An Open Letter to James Ragland
In response to my comments in Leading Off this morning, James Ragland explains himself over on their blog and reveals that I hurt his feelings. After the jump, I’ve written him a letter.
Dear James Ragland: I’m sorry for hurting your feelings. Both times we’ve met, in professional settings, I’ve enjoyed your company. You seem like a smart guy, someone I’d like to have a beer with. Which is why so much of what you write confuses me. It doesn’t come across like it’s written by a smart guy I’d like to have beers with.
If you wanted to make a point about how the national media have mischaracterized Preston Hollow, then why didn’t you do that? There are several homes for sale within walking distance of the Bushes’ new pad. Why didn’t you go tour one, use that as your lead, then say how until eight years ago, you, as a black man, would not have been allowed to buy the house? Then cite some examples of national media latching onto this fact and how they’ve blown it out of proportion. Then give me a brief profile of the neighborhood, telling me how cool it is, explaining what Preston Hollow is really like, how it harbors some of the best modern architecture in Dallas, some of its most active, interesting people, etc.
Instead you wrote a confusing lead. Then, without telling me why I should care (the mischaracterizations in the national media), you went into a Googled history of the neighborhood. You trotted out tired notions (about McMansions, lack of sidewalks) and employed language (calling Mitch Rasansky “wealthy,” refering to the neighborhood as “economically exclusive”) that hint at resentfulness (no?). You wrote about the place like you didn’t understand it and hadn’t even visited it to try to get an understanding. And THEN you brought up the national attention paid to the neighborhood’s old covenants. Oh, and the mess a couple years ago at Preston Hollow Elementary.
James, your column was disorganized and hard to follow. It sounds from your blog post that you had a point to make; you didn’t make it well. An editor there should have given you some guidance, sent the thing back for some more work.
Look, man, newspapers across the country are dying. Yours is in serious trouble. I know writing a column as frequently as you do is a difficult assignment. But we in Dallas need you to be bold, to be clear, to make a forceful point! If the paper is going to survive — even if it only survives online — we need you to step up your game. Write like that guy I met at the mayoral debates.
Again, my apologies for being snarky and glib this morning. The subject deserved a more thoughtful response. I hope I’ve given you that here. Now get to work.
Also, please pass this note along to Steve Blow.
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Dear Mr. Ragland:
I spent the past year getting lectures like this from Tim. The fact that’s he’s usually right, of course, just makes it worse.
On most occasions, his company is adequately enjoyable in proximity to a ****tail tumbler.
Tim, can’t you and Ragland set aside your differences concerning Preston Hollow and get back to more important things, like letting us all know how great Tom Leppert and the Trinity River Project are?
Perhaps James can pass this along to Michael Landauer, too.
And Steve Harris.
Don’t forget the great JJT
So maybe we can agree that Ragland’s column was as misunderstand as your missive on the (ta-da!) Big Fancy Trinity Models?
To get to Michael Landauer you must first get the blessing of Joe Jaynes. Michael does nothing without the blessing of Jaynes.
Note to Frontburner:
Thank you for allowing my criticism of Michael Landauer to remain posted on your blog. When I make any similar criticism of Michael Landauer on the DMN blog, they are immediately deleted. I find this rather odd since Michael Landauer himself is in the business of editorializing or critiquing.
Tim Rogers is as out of touch with what is going on in Dallas as George W. Bush is.
Tim would have a beer with anyone at anytime just to have a beer. When Bush moves to town Rogers & Bush can drink beer in a bubble all day long.
Fortunately TR is not as out of touch with Dallas as GWB is with the country he will soon be ex-president of.
Actually I’m in no place to judge Dallas in or out of touch bonafides, but couldn’t resist the opportunity to bash. I’ll have to find a new target soon I reckon. Carry on.
Raglland and Blow are both major spares. Leave Tim alone.
@ Another Chipmunk: Oh, man. You might not have meant to do this, but with one three-sentence comment, you’ve forced me to do a lot of soul searching. Let’s see. People I won’t have a beer with just to have a beer:
1. Scott Strong
2. Bob Bennett
3. Glenna Whitley
4. Elise Pierce
5. The woman who fired me from Scholastic, the student magazine of Notre Dame
And so that you know, we’re now having an argument up here. I say I’d have a beer with any famous person, even if I hate him — because he’s famous and because, you know, the beer. But Zac and Eric both strenuously disagree.
You see, Tim, by benefit of your critique James can now claim, in the time-honoured journalistic reverse of amazing friends by draping one’s jacket over a chair, pointing to it, and commanding it “Stay!”, that his column is “creating quite a stir”.
In these troubled times it’s always heartening to remember that it’s the buzz that happily tickles both buzzer and buzzee alike that is, if not the truly true story, the truly important one and that all the rest is but chaff in the wind.
I think you’re all forgetting the fact that Tim is perfectly capable of having a beer alone (wife permitting). So, the question should be: Is there anyone Tim would get up from a bar to avoid sitting next to?
Tim… read Candy’s reader comments on this whole “covenant thing” in her early post on the Bush buy. You are perpetuating the myth, by stating Ragland *should have* wrote about how he couldn’t buy a house there until 8 years ago.
It’s more like 4 decades ago.
Maybe it’s because I am a lawyer (ducking), but I would put Bennett in the famous category. So that means that Zac and Eric would win the bet because you’ve already said that you wouldn’t have a beer with him.
Why not Glenna Whitley? I’ll betcha there’s an amusing anecdote there. I hear she’s quite the prankster!
James is a good man with a big heart and keen intellect. That said, I have a lot of friends who live in Preston Hollow who are 1) not that rich (are you?) 2) voted for Obama 3) decidedly nice 4) down to earth real. Great part of the city.
But then I’m old enough to recall being told by what is now a Dallas icon realtor that Preston Hollow was ‘on the wrong side of Northwest Highway’ and even the ‘wrong’ side of Inwood. That was before she also mocked my latter 70s suggestion that my friend look in the ‘M’ streets. “Wrong side of Central” she said……..
When did James move back to Dallas?
I thought he was happy in Paris, TX.
Tim, I don’t think he said you hurt his feelings, so much as he said you exhibited less intelligence than the average Dallas Morning News reader, who understood his column. Not a compliment to you, really.
Tim,
You were way easy on this James guy.
There are hundreds of families in Preston Hollow of all colors – just like Bush’s new neighbors. Interestingly he seems to know only one black family in Preston Hollow. And guess where they moved here from? … wait for it … Southlake!
Did somebody say Tim’s buying?
Sorry, Frontburner. You seem to have attracted a critic of mine from Collin County. I truly wish I understood where this criticism came from, but this guy posts things like this all the time on unrelated blog posts on our site, too. I guess it’s because we do tend to like moderate Republicans like Mr. Jaynes. On our blog, we have an informal policy of taking down comments that aim to derail a thread on another topic. It’s basically just spam. Indeed, I hate to even mention this in your thread here because it’s so bizarre and unrelated. Once again, I invite the PR guy to come out of the shadows, give me a call, and tell me why he accuses me of being BFF’s with Joe Jaynes, one of maybe 200 decent sources I have developed over my years in North Texas … My direct line is 214-977-8258.
You only have 200 “decent” sources? I bet Tim has lots more…just sayin’
Ha! Tim probably does. As an editor stuck in a chair more than I’d like to admit, I don’t get to develop new sources like I used to. Not even indecent sources …