The New Orleans Times-Picayune May Reduce Frequency of Publication -- NY Times

You got all of that out of his tweet?

Sorry the guy seems to be upset for all the wrong reasons.

 

No, I didn't get all that out of his tweet. I knew where his restaurants were. And I knew he was from New Orleans. I came into to the tweet with that knowledge. It shaped my view of it.

I don't expect you to change your opinion on it. I'm simply providing a record of information.

 

I do appreciate the additional context, and was being a little sarcastic. Thanks.

 

Sheesh, who has time to read a newspaper when we're all so busy tweeting all day long.

 

I think YF has a point: It's very easy for someone not involved in a business to tell another company they should spend their money this way or that way. And his reasoning does sound a little self-serving.

It's no more legitimate than a reader wanting some fringe sport or school covered when there isn't enough space or people to do so, and after that's explained to them, the reader saying, "Well, just hire someone else" or "Well, just add a couple more pages"

DISCLAIMER: This is in no way me saying this was a good decision to cut this writer. Just speaking in generalities.

 

By extension, we're discussing a restaurant critic. Did he go to culinary school, work as a chef, or in a restaurant, etc.?

If not, what qualifies him to judge restaurants, and chefs?

These things work both ways folks. Do you really think reporters are all experts in the fields they cover?

Sometimes, the best ones are, but it's not very common.

 

Anderson was dismissed <i>because</i> of his fellowship by the same editors who told him to apply for it.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/brett-anderson-new-orleans-food-writer-is-laid-off/

Also from the story. <b>Bold</b> emphasis mine.

<i>He assiduously covered the progress of the city’s food businesses after Hurricane Katrina, <b>waiting three years to write reviews</b> while chronicling the efforts to put the city’s famous food scene back on its feet. Later, he wrote extensively about the <b>effects of the BP oil spill on the local food supply.</b></i>

What's happening to this paper, right now, is spectacularly sad. Posing specious questions doesn't change that. Arguing relativity or existentialism or role in the community. seems rude, or beside the point. Extended though it may be, a damn funeral's happening here. We should straighten up a little. Show some respect.

 

Ooh, tough guy.

How about this:
You presumed to know the -- likely complex -- reasoning behind the 140-character complaint of someone with a vested interest in the paper in question. Someone who has a knowledge of the industry being covered by that particular journalist. You have no idea his motivations were, you just assumed the worst. And then said 'fuck him.'

In the tweet, the chef didn't say it was the job of the paper to support the restaurant industry, but implied it was the paper's job to cover it. And yes, it is the job of the local newspaper to cover issues of great economic importance to the area. Among other things.

Someone with a vested interest in the area and the paper is responding to what they see as a newspaper not doing its job -- which is covering the area. Not covering tourism in New Orleans is like not covering the weather in Chicago or the surf report in San Diego or the agriculture industry in Nebraska. It's a basic function of the area you serve.

It seems many newspaper executives have forgotten who they are supposed to serve. Many people -- from journalists to chefs to teachers to Little League parents -- are reacting to that.

And YF, it seems that your worship of the almighty dollar aligns you with the thinking of the newspaper executives.

I also stand by my repeated assertion that you speak with a confidence about the journalism industry that you have not earned through experience. You come into a journalism-specific corner of a board for journalists and speak to us in a way that can only be interpreted as ill-informed arrogance.

I like to drink coffee. It doesn't mean I come to your place of business and proceed to tell you everything about the coffee industry.

If you were, as a businessman, to ask my opinion as a coffee drinker, I would give it to you. But it would be in that context: as a coffee drinker. Not as a coffee grower, roaster, barista or business owner.

You are a newspaper reader. At most, you are an observer of the media industry. But you come here and speak as if you're an insider, and you're not. And that's why I take the occasion to remind other thread readers and lurkers that you are not, nor have you ever been, a journalist.

 

Well said, Turtle.

 

YF never was a journalist? I guess I haven't been on this board long enough.

 

Wait a minute, you mean this guy has been talking out of his ass about sports writers and columnists and he's not in the business? Tell me that's not true.

 

If I hadn't already posted on this thread, I'd avoid adding to this because I sure don't like this thread popping up every time I check new replies.

But since I already posted on this thread ... it's true. ;D