Problems at Patch.com

We argue all the time that certain chains (Ogden, Wick, many others) suck across the board, ignoring that they have one or two or three stellar papers. It's a totally fair criticism of Patch to make a judgment based on the quality of its sites.

For the Kool-Aid they have dished out to some (not all, mind you) of their employees, you figured they would have been a bit more judicious in the hiring process.

 

It's fine to rip Patch apart as an organization but to try and say that none of the work done by those in Patch's employ constitutes journalism is arrogant elitism and clearly subjective.

I hate Patch as much as anyone here but, at the end of the day, there are a lot of good, quality journalists involved in the organization and I feel it's unfair to try to devalue what they bring to the table because of what other aspects of the brand do wrong.

 

Props to Patch for getting the Chris Christie chopper pix...

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/politics&id=8165457

 

I enjoyed the Patch editor's explanation that they got the landing photos online so quick their print competition was able to get shots of the copter leaving. (He had gotten a tip in the morning.)

 

Ding!

 

So the crew that got this photo and this story, they're not journalists, right? Is that what some of you guys are still clinging to?

 

The regional editor has worked for some real newspapers.

http://mahwah.patch.com/users/tom-troncone

And, I'm sorry, just because a Parch editor got a tip from someone does not all of a sudden mean that Patch is now a journalistic enterprise.

 

Patch.com is like a team playing in an unaffiliated minor league compared to the New York Times who play in the Major Leagues.

Sure, it's the same sport, butthe level of play is very different.

And, the number of folks who will work their way up from Patch to the Times is probably about the same as the number of folks who go from the St. Paul Saints to the new York Yankees.

And, while the Saints might have had Darryl Strawberry on their roster when he was trying to get back to the show, rosters of teams like this -- just like at Patch -- are filled mostly with guys who will never make the show and others who are trying to hang on and will never make it back.

 

OK, gotcha.

So when WE get a tip and break news, we're journalists.

When a dude from Patch does the same thing ... how does it work, he's just not ... because ... somewhere 1,500 miles away a woman covered her son playing tennis a few weeks ago.

OK, I'm catching on now.

Really, you're digging yourself deeper and deeper and deeper, Yankee Fan.

 

If Patch doesn't want Breaking News Tom's work associated with Timmy's Mom's work, they should have standards that preclude the employment of both.

And really, do you think Tom got the tip because of his affiliation with Patch or because someone probably knew him from his time at the Asbury Park Press or the Bergen Record?

And, sorry if answering his phone or opening his email, doesn't earn him the investigative journalist of the year award in my mind.

 

What does one have to do with the other? Again, you've painted yourself into such an anti-Patch hole that you're now refusing to classify this guy as a journalist because of something that some tennis mom half a continent away did.

I don't know. Do you? Or are you just guessing? I'm a journalist. I'm not in the business of assuming or guessing.

Please don't insult me. Now you're just grasping at straws. Nobody said anything about "journalist of the year," and you know it. We're journalists. No more, no less. So are these people.

Seriously, you're so off-base here it's comical.

 

Patch can only have one reputation.

And, it's reputation is not for journalism.

Because some journalism might also occur under the Patch banner does not change that.

If Patch wants to stand for journalism, it wouldn't employ Timmy's Mommy. If Breaking News Tom doesn't want his top notch journalism associated with Timmy's Mommy, he shouldn't work for patch.

And, if Patch is Breaking News Tom's last stand, then I feel for the guy. But it's not my fault that patch isn't a journalistic enterprise.