Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Bush's new house

The Nightly Build...

Setting the Record Straight about Preston Hollow

Sometimes, you come across a story backwards, from the comments about it first. Sometimes, you have a hard time recognizing the story when you finally get to it. That's the case in today's news.

James Ragland, in The Dallas Morning News, sets the record straight about the Preston Hollow neighborhood that George and Laura Bush will soon call home. Tim Rogers, in Frontburner, links to it and says he's still trying to figure out the point. Rogers and Frontburner readers who already know all about Preston Hollow don't see what's newsworthy about telling other readers that Preston Hollow is rich, exclusive, and has a history of segregation and ethnic discrimination (like many other areas). Several say they can't figure out his point, either. One says he's got his "finger up his butt." One calls the column "incoherent" and denies Ragland knows anything about "the city."

All that whets this reader's appetite to read the original column and see what all the fuss is about. But when I do, I see it's pretty much as Ragland himself describes it. He's correcting some mischaracterizations originating in national media. No more. No less. In the end, the whole affair reinforces Frontburner's self-description as a "snarky celebration of ignorance." Only there's not much to celebrate today. The most telling reader comment was the question, "What’s going to happen to this blog when you don’t have DMN to link to?" What, indeed?

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