

    This is like the birzzaro Seinfeld episode where worlds collide.
    And though I know you don’t care cather, your contribution ratio on the positive side seems to be going down, just pointing that out in case that isn’t your intent.
18. POSTED BY PetieG  |  March 29, 2009 @ 10:52 am

    Please people, this is like the Hatfields and the McCoy’s… and will probably always be — except that newspapers WILL go away and blogs won’t. I find b’net to be a fine representation of the local community and the blogosphere as a whole. I often refer to their site for all things community based; recreation as well as news. I just can’t see carrying around the Montclair Times for my local news. PLUS — take a look at the MT Web site — all the stories are dated March 26th — Friday off there? What about Saturday? Yup… salaried employees working their usual newsweek. I’d say it’s egg in MT’s face during a bump in traffic due to the CBS piece mentioning their (online) paper … YUP, newspapers are dead! (or at least dying). It’s no wonder people go to baristanet.com for news… I really do not want to get my news from a paper ‘when i get home’ I want it now (not two days later)! Give it to me on a Laptop/desktop, mobile phone, even word of mouth.
    Of course b’net links to other stories (you’re welcome for the traffic) doesn’t everyone now a days even the majors? They do not have incredible expenses like salaries, print production, editorial ‘staff’, etc. to ‘create original, newsworthy content’ — but what they do have is a quick, steady, newsworthy voice of the local population with meaningful (often humorous) editorial comments — I think user-contributed news stories make it more efficient for them and their readers. They do follow up w/ the contributors before they report so they do not spread false stories… what more could we ask of them? I think they are a perfect fit for today’s world — kudos to you ladies for making a wonderful contribution to the local community.
    PS – MT should be ashamed of themselves for using the term pilfering — bnet is a different kind of media than MT, and they are spreading the local news stories from a variety of sources (including the community itself) to the local community. While MT may have original, traditional news stories, a lot of their content is pilfered as well if you want to call it that…

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.