From Jon Garfunkel on December 13, 2005 at 12:29 AM
It didn't take me long reading Chris over the past year to realize that she was a cut above most online yakkers. I've theorized that blogging, by its very nature, encourages derivative copycat thought. Chris breaks the mold. Maybe that's because she's a seasoned journalist and also doesn't get lulled into blogging's lamer tendencies.
There was a brighter spot earlier in the spring. One of her fellow contributors to the Personal Democracy Forum got wind that San Francisco had some sort of plan to "regulate blogging" for elections, and promptly called for a letter-writing campaign. Chris responded before the weekend to point out that she was PDF's correspondent in SF, and she immediately delivered some substantive background; later she and subsequently went to city hall and reported on it. That should be unremarkable, but consider how Slashdot and other A-listers fanned the flames without lifting a finger (or a foot) to research the story any.
Unforunately, given the way the herd mentality blogosphere works, these get unnoticed.
I don't write this because I owe Chris any favors; I'm not even if she relishes my recognizing her as a mythbuster. The main reason is that I post a lot here (more than any actual Annenberg student, which continues to surprise me), pooh-bahing a lot of ideas, and I thought I'd clarify for that OJR community that I'm not a total curmudgeon. I just have high standards. And for stand-alone journalism, Chris regularly surpasses them.
It didn't take me long reading Chris over the past year to realize that she was a cut above most online yakkers. I've theorized that blogging, by its very nature, encourages derivative copycat thought. Chris breaks the mold. Maybe that's because she's a seasoned journalist and also doesn't get lulled into blogging's lamer tendencies.
A couple of the highlights from the last year on this theme. She was willing to take on of besainted megaphone holders of the liberal blogosphere.
There was a brighter spot earlier in the spring. One of her fellow contributors to the Personal Democracy Forum got wind that San Francisco had some sort of plan to "regulate blogging" for elections, and promptly called for a letter-writing campaign. Chris responded before the weekend to point out that she was PDF's correspondent in SF, and she immediately delivered some substantive background; later she and subsequently went to city hall and reported on it. That should be unremarkable, but consider how Slashdot and other A-listers fanned the flames without lifting a finger (or a foot) to research the story any.
Unforunately, given the way the herd mentality blogosphere works, these get unnoticed.
I don't write this because I owe Chris any favors; I'm not even if she relishes my recognizing her as a mythbuster. The main reason is that I post a lot here (more than any actual Annenberg student, which continues to surprise me), pooh-bahing a lot of ideas, and I thought I'd clarify for that OJR community that I'm not a total curmudgeon. I just have high standards. And for stand-alone journalism, Chris regularly surpasses them.