Since this is one of those annoying media infighting things that you don’t really care about, we’ll be quick. Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff has an angry blog up about Queerty‘s article last week about the bloggers behind the site “Who Murdered Robert Wone?”. Naff’s post, titled, “Queerty points fingers in Wone killing“, accuses us of saying ” the media of being “asleep at the wheel.” Now, we have lots of opinions at Queerty, but this is not one of them, which Naff would have known had he bothered to, you know, read the article before writing up his post. Sheesh, bloggers.
The full quote, from the original story is:
“It’s a story that has all the makings of a major Washington scandal, but, according to four amateur gay sleuths who’ve made it their mission to find out who killed Robert Wone, the media’s been asleep at the wheel.”
Alas, we are not four amateur gay sleuths, we were just reporting what our subjects were saying. Now, we express lots of opinions on Queerty, but it’s pretty clear in the article we’re not editorializing, but reporting on the opinions of the people we are talking to. Again, from the article:
“When it comes to gay media coverage, they believe that the gay press is simply not equipped to handle a story of this size. “While the [Washington] Blade has done coverage,” they note, “they have limited resources and can only cover so many stories.”
We give a lot of opinions at Queerty, but the one Kevin’s railing against is not one we have,
nor one we’ve expressed. One thing troubles us, though. Kevin asks of us (and the bloggers we wrote about), “Where were Queerty and these well-meaning bloggers two years ago when intense public scrutiny might have caused one of the roommates to really open up?”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Kevin, as your rightly point out, we’re a blog. We’re a blog that does some original reporting, making us different from your usual, “Hey, here’s a story we saw online!” sites, but for the most part, we don’t have the resources you have, nor do we pretend to. Are you really so insecure in your own coverage that an article about four amateur detectives looking for new information about the Wone murder sends you off the rails? The piece wasn’t even really about the media “being asleep at the wheel”, but rather about these guys who were brought together by a need to get to the truth at the heart of a grisly murder.
If you’re going to be so thin-skinned, maybe you should stick to journalism (which, if you really want our two cents, we think the Washington Blade does splendidly) and leave the blogging to us.
HellsKitchen
Queerty does not realize that negative reporting is so over. They need to find an identity.
Diva
Hello right! Queerty needs to get is shit together. Ever since the editor left.
Frontier
“Since this is one of those annoying media infighting things that you don’t really care about….”. Exactly.
thunder
Who cares about Kevin Naff
He is a parasite and the most unethical journalist.
God you dont really want to know what he did when Chris Crain still at the blade.
Mike
This is a self indulgent, sloppily-written post. You mention the fact that Queerty expresses “lots of opinions” 3 times in 5 paragraphs. Who are you trying to convince, and what of? And you’re right that this is the type of story that readers are uninterested in, which begs the question: why write it?
Although there aren’t any in this post, if I see one more possessive comma on this site where it does not belong, I will stop reading Queerty. I’ve found 5 in stories from the last week.
I appreciate your efforts to redefine Queerty as a blog-magazine hybrid and I think some of the content is interesting and exciting. The attention to detail has really fallen by the wayside lately, unfortunately.
Sebbe
Personally I’m much more impressed with the new queerty and am back reading everyday again. I’m especially impressed with the original content lately and feel the percentage mixes are working well. Thanks for the changes and new direction David and Japhy.
Queerty’s post on the subject arguably brought more coverage to the story as the readers here traverse a much larger geographic area than metro dc. It was the first I had heard of it.
Um jeez, where was Queerty’s full time roving reporter when this story broke, he/she should have been implanted in D.C. working the case for the last two years. WTF David, there was no one there to cover this story, oh wait, that’s right the Blade is located in D.C. never mind.
Is someone really talking about the use of possessive commas or they are going to stop reading here? Think they might work for the Blade? LOL
HYHYBT
I’m just trying to figure out why people bother reading and even commenting on items they supposedly aren’t interested in… and what a “possessive comma” is.
Mike
Possessive apostrophe, not possessive comma.. haha. Shows what I get for writing a snippy comment about grammatical errors attributable to the editor of a blog who is likely underpaid and understaffed. If I can’t write a cogent criticism, I guess I can’t get too bitchy.
petted
I think its an interesting post it gives us a look at the dynamics between the inteligencia of the blogosphere and the inteligencia of the printing press. I think Naffe did miss a bit there in that post though he does make some interesting allusions to the police report almost suggesting an anti-gay bias in the police report though it’s more implied as if Naffe has suspicions that the police report released on halloween had been unduly influenced by a police officer’s underlying bias but nothing here or there to pin it down. Seeing the evolution of communication between print based journalists and blog style journalists really shows how the portrayal of news has changed in the past 10 years.
Qjersey
I fail to see the difference between Queerty and the Blade.
Queerty: Links to stories from the net
The Blade: reprints of “wire” stories
Content of both decided by a editor who is young (and probably therefore cheaper) and “worked his way up”
Difference: the Blade is self important, Queerty, notsomuch
Tyler
OMG, everyone. It’s indulgent, sure. That’s why Japhy disclaimed in in the first line. When someone says something bad, wrong, or untrue about you…and you run a blog, you’ve got a free pass to set the record straight.
JamesR
If one doesn’t set something straight right away then it’s a tacit approval, or a statement that one just doesn’t care about one’s reputation. Queerty published a good and useful post. It was balanced, made the story and it’s issues relevant anew. This post in reaction to the Blade’s response is necessary. The site, whomurderedrobertwone.com – is incredibly detailed and referenced, and contrary to the Blade’s other bitching, is as neutral as can be given the details of the case. That the Blade cites fear of lawsuit if it ventured an opinion, or could be seen to, is just amateur and really goes to the heart of the journalistic credentials of the editors. NOT necessarily the reporters – reporters for the Blade did do some excellent pieces on this case, at the time and a few since. Why are their panties in a bunch? Do they fear someone scooping a dead story? Nobody was criticizing them specifically, only bemoaning the media as a whole being more “news” oriented. In that if it isn’t ‘new’ it is not in the paper. RELEVANCE and CONCERN for the community and for nice but amorphous concepts such as “truth” and “justice” seem to slip off the pages that columns like the useless “Bitch Session” hang onto and grow to more pages like kudzu. [The vine, not the funny cartoon.]
It’s a murder that involves possibly a network of people, politics, (sex of course,) drugs and possibly more. Plus incredible incompetence on the part of the many government offices involved, there are many avenues to investigate the many aspects of this compound event. It affects the whole city.
Blade: You’re acting like a petulant bitchy insecure little girl. Queerty: Awesome, Thank You. ‘Bloggers’ at whomurderedrobertwone.com – Way to go, thanks. Well Done.
I can’t believe some of the posters on this thread even read through the piece at the top, no less the original article nor the Wone mystery site nor the Blade’s recent screed. Somebody died. It’s worth getting the facts right in order to make a proper bitchy comment eh?
TheUsualSuspects
The Washington Blade is typically a week or two (or more) behind in it’s reporting, so news it generally “old” by the time it comes out. Naff needs to be more concerned with getting relevant stories online and in his paper in a timely manner rather than bitching about a blog, especially when he can’t get the facts straight in his rant. The Washington Blade is in a continued downward slow spiral and will continue to be until it has some real leadership who actually know what being a publisher means.