Friday, April 25, 2008

Dallas Blog

The Nightly Build...

Dallas Blog. Still There?

A few days ago a reader asked when Dallas Blog went out of business. Well, Dallas Blog is still in business (term used loosely), but it's seen better days (term used loosely). Scott Bennett was described as a "former" co-owner on a Frontburner blog posting. Tom Pauken is feeding at the public trough again, having taken a patronage job in Austin from his friend Rick Perry. Trey Garrison and Sam Merten (the only two reporters who ever seemed to do any original reporting at Dallas Blog) have long since moved on to other jobs. And Rufus Shaw is dead. And so it goes.

I just checked the Dallas Blog front page. Ten stories, six by Tom McGregor, three by Will Lutz. One story about a German artist seeking attention by asking for a dying person to volunteer to die in public. (Artists yanking the chains of uptight Americans like Tom McGregor and Dallas Blog owner Tom Pauken are a staple of Dallas Blog.) One story about Jerry Springer! One story about surging suicides in Japan. One story about an imminent American military attack on Iran (another staple). And a story about the "comfy" life of prisoners in Britain. (Dallas Blog can't stand criminals not suffering enough. Maybe they should be made to read Dallas Blog.) What kind of reader response does this diet of tawdry stories draw? Two reader comments to front-page stories. Two. Does anyone still read Dallas Blog? Why does Tom Pauken still bother?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget tired old suitcase William Murchison and his cheesy William F. Buckey imitation. It's just a shame these hacks own this URL.

Scout said...

I haven't forgotten William Murchison. I quit reading him in his last years at The Dallas Morning News. I gave him another look when he showed up in Dallas Blog. But now, I've quit reading him again. He's predictable: America is going to hell in a handbasket. Everything was better when conservative morals ruled the world. Racism, sexism, and assorted other bigotry either never existed or had nothing to do with conservatives. And... oh yeah, you kids get off my lawn.