Problems at Patch.com

And how did they deal with it? Did they fire or suspend the person? Did they issue an apology?

Patch may be a fun, readable site. It's just not journalism.

I'm not questioning anyone's integrity. It's just a statement of fact. Something is either a journalistic endeavor or it's not. By any reasonable definition, Patch is not.

 

Wrong again, asshole:

Congratulations to John Celock for winning first place in the Best
Online Reporting category in the 2011 Society of Professional
Journalists-New Jersey Excellence in Journalism contest.

John won for a series of 13 articles he wrote for Westfield (NJ) Patch
about a group of parents' and teachers' efforts to save the job of
Matt Kravetsky, an elementary school teacher in Westfield (the teacher
kept his job).
westfield.patch.com
http://www.njspj.org/

 

I'm not sure what this is supposed to prove. So, this guy did a nice series of articles. So what?

That lifts an entire site to a standard that reaches the definition of journalism?

Again, if an airline has three planes crash as the result of pilot error, the fact that it might also employ an ward winning pilot would not make it a safe airline.

You act like I'm putting everyone who works at Patch down. I'm not. But if they want to be taken seriously as journalists they should work for a company that values journalism -- that aspires to it.

Does Patch do that?

 

Oh, and maybe the guy wrote the best series of articles ever, but before we throw the guy a parade, can we look at the category?

It looks like it's limited to online publications only.

Here are the winners in the online categories:

So, he beat out PatersonPress.com, NJ Spotlight, and BigAppleSoccer.com?

Somehow I don't think the competition was very deep.

At least it was deeper than the sports category. To bad Timmy's mom doesn't work for Patch in NJ. She could have won an award too.

 

Let's recap:
YankeeFan's rules:

1. The assignment of one mom to cover her son means Patch isn't journalism.

2. An editor wins an award for -- zoiks! -- real journalism. Patch still isn't journalism.

Just inches short of real logic.

 

Typical obfuscator. When someone has the answers, change the questions.

 

The National Enquirer submitted its John Edwards work for a Pulitzer, and there was a big and serious discussion about the merits of the story. Does that make the Enquirer a journalism site?

 

It's probably not worth its own thread, but we'd be remiss if we didn't congratulate the fine journalists at the Rutgers Office of Media Relations for their award.

A useful site indeed!

 

So, by your definition the employees at the Rutgers Office of Media Relations -- and, I suppose by extension, the employees of every office of media relations across the country -- are also journalists.

Would you like to make that argument on their behalf?

I doubt they would be on your side in that argument.

 

Goalmouth's rules: If one employee at a Starbucks pisses in a coffee pot, that's not a reflection on the company as a whole because no one has ever pissed in his coffee cup at his local Starbucks.

 

Carla Cantor got bilked out of $1,000 in an internet scam, but hey, she turned lemons into lemonade. She wrote an essay and won an award!

http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2010-06-03.4448585852/article.2010-06-11.7540311133

 

I have a new favorite part of this story.

The New Jersey Pro Chapter of SPJ misspelled the last name of the subject of the award winning series on their site announcing the winners.

Sums it up pretty nicely.

I hope the spelled the winner's name right on his certificate so he can frame it and put it up on the wall in his basement.