by William Skink
ON EDIT: the tweet from Dan Brooks was directed at Missoula Current, not Missoulian. Also, Strandberg has the screenshots I was too lazy to grab last night, which you can read here.
I am a consumer of local media, and a critic of local media. I read the best efforts of the Missoulian to help Major Bodner perception-manage “incremental” improvements at UM, and I read Missoula Current’s fawning coverage of tech and gentrification. I read what I can to best understand what the luminaries in government and private sector development have up their sleeves for Missoula because, you know, I like live here and stuff.
I made that last part sound adolescent because tonight, as the now waning full moon rises over our fair valley, an epic Twitter battle has exploded between a number of notable Missoula media people. I’m not going to take the time to do a bunch of screen shots, but I will give my impressions of this Battle Royale.
I think it started when Dan Brooks made an observation that a Missoulian article sounded a lot like the press release. Then Gwen Florio, local author and Missoulian reporter, did the caught your (not you’re) bad grammar thing. Then Martin J. Kidston entered the fray. Then Missoulian editor Kathy Best tried to defend the shit (and getting shittier) product that is the Missoulian.
A tweet from former Indy reporter Derek Brouwer brought this shit-show to my attention. Brouwer found greener grass in Vermont, and accurately describes this scorched earth Twitter battle as “sad”.
Yes, it is sad. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in my two decades of adulting, it’s this: we never actually leave high school.
JC