WaPo Still Not Clear on Blogging

The Washington Post hosts one of the best sports blogs on the planet. The D.C. Sports Bog is clever, informative, and an easy way to accidentally kill an hour. Stuff like the most recent post on the West Virginia men's basketball team loving the shit out of some Manny and Olga's pizza. The Bog has helped make DC the country's preeminent destination for sports blogging. It's wonderful.

Unfortunately, it's set the bar a bit high for the rest of the paper. The Post just launched D.C. Wire, a blog devoted to "news and notes on District politics." And it's awful. I don't understand how the Post can get it so right when dealing with sports and so wrong when dealing with its host city. The Wire is terrible.

Let's take a looksie at their most recent post. It's dealing with an issue near and dear to my heart: The Nationals Park fiasco. The post is meant to accompany a piece about the six billion dollars being spent to develop the area surrounding the ballpark. Eminent domain lawsuits have prevented developers from getting all the choice land they want. These lawsuits are also driving up the cost of the stadium.

Ok, fine. Nothing really new there, but still important information for people who don't understand how incomplete the neighborhood surrounding the stadium is. Anyways, here's the gist of the blog post on the subject:

The land owners have asked for $24 million more than the city has offered. Remember, the D.C. Council's cost cap did not include the land prices since there was no way to predict what the court would do. But that's why people like council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) voted against the financing package. What do you think--was the cap disingenous [sic] or were people like Mendelson being nit-picky? Let us know in the comments section.

Spelling errors! How bloggy!

This is the worst kind of blogging. "There's Opinion A, but wait! Here's Opinion B! Which one is the best? Please tell us in the comments." This is not effective writing. And just to be clear:

nitpick –verb (used without object)

1.	to be excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential details.

It is definitively impossible to be "nit-picky" over tens of millions of dollars. How 24 million dollars is spent will always be of consequence to someone or other. So not only is this post a waste of time, it can't be even bothered to get the crux of its own question right.

I think the problem here is that sports writers are supposed to be homers. They have a clear bias towards the Wizards, Nats, Capitals, and R****ins. They root, root, root for the home team and their readers expect that.

But journalists are supposed to be unbiased. They can't just come out and say that the stadium agreement was a good or a bad deal for the city. That would be appropriately criticized.

So what is the fucking point of even hosting this blog!? Making us aware of events is already covered by the newspaper. If we're not going to get some analysis or some educated opinion, why should I bother? The D.C. Wire will always be handcuffed by being written by objective people. And "objective blog" should probably be an oxymoron. Have the balls to state an opinion or get the fuck off of my Internet.