BLOGOSPHERE:...Untrained News Bloggers Upbraided... They Blew The TSC Story...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Whoa, Nelly! That minor league, self-ballyhooed Brownsville Blogosphere is in disarray this morning. Overnight news came hard and fast for amateur blogger Jimmy Barton, shown in photo above, and his close blogpal Jerry McHale.

Their old friend in local news, Blogger Juan Montoya, tore into the inexperienced pair with a biting offering on his blog after both 75-year-old Barton and 73-year-old McHale threw fake news on their free blogs about doings at Texas Southmost College.

You'd think this freewheeling duo would know that Montoya is a die-hard defender of the junior college he once attended.

The rub came in several postings posted by Barton (who blogs from Iowa, where his wife is employed) and McHale criticizing TSC's welding program. The angered Montoya threw so many facts at them that the pair likely are still up against the wall.

TSC, wrote the pair of errant, misinformed bloggers, was offering a student welding program not certified by the preeminent American Welding Society, costing, according to the bloggers, a shot at real jobs in the industry for the students who'd completed TSC class requirements.

Montoya, shown in photo at left, spelled it all out for them, metaphorically dragging both of his fellow local bloggers to the woodshed for a drop-your-slacks spanking.

Of the two, only McHale has the only however-thin taste of actual daily newsroom journalism, having worked for The Brownsville Herald's Sports Dept. way, way, way back in the late 1970s. He later went on to a long, long, long 30-plus-year career as a teacher with the Brownsville Independent School District.

It was in one of McHale's postings that he wrote some critic of the TSC program was calling TSC President Dr. Jesus Rodriguez "crooked". That came in the second offering by the blogger known more for fiction than non-fiction.

Barton has zero actual news journalism experience, He has written about working for a defunct grocery store on Boca Chica Boulevard, for an area motel and for shrimpers hiring muscle to unload their catch. Blogging seems to be wordy Barton's initial entry into writing news, although he will tell you that he's not into news, per se, but into the "human nature behind the news."

Often, both bloggers ignore basic tenets of news reporting and do it cavalierly, without regard for the craft. McHale has never had an editor to check his writing, having passed on seeking a better position with better newspapers after his short stint at The Herald, a once-daily newspaper many in the business would say is an okay "starter" job after college.

Barton is simply lost in his typing. As an activity crutch for an old man, blogging works for him. He does not have a college degree and, well, a trip to The Herald for a reporter's job would have been futile for him. But he has been seen about town wearing a homemade Press Pass when attending no-admission political functions such as "Meet & Greet" gatherings. He tries, but Barton simply does not have the knowledge or professional background to write any kind of serious news.

We often tell friends, including recently to McHale, that Barton's blog is really a "Laundromat Bulletin Board" and not much else. Today, he posted an opinion post about God, or really, why God does not exist. A good two local readers found it semi-interesting.

Barton often asks about my employment, finding trailer park humor in not knowing where I worked in the last few decades. I last wrote for D Magazine in Dallas on a free-lance basis in the year 2012. before that, I spent almost 30 years writing for major newspapers and magazines. He knows that, but he chooses to denigrate it, perhaps out of envy and jealousy. Since then, I have been nicely retired, although I do blog from time to time, but never for long stretches of time. McHale has been blogging, we would say, for at least 20 years and Barton for a dozen or so.

We never ask Barton about his recent employment, mainly because we know there isn't any there. He has said he and his wife Nenny lived for many years in Arkansas, but he never says what work he did, if any. Nenny was the military veteran in the household. When she died like five years ago, Barton donated her body to science, writing that it had been her choice. He never produced either a Will requesting such an ending or even some home-written note saying as much.

We are not big fans of Texas Southmost College, but when we have written about it, we have not gotten the sort of blowback McHale, shown in photo at right, and Barton are getting from much more experienced blogger Montoya.

This dust-up is a rare one for the Brownsville Blogosphere. Most of the time, these guys rally around each other like junior high schoolboys, praise of each other's posts flying as if meaningful.

When we began this blog back in April, we allowed McHale to use our stories. His style, however, clashed with my idea of "presentation," so I asked him to stop. He did.

Non-newsman Barton likely has nothing else to do, so he'll keep with his low-altitude blogging.

They may not be happy blogging campers today, but what blogger Juan Montoya did in calling them on the carpet is a good thing for local news and information.

Cross-checking each other's work would do wonders for their reporting on politicians and public servants. As it is, all three have their friends in high positions and, as such, the local citizenry never really gets serious, objective reporting of their doings.

We say McHale is too old to care about any of this.

Barton should, however, use it as a teaching moment courtesy of a blogger he really admires...

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