Bloggers Do It In Public
(This is the text of an email I wrote to Jeff Jarvis last night, and sent this morning, in response to his blog post about my Mediaite contributor email. I had meant for it to be private, but today he tweeted at me that “Bloggers work in public.” He also wrote seven other tweets (not including the ones from last night). I hope this email addresses them. For the record, I’ve always had a great relationship with Jeff. Who knows, perhaps one day I shall again. Until then, here’s the email.)
Wow. Et tu, Jeff?
That email was from me, not Dan - and if you write for HuffPo, you know damn well that those guidelines are pretty similar. What responsible website wouldn’t include a carveout for racist, sexist, homophobic etc. material? Not one that I will have any part of.
Of all the people who would scoff at a firm predicated on media strategy…wow. I am truly stunned. Checked out your own bio lately? But even more, I’m stunned that you would write that post, and word it accordingly. You know exactly who sent you that email - me, not Dan - and you know how easy it is to get it touch with me.
And don’t call me a “fellow lawyer turned media person” like it’s a pejorative (I’m going to ignore the imprecise “lawyers-turned-flacks-turned-media-commentators-turned-publishers”). I graduated in the top 5% of the top law school in Canada, was Valedictorian, and got the top public service award. When I bring my legal training to bear on my work it is to be precise and nuanced and detailed and meticulously fair.
It was with that in mind that I crafted that email - one that offers the same kind of platform that the Huffington Post offers, except heightens the requirements for posting: It’s not just about opinion, it’s about reasoned, supported, intelligently-argued opinion. And instead of leaving it at that, it goes a step further and suggests a model for compensation and partnership. “Hammered out” not good enough for you? You know, you might have ASKED. Because without knowing who wants to participate or at what level, I’m not prepared to make any guarantees.
Because no offense, but I wouldn’t recommend paying you for your contributions to HuffPo over the past year - for example, this one was over 1700 words - I definitely would have sent it back to you with a deep edit. This one was a repurpose from your blog, which is fine, but I there are a few holes: The Green Mountain example seems rather singular, and you extrapolate to a point that I would have asked you to support with facts (“Given the choice of two toilet papers, maybe you’ll take the one that’s sustainable from the company you trust.” My supermarket experience does not reflect that as reality. It may be, but I would have requested some support for that kind of conclusion.) In this one, I would have pointed out that “Craigslist” needs to be capitalized (yes, I know it’s in all lower case on the site itself, but I’m with the NYT on this one). The one berating newspaper-people for losing their jobs was maybe a tad unkind; at the very least, I would have asked you to move your semi-mea-culpa up a bit (I guess around the part where you note that the crowd was made of old white men). I was glad to see you namecheck my pal Craig Silverman (well, you namechecked yourself writing the foreward of his book, but still). I was the one who recruited Craig to HuffPo way back when, and I was thrilled a few weeks back when he emailed me offering to contribute to Mediaite. He’s a master at #3.
Speaking of #3, it also goes to getting the facts right. I couldn’t help but notice that you totally don’t seem to get the difference between Abrams Research and Mediate, and you didn’t really care to check, either. “But announcing that he’s also starting a PR company offering access to media people…” - um, Abrams Research launched in November. Mediaite is a separate site, and Dan won’t have any editorial role. They are two separate concerns. Experts from Abrams Research will be invited to contribute, but they will be subjected to the same 14-point editorial guidelines that any other contributors will be (and by the way, I find it hi-larious that you are casting a stinkeye on our journalistic integrity and outraged that we would dare to have RULES for submissions all in the same breath. Another inconsistency that I, as your editor, would point out).
I’m glad you like posting on your own blog, and HuffPo, and Comment is Free - but, having worked at one, I can say that the reason they are unpaid is because the demands - and extra effort on the editor’s side - listed above just don’t come into it. You can write what you want - you’re Jeff Jarvis! Who cares if it’s not your best work - or even if it’s not the best work it could be? That’s fine for those sites, it’s part of the process. Mediaite has a different process: we want to address the stuff above before we publish. (And also it shouldn’t be racist of sexist or homophobic! I know, how inconvenient!)
But anyway, all of the above - all of it! - is beside the point: That blog post was easily one of the biggest dick moves I’ve ever seen.
Best,
Rachel
