J-prof unwittingly demonstrates the worst political blogging of 2007

December 11th, 2007 → 12:14 pm @ // No Comments

BU journalism professor Chris Daly has a blog post today in which he takes the Washington Post to task for assigning Perry Bacon, Jr. to write front-page political stories. “Who is Perry Bacon Jr.?” Daly asks. “I don’t really know, but in two minutes of Googling him, I learned that he graduated from Yale in 2002, so he is approximately 27 years old. Since when does the Post assign 27-year-olds to write Page 1 presidential campaign pieces?” Daly goes on to compare Bacon’s now-infamous story about the non-reality of the “Barack is a Muslim” rumor to a hypothetical piece saying that Bacon is not a child molester.

This appears to be a good example of the maxim, “Those who can’t do, teach.” Whether or not Perry Bacon should be writing page 1 political stories is a question I can’t answer; I do, however, know that his age has absolutely nothing to do with it. To give some points of comparison:

Age at which Bob Woodward was assigned to Watergate: 29.
Age at which Carl Bernstein was assigned to cover Watergate: 28.
Age at which Charlie Savage won a Pulitzer for his investigation into President Bush’s use of “signing statements” to bypass provisions of new laws: 32.
Age of Ryan Lizza, the campaign correspondent for The New Yorker: 32.
Age at which David Rohde won his Pulitzer Prize for his eyewitness reporting on the massacre of Bosnian Muslims: 28.*
I could go on and on; I just pulled these examples out of my ass. And comparing a story addressing the fact that, as Bacon’s story’s headline read, “Foes Use Obama’s Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him” to the hoary old example of making some deny some outrageous, and previously unraised, accusation is so silly it does nothing so much as make me thankful Daly isn’t actually doing work inside newsrooms.

(I may be particularly sensitive to these kind of stupid, ageist accusations; I was 31 when I started work on Hard News, my book about the New York Times, and there were more than a few people who whispered to critics that I had no right investigating such an august institution. Maybe the Washington Post tapped it as one of the year’s best books solely to justify their use of young whippersnappers to cover politics.)

*I’m guessing at Savage’s, Lizza’s, and Rohde’s ages – I know the years in which they were born, but not the dates, which means they could have been 31, 31, and 27, respectively.


Post Categories: Academia & Hard News & Media reporting & Political Reporting & Washington Post

4 Comments → “J-prof unwittingly demonstrates the worst political blogging of 2007”


  1. jmarvel

    16 years ago

    Many of Daly’s points are valid, but he ruins the entire argument with the age issue. As a journalist, editor, and educator, I have run into 22-year-old journalists with more chops and ability than writers twice their age.

    Reply

  2. JeffGordinier

    16 years ago

    I suppose Professor Daly would rather wait until reporters are really burned out before they get the important assignments.

    Then again, it seems as though his own wealth of experience couldn’t prevent him from spelling Senator Obama’s first name with two Rs.

    Reply

  3. walter10021

    16 years ago

    young or old, you prove that it helps to be a dumbass to write books that focus on distractions that allow the Republicans to steal our life & liberty

    Reply
  4. […] his blog, Seth Mnookin calls Daly out for his ageist attitude. This appears to be a good example of the maxim, “Those who can’t do, […]

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