Dallas Blog

So the furniture oriented daily shrinking full sheet decides to lie, slant or omit reporting on major issues. You have to not admire their effort. Maybe that's why they keep shrinking while the Observer seems to be maintaining it's advertising heft.
And if you're a "major metropolitan daily" why do you give such a rats ass about the sexually oriented weekly?

"I’m concerned, though, that if we remain silent some folks will believe the Observer’s charges against our staff."

oh don't worry, you don't have to remain silent for me to believe the observ-her.

Getting your ass handed to you by a "sexually oriented weekly tabloid" while constantly cutting employees and expenses has got to smart. This defensive smacks of "woe is me."

Poor DMN, he had to say something to his stock holders. The Observer does exactly that observe the warts and the good in Dallas. Size is not important if the competition can not get it up or find the right holes to report. The Observer uses humor, wit, and satire to lampoon the great whales of vested interests in Dallas. Truthyness stings for those who limit discourse and feed party line dribble to the masses. The DMN is fodder for the back dentures, while the Observer is read by young professionals. It is an age dispute....
So sad that the whale is getting grounded, maybe if it lost some dead weight, ran positive articles, and looked for ways to help all the people of Dallas, it could compete on a level playing field? All the Kings horses and all the Kings men can not put Humpty Dumpty News together again. w

Thanks so little for the "Hot Fudge Fridays" visual. I'm trying to bleach my mind.

If you take the excerpt you chose, reverse the roles, do a couple of minor tweaks you get the DO commenting on the DMN:

Their staff, which is but tiny, can't break many stories. So they sit back, wait for us to do months of painstaking research, and then explode in rhetorical indignation over a sentence that they would have written differently.

By constantly claiming to have spotted signs of bias in our work, they may even convince their readers that a furniture oriented daily tabloid truly is vital to understanding Dallas.

One has to admire the effort.

What is sad is that when George was first at the paper as a reporter, he was really good.

I remember him fondly from the Lori Palmer/Paul Fielding race when he actually did investigative journalism.

Sad waste of a fine talent.

"and then explode in rhetorical indignation over a sentence that they would have written differently."

Or, you know, a sentence they would've written months earlier when it mattered rather than waiting until after the vote (or months after the fact) to do the actual reporting.

And, I'm not sure how Merten's actually reporting the NTTA issue prior to the DMN bothering to do so is sitting back and waiting for the DMN to do the research.

Well, I wouldn't cover Lipscomb's "trail" but I would his "trial."

Excellent day for Stout, it is.

Georgie boy, that's some hi-fucking-larious stuff right there.

DMN - RIP

elbow, I'm like you. If the DMN website shuts down how will I know that Cowboys season tickets are for sale unless it covers my page in a flash ad and screams at me?

I've been feeling sorry for them, so I've started redistributing the unwanted Briefings from my neighborhood to unserved ones with an 8 x 10 glossy from Hot Fudge Friday inside of each. It's important to show it's not the same old Snooze anymore.

Rawlins, you have us confused with D. It's a Park Cities thing.

I had subscribed to a newspaper for the past 35 years, and finally made the difficult (for me) decision to cancel my DMN subscription this week.

I am glad.

Seeing the DMN has gone to 15th in distribution since they revised their advertising numbers, lied about sitting on stories concerning important city and region wide issues aand becoming a dumping ground for every AP wire story out there, I dont see why Belo keeps them in business. At least The Observer and other local sites like Pegasus News pull their news from various local sources and appreciate public feedback accordingly.

Im also going to thank you for ruining Hot Fudge Fridays. You suck :)

GR is paid help in a family owned business called The Dallas Morning News.

The dude's just tryin' ta keep his job and in this environment, who can blame him?

Man, those DMN readers are such sheeple. Good thing you diligent Observer readers always question the sources of your information......

If the DO waited for the DMN to do "months and months" of research ... the DO wouldn't be able to print becuase they'd be waiting for nothing forever.

The Ask The Editor is ghostwritten? Even though it's a "blog" and just on "the web" doesn't journalistic standards still count? Meaning the fact that it's ghostwritten should be included. Otherwise, it's a sham that Rodrigue's name is included. (But maybe one sham cancels the other sham - his column.)

Also, how does Schutze get the hot fudge out of his beard? A ShamWow?

Well, that didn't take too long. The Ask the Editor column has been replaced on the DMN's Spotlight section of the Web site by Easter ham.

Is there an editorial comment in there somewhere?

Jim, you should put together a time line of what you knew and published, when you knew it and how you found it out.

It would be fascinating and enlightening.

Thanks for what you do but try to keep the name calling to a minimum. Whether true or not, it adds very little and only serves to open the gate to the high road to the folks at the DMN.

Comments from Rodrigue's blog from the GREAT Wendell Barnhouse:

"Their staff, which is talented but tiny, can’t break many stories. So they sit back, wait for us to do months of painstaking research, and then explode in rhetorical indignation over a sentence that they would have written differently.
By constantly claiming to have spotted signs of bias in our work, they may even convince their readers that a sexually oriented weekly tabloid truly is vital to understanding Dallas.
One has to admire the effort."

I would admire the effort of the DMN if I saw any. If the DO sat back and waited for the DMN to do it "painstaking research" the DO would cease publishing because it would be waiting on nothing.

From recent blog posts like this one and others from Fischer and Ragland, it's apparent that the DMN thinks blogs and the Internet are a way to engage in recess-level name calling. If the skin at the DMN was any thinner, it would be translucent. You sound like a bunch of whiny boys. SUAR - shut up and report.

From DISD to the Trinity project to the convention center hotel, it's obvious that the DMN has an agenda and is biased. Not that it's anything different from how other news organizations do things, but the DMN slants its coverage. Why not be honest and admit it?

I have some pointed questions:
1. Is this column ghost-written? Mr. Rodrigue, do you write every word posted? If not, you are committing journalistic fraud.
2. If Mayor Leppert said the Corps signed off on the Trinity project during the election, why did the DMN not challenge that assertion. If the papers you mention didn't become available until recently, how did Leppert know the Corps had signed off?
3. Did the DMN sit on the story about the NTTA and the extra funding needed from the city until after the election? If the NTTA official said it to Michael Lindenberger a month before the election, why was that not reported at the time?

Simple questions that need honest and to-the-point replies. Just imagine you're writing for a newspaper.

P.S. The Rangers have been out of season? Spring training has been going for six weeks. Most people who follow the sport and care about it consider the start of baseball season when pitchers and catchers report. And columnists occupied with other sports? Really. Based on your double-talking answers you have a future in politics.

"Someone please pass me that jug of Mental Clorox..."

It's green but don't smell like chlorine