What does it take, in your opinion, to disagree with people like Miner and Campana? What is “time in grade?” Does the fact that a writer is anonymous necessarily make their observations less worthy of note?

Obviously, I have a personal stake in your answers and I look forward to them.

You’re actually using two of the most common here:

1.) Telling someone opining on a Chicago issue that their opinion doesn’t matter because they’re not a “real” Chicagoan–as if Chicago is an entirely inscrutable place unless you’re born here; and

2.) That, by dint of living in Kane County at the extreme edge western of the metropolitan area, you somehow are a Chicagoan. (I chuckled when I read that, then I gazed out my apartment window at State Street.)

For my full response to your and similar baiting, however, feel free to refer to today’s video post on Chicagosphere.

And missing the point … again.

No where do I say opinions of non-reporters don’t matter, I just said spewing them on a blog doesn’t make you unique.

No where do I say that professional journalists are the only voice that matters.

No where do I suggest you have no right to be skeptical.

What I did say is that for you, someone who has known Chicago for six years, to use bluster to say Miner has committed heresy against journalism is nothing more than bomb-throwing for bomb-throwing’s sake.

Yell fire in a movie theater you are sitting in, you’ll at least have more credibility there.

Here’s what I find “despicable”: You invoking Studs Terkel and Mike Royko, the latter of which you wouldn’t have seen in print, in a Chicago paper, given the newbie you are.

Second, is it only critical commentors that get your “anonymous poster” rant or their original posts removed? I ask because I’ve tried to find “rosemary’s maybes” on Whitepages with no luck.

Maybe you’re simply offended that boy-toy Roeper was digitally dismembered to make a point?

Again, I ask, why should we (and I use “we” loosely, since it looks like only you and I read this post) care what you have to say?

Seriously, give me one reason to believe you’ve made a sound argument on the Miner topic.

Or … you can just mischaracterize my posts and avoid my questions again.

Oh, and you should have looked deeper in your Google search for my newspaper biography: I also spent three years and half years at the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb.

NoOneKnows
sickasadog@yahoo.com | 75.150.195.49

Another example of self-involved blogging (could you put a few more references to yourself and your e-bylines in here?) with no context. I see nothing in your profile to indicate you have any more expertise on the subject than my 5-year-old son — except he’s lived with a reporter/editor his entire life.
How you get to judge Miner is beyond me since, A) He’s actually spent many years in the newspaper industry, B) He actually uses sources to guide his writing and form his opinions.
Thank you for typifying what is, unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception when it comes to bloggers.
__

It’s always amusing the ways that journalists seek to immunize themselves and their colleagues from criticism. Usually–as with Dan’s two comments–the tactic begins by accusing the person leveling the criticism that because they aren’t a journalist, themselves, they (take your pick): a.) have no right; b.) have no capacity to understand; and/or c.) are simply too uninformed to ever (horrors) question the words of a “trained” reporter.

Frequently–again as with Dan’s comments–you’re also told that because you aren’t a journalist, you don’t have the ability to present a cogent argument, even if you had the right, intellectual chops, and a treasure trove of (here’s a buzz word reporters love) “context” to reference, so you should just shut up.

This highly facetious criticism-­deflecting shell game has one goal: to try and get readers to believe only journalists have the right or ability to criticize other journalists. It’s a symptom of journalism’s high self-regard.

Unfortunately for journalists, it’s also baloney.

Everyone has a right to share their opinion. Everyone also has a right, if not a duty to oneself, to question everything they read, take it with a grain of salt, try it on to see if it fits, and call it out if seems to be less than kosher. What’s most pathetic here is that this main tenet of journalism–to be skeptical–is always rescinded by journalists when said skepticism is aimed at them.

Thanks to the Internet’s diffusion to the masses of the means of disseminating news and opinion and, again, unfortunately for journalists, reporters no longer have much standing to claim theirs are the only voices that matter. My, how many of them don’t like that state of affairs. My writing is called inexpert, yet Michael Miner’s article was led off by a graphic of Richard Roeper’s disembodied head in a guillotine basket and called out local columnists by name–saying it was time to end their “star turns”. I find that more than despicable.

I find it pretty jealous sounding, too. Makes you wonder who the real outsiders are here. Doesn’t it, Dan?

Funny, you mention your ability to read, but somehow understood my original post to say Miner is never wrong and you should believe everything he writes.

My actual point is you don’t assert, report or pretend to have any authority on which you write. Having an opinion, a blog or the ability to turn a phrase is not unique.

Miner has a history and the credentials to do what he does. All I can gather about you is that you’re a firestarter and an outsider … typical blogger.

Show me, us, anyone otherwise, please.

[Ed. Note: Dan Campana is a Fox Valley journalist, formerly at the Kane County Chronicle and currently working at the Aurora Beacon News.]

(*crickets*)

Funny how some cultural gate-keepers like to don identity-hiding virtual gloves and ski masks before throwing stones. Great example to set for your five-year-old, Anonymous. Feel free to re-submit your comment with your name attached to it.

Although as for your (here paraphrased) question as to where I get off judging Michael Miner’s words instead of accepting them as gospel? Funny thing–I don’t believe everything I read. Neat trick, I know. Learned it in grade school.