Comments on: How the Observer Abdicated Its Watchdog Role

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:17:22 +0000

This

“The levees here are dirt walls along both sides of the Trinity River designed to hold back flood waters from downtown on one side and Oak Cliff on the other. The area between the levees is called the floodway. It’s the pipe, so to speak, that carries the water away.

The city’s plan is to build an expressway down the middle of that pipe. There is no way to do that without clogging the pipe. If you clog the pipe, you risk pushing the waters higher until they spill over the levees, then rip the levees down and send rampaging floods through downtown or Oak Cliff or both.

The fact that the toll road is being held up by the environmental impact studies is serious and scary. The fact that the Calatrava bridge is being delayed by engineering and money problems is significant.”

and the interesting problems with the bridges that precede it seems more complex than your simple psychological diagnosis that Jim Schutze “has much hate for” the problems he consistently lays out, Bethany.

By: Bethany

Bethany — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:30:03 +0000

But the original Trinity River project itself – without the new “wonderful” things, he has much hate for.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:09:38 +0000

Journalist Bethany on Jim Schutze:

“However, when you refuse to allow for any possible good outcome and write the project off,…”

Journalist Jim Schutze, from his column cited above:

“The Trinity River Project, by now, is really a bunch of big public works projects all lumped together, some of which are absolutely wonderful.”

By: Bethany

Bethany — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:31:53 +0000

Ugh, I forgot we can’t use the I-Voldemort-word.

By: Bethany

Bethany — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:31:30 +0000

Spamboy: If he would couch it as, “In my opinion, they’re idiots,” then it would have probably floated better. But even an op-ed piece needs to be grounded in facts – all of them, preferably, especially when one presents himself as a fact-based columnist.

Don’t get me wrong – Jim Schutze’s tenacity in this Trinity project is admirable. His track record as a journalist is enviable.

However, when you refuse to allow for any possible good outcome and write the project off, and then dismiss those involved as idiots, it makes you a less effective columnist.

Why? Because people that are reasonable enough to see that nothing is all bad or all good are turned off. People he hopes to reach – those that perhaps think the project must be good, because people voted for it – are turned off because he just called them an idiot.

That eliminates 2/3 of your potential audience, and the remaining third is the choir.

By: Spamboy

Spamboy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:03:48 +0000

@Bethany Would you consider Jim’s pieces to be true (objective) journalism, or do they fall more into the realm of (partisan) opinion? Seems to me they’ve *always* tilted toward the latter, and any opinion writer will tell you they aren’t apologetic for writing what they perceive to be the truth.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:20:36 +0000

I believe there was a failure to communicate the true deminsions of the design to the planners. Kinda like the Stonehedge model in Spinal Tap.

By: Sam Merten

Sam Merten — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:32:42 +0000

Tim:

I’d respond, but I’m too busy building this to destroy your beloved Trinity model:

http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/ModelRocketDeathStar.jpg

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:58:21 +0000

I just love watching this continuing Schutze (the Old Head) vs. Rogers (the used-to-be Whipper Snapper) grudge match.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:32:51 +0000

Fitting that the model is a microcosm of Dallas: Lots of style. Zero substance.