The Baltimore Sun is Kicking Ass

Some big applause, please, for the Baltimore Sun (Twitter: @baltimoresun) which is putting on a journalism clinic regarding the fate of the Baltimore Grand Prix. It's a festival of stories with another one today. They even have a section on their site called "Grand Prix." Check it here.

All they're doing is getting people on record and covering the story without waiting for the "official announcement" or news release. Amazing!!!* (*denotes sarcasm.) They're also apparently not getting all knotted up about what the organizers of the race think of their efforts, or if their story will "hurt the city," or whose feelings will be ruffled. From what I can tell, they are reporting the news readers want to know about as fairly as possible. Journalism.

I realize journalism is a hard job. For nine years I did it for a living for a real newspaper printed on paper even. I had it easier because I'm old and when I was a real reporter (1986 to 1995) the  newspaper was still the big dog in any town. There was barely an Internet and for sure not a zillion bloggers and online outlets to compete with.

So here's to the Baltimore Sun taking advantage of the strength they have over bloggers and online pretenders  and working the phones, checking the public documents, driving around town, talking to people affected, asking the real questions and covering all sides as best they can. The strength traditional media have over us bloggers is their Rolodex. People will take their calls and talk to them way before they talk to me or of my fellow online pretenders. Kudos to Baltimore Sun for working it.

On top of that, the Associated Press's Jenna Fryer busted off a story yesterday about IndyCar NOT going back to Las Vegas in 2012. If we had to wait for the "official announcement" on that, we'd be waiting until (literally) Christmas. Jenna obviously called up Bruton Smith and got him on record. Well done. Then Drew Davidson of the Star-Telegram in Dallas-Fort Worth followed with some on-the-record stuff that IndyCar IS going back to Texas Motor Speedway.

Journalism. Here's to an epidemic.

 

Comments

[Mike (15DaysinMay)]

As someone who is (still) in the print media (although thankfully I have a great day job that pays the bills -- LOL), I love great work like this.

[Jeremy from Harrisburg]

I read "online pretenders" as "online predators" the first time through...

[ThatGuy]

Cheers to Marshall Pruett's New Car reporting, even though he's mostly a website guy and he blocked me on Twitter back during the Month of May...