Predictably Called Out...

And predictably responding in kind, in precisely the manner I said I would last week.

How is it, after a founding contributor explicitly stated that it is contrary to DCist policy to treat Baltimore as being under your local purview, that today you feel justified to include a photograph of a Baltimorean landmark, in a neighborhood that it is unlikely that you’ve ever heard of, in a feature that is ostensibly supposed to be about Washington D.C.?

Is it that you’ve decided to change your policy? Are Baltimorean professional sports teams now going to receive equal coverage to your own sports teams? Or any coverage at all? Or are you too good to cover the sports teams supported by our common, working class ilk?

Oh look, and you’re covering Bengie’s now too. In the very next post, even. How adorable. It's funny how these Baltimorean posts always come in clusters with you. But I guess this is no longer an issue, as obviously you are effectively declaring that a minimum of at least 33% of your material is guaranteed to be centric to the Baltimorean metropolitan area. That's right, a minimum of 33% of Baltimorean local music... 33% of Baltimorean local dining... 33% of Baltimorean local everything else... except sports, of course. You're going to give us 50% of that. After all, anything less would be exploitive, wouldn't it? But I don't need to explain that to you anymore. Obviously, we're all one big happy family now, right?

When do you plan to make the big announcement that you are changing your name to BaltimoreandDCist.com? When are you going to introduce your Baltimorean editorial staff? Wow. It is a big day for the GothamistLLC, isn’t it? Two separate cities are going to receive equal editorial standing on a single Ist page. What a bold and clumsy experiment it will be.

Forgive Us Today...

Yesterday, there was some debate in DCist about a neglect of Nationals baseball and excessive soccer coverage or something. Whatever. Not really my fight. I’m barely aware of the existence of a professional D.C. soccer team. I don’t shun professional soccer the way I shun the NHL or the NBA (two leagues who insist that Baltimore is not allowed to have a team presence due to our proximity to D.C., so eff ‘em. They’re not getting one penny of my income or one ounce of my attention.), but I guess I just never caught the soccer bug in my suburban youth. We were about the authentic mullets back then, not those bitch-ass soccer mullets, but that is really beside the point. Either way, I don’t follow Washington sports.

Regardless, somebody chimed in during the discussion that the DCist wasn't adequately covering sports for an area that has two NFL teams, two MLB teams, blah blah blah...

DCist contributor and “founding member,” Kyle Gustafson responded thusly:

“We only have one NFL team and one MLB team in Washington D.C. Other than the occasional Orioles piece, we've never covered any of the teams in Baltimore and we're not going to start now.”

Obviously, I’m not going to disagree with him. I couldn’t agree more with his position. Even the instances of Orioles coverage that he was referencing, as far as I can tell, were actually posts about Cal Ripken, and let’s face it, even if Cal is arguably ours, we certainly have to share him with the rest of the world. The writer of those posts, Sriram Gopal, a Maryland native, admits to being lifelong Orioles fan, and apparently went to Cooperstown a couple of weeks ago. I did not. So who am I to quantify his allegiance? DCist is full of Yankees and Red Sox fans, and even some fans from other cities who are capable of supporting teams that don’t always pay their way to the top of the heap. Why not Baltimore as well, right? If Gopal is willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with us through these dark Angelos days, then I commend him and any other Washingtonian who has the character to posses a lifelong allegiance that transcends geography and understands that a shitty owner should not equate to hating a team.

Anyway, I’m getting off point again, and should stop making out with Sriram long enough to get back on track. Like I was saying, bully for DCist for not pretending to be a voice for Baltimorean professional sports teams. I have no way of knowing if this is an editorial position borne out of respect, contempt or a healthy unease with the questionable justifiable purview. Like Gustafson said himself, DCist has “never covered any of the teams in Baltimore.” This, of course, calls into question their previous trespasses into our purview regarding everything not sports related. After all, if our sports teams are not qualified for inclusion on DCist, why would Christmas street in Hampden be? Or our sometimes laughably embarrassing crime problems? Or any other of their previous transgressions that are catalogued in the archives of this page?

But, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. Recently, I’ve been able to practically abandon this page. If I never have reason to post here again, then I’ll be one happy ass. Besides, now that a founding member of DCist has stated that it is DCist policy to not treat Baltimore as being under their local purview; not in the past, not in the present, and theoretically not in the future, then I can justifiably point to his statement in that comment thread and show them to be a bunch of hypocritical, exploitive ass-munches.

Unless, of course, they never trespass again.