Comments on: ‘Story Speaks for Itself,’ Says Post on H Street Disaster

By: Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs

Washington City Paper: News & Features: Blogs — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:29:16 +0000

[...] attempting to document the lapses of one Postie, our esteemed editor believes that white people don’t say racist shit out in the open, like, say, at a hipster joint on H [...]

By: Emilie

Emilie — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:15:21 +0000

Another question I’d like to ask the Washington Post is why there was only one so-called “H street old-timer” interviewed for the article when the article was supposed to be about the conflict between old and new. Vanessa Ruffin was thrown in at the end as the token “old-timer” and even she was placed in the context of so-called “newcomers.”

My husband and I have lived one block off H Street for the past four years and we love the neighborhood - precisely because it does not live up to the stereotypes that this reporter so crudely illustrated. We are about to have our first child and we hope to stay and raise our family here - again, because it seems to be a place that is real among so much that is not.

As a writer myself, I think the Post’s reporting job was deplorable and I think that the Style editor’s defense of the reporter that “she has won a lot of awards” is laughable.
The reporter’s work speaks for itself - awards or not.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:00:15 +0000

Do many regular Post Style readers or writers live in the city? If they do, do they live in so-called transitional neighborhoods? Somehow I kinda doubt it.

My point is that this story seems to be confected in a way calculated to appeal to (and, ideally, express some sort of deep truth to) people who really aren’t there to live it for themselves. The author and style editor, to name two examples. The bulk of WP’s readership would also fit into this category.

By: Alan from Wylie

Alan from Wylie — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:12:42 +0000

Did you reach out and find the two anonymous chatters yet? Do some reporting yourself, find their names and try to determine if they actually are who they claim to be.

By: arclight

arclight — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:15:38 +0000

Thanks for staying on top of this - naturally I was excited to see a piece in the paper about my neighborhood, and to have such a shoddy article that offered absolutely nothing but negative impressions made me pretty upset. I will admit that I have one neighbor who apparently liked the piece, but the others I’ve talked to all agree that it was awful and didn’t even come close to describing our neighborhood.