So Friday, I check Journalism God Jim Romenesko's linkathon at the Poynter Institute Web site and I discover that he's posted a link to a Phoenix Business Journal article from the same day reporting the news that Jon Talton's bidding the Arizona Republic farewell. Well, I was a tad flabbergasted by this as I broke that story several days before on Tuesday March 20. Indeed, I'd even e-mailed the item to Romy on the same day, figuring that a media story like this one would be of interest to the six-figure-salaried Lord of All He Surveys. But Romy ignores me and puts up a link to the PBJ, long after my blog post had gone up. WTF?
So I write Romy asking why he passed on my item, waited several days, then posted a competitor's link with the same info. This was his reply: "I believe your story referenced the Arizona 'Repugnant,' which I'm not certain all of my readers would recognize as the Republic."
That's a very odd objection coming from a fellow who runs another blog site called "The Obscure Store and Reading Room," which is a little like Rotten.com, but not quite as out there. The Obscure Store features link headers like, "Man arrested for putting head of girl's beloved dog in gift box," or "Boy might be expelled for putting urine in teacher's coffee pot." Even Romenesko's more conservative Poynter site regularly links to Gawker.com, one of the most self-important and cheeky sites on the Web.
Finally, my Talton item mentions the Arizona Republic in the first line, and then the common nickname for the daily, "the Repugnant," further down. Are Romy's readers really so slow that they wouldn't catch a little sarcasm? That's what he claims, anyway. Though maybe he's just afraid of getting complaints from Gannett stooges like John Zidich, the Repugnant's publisher.
I e-mailed Romy back to ask if I was blackballed or something, and he replied, stating, "Nobody's blackballed and link suggestions are always welcome." So I have no idea what to make of it, save to observe that the whims of the gods are by their very nature mercurial. Of course, now that I've blogged this item, perhaps I really will be blackballed.
PS: In case Romy's gonna wait for the PBJ to pick it up, I also broke the news last week of Richard Ruelas's column getting axed, with Ruelas busted down to lifestyle journo. So have at it PBJ! Romy's a-waitin'.
