Comments on: Followup: Weingarten wins Pulitzer

Followup: Weingarten wins Pulitzer

MrMoonPie — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:53:01 -0800

Remember that post about Joshua Bell busking in a DC Metro station? Gene Weingarten just won a Pulitzer for the stunt.

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:57:31 -0800

Just wait, he's gonna win it like five more times now in the next few days.

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:59:05 -0800

Some discussion in the previous MeTa about that article being a sextuple post.

preview: Cortex for the win.

By: waxbanks

waxbanks — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:59:47 -0800

That goddamn article was an embarrassment. Yet another feelgood bourgeois ball-scratch for people who don't know how to listen to hip-hop.

By: spec80

spec80 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:10:07 -0800

WTF Weingarten beat a story about a bear attack? I bet bears are planning their retaliation now. Everyone be vigilant.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:14:46 -0800

rematch! didn't that guy break his violin? I bet bears will win this time.

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:18:52 -0800

jessamyn: Do you mean David Garrett?

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:23:27 -0800

You don't stop to listen to one out-of-context violin virtuoso, you've not stopped to listen to 'em all.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:25:37 -0800

And yet I stopped to watch the bear attack in the subway.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:28:56 -0800

By: ericb

ericb — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:28:56 -0800

Do you mean David Garrett?

Also an FPP.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:41:15 -0800

And yet I stopped to watch the bear attack in the subway.

I gotta take public transport more.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:10:07 -0800

And yet I stopped to watch the bear attack in the subway.

If by "bear attack in the subway" you mean "large furry butch gay men making out excessively on the #24 SFMTA/MUNI line" - then yes, you can has a bear attack in the subway.

By: Miko

Miko — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:41:51 -0800

I walked right by that article and had no idea it was Gene Weingarten. Why didn't I recognize the astounding good quality?

By: Artw

Artw — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:42:39 -0800

Pulitzers are clearly not the indicator of journalistic worth one might have assumed they were.

By: djgh

djgh — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:55:54 -0800

You don't stop to listen to one out-of-context violin virtuoso, you've not stopped to listen to 'em all.

I was a violin virtuoso. I played all the right notes, in the right time, with the right amount of feeling. Just in the wrong order.

By: Atreides

Atreides — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:02:05 -0800

I think the success of the article should lead to more busking experiments, like bringing in kung fu trained bears to show off their art, versus your average every day subway bear buskers. (You just know that money goes straight to honey....yeeesh.)

By: Artw

Artw — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:05:27 -0800

I thinl from now on whenever we see a busker we should punch the nearest person who looks like they might be a journalist.

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:20:45 -0800

your average every day subway bear buskers

All standing there with a ball on their nose and a crappy cardboard sign that says

PLEEZ BE GENEROUS
STRUGLIN ARTIST
"BEARLY" HOLDING ON

By: davejay

davejay — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:34:56 -0800

Cortext, I flagged your comment as "other" because there was no option for a painful moan.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:17:14 -0800

For the next experiment, they should try putting Pulitzer Prize winning stores only in the print version of papers, and see if anyone reads it.

By: Eekacat

Eekacat — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:32:46 -0800

Hell, even Bob Dylan got a Bullshitzer, I mean Pulitzer.

Hey man, pulitzer my finger

fraaaaaaaaaaap

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:32:49 -0800

I would've listened to the dude twice.

By: TrolleyOffTheTracks

TrolleyOffTheTracks — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:12:58 -0800

Thbbbt!

What a bunch of shit. You guys sensitive much? How dare Weingarten insinuate I'm a philistine!

The article was typical journalism. He had a hook and went with it. Did he deserve a Pulitzer? Hey, if Maureen Dowd can win one why not Weingarten? Evidently, Pulitzers aren't worth much.

But the reaction here, previously and now, indicates a sensitive nerve was touched. You're responding like a bunch of fops who've been told that their lacy collars weren't quite up to snuff.

You don't like classical music? So what! You would have rushed past Bell because you were intent on getting to work or intent on all the things you had to do that day? So what! Et cetera.

You assume an elitist position because some hack might have dared insult your ego?

Thbbbt!

By: wendell

wendell — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:14:12 -0800

Gene Weingarten? THE Gene Weingarten? The Googlewacker who I crossed paths/swords with last year? You'd think that the Google Abuse column he wrote would have disqualified him from all major journalistic awards... so, I'm one degree of separation from a Pulitzer. No wait, I already was from the Berkeley Breathed/Opus connection. And didn't I once get Dave Barry to tell me to "buzz off" in his blog once?

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:46:02 -0800

Evidently, Pulitzers aren't worth much.

they won't mean a damn thing until they have one for online snarking, right?

By: TrolleyOffTheTracks

TrolleyOffTheTracks — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:06:27 -0800

they won't mean a damn thing until they have one for online snarking, right?

That's funny. It would be interesting. Comments from MeFi would defintely be in the running if it was a fair contest. But certainly not from me.

I thought the reaction was over the top and I posted. It was frustrating. It's as simple as that.

By: TrolleyOffTheTracks

TrolleyOffTheTracks — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:36:54 -0800

I would have stopped for this.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:16:34 -0800

I would have stopped for this.

O, that singularly modern sensation, that bittersweet moment of relief, that feeling of having narrowly avoided calamity, on realizing that a youtube link is not, in fact, a Rickroll.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:22:10 -0800

"didn't that guy break his violin?"

Remarkably, it was a busker just like that who inspired a young Pete Townsend to take up music.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:58:23 -0800

they won't mean a damn thing until they have one for online snarking, right?

I'd settle for a category for original online reporting not affiliated with a print newspaper. *That's* when the Pulitzers will start to matter again.

By: misanthropicsarah

misanthropicsarah — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:51:53 -0800

I think Pulitzers used to matter. But I think now they're more about...I dunno. Not good journalism or good reporting or good writing or calling attention to something that needs attention called to it.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:16:27 -0800

wendell, I got a shout-out on Dave Barry's blog once. Not from Dave, himself, but close enough?

By: Atreides

Atreides — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:27:25 -0800

I felt that the most of the pieces over at the Washington Post were pretty deserving, myself. So why I'll meh the amazing violinist as paltry busker piece, I won't meh the entire Pulitzer crowd.

By: mojohand

mojohand — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:19:44 -0800

Because I'm having a crappy day, I would like to point out that I fucking rule! I am a duplicate-posting god. Yes!

Oh, and Gene? On reflection, it was an annoying, bogus story. The Pulitzer board must have been really light in your category.

By: rcade

rcade — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:30:15 -0800

How do you get a feature writing Pulitzer for engineering a stunt (self-link)? As much fun as I had reading Weingarten's piece, and as much as I like his work, I hate the idea that he won a Pulitzer for a situation he contrived.

By: scrump

scrump — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:19:31 -0800

I'm waiting for the story documenting a bear attack on a world-famous violinist posing as a busker on the subway.

And, if one doesn't present itself, I think we should make one happen.

By: clockwork

clockwork — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:51:46 -0800

guh... I should have known that the same Mr. Weingarten who wrote the the subway busking article was the same douche bag who wrote the 24 hours of punditry article...