The local blogosphere has influenced elections, been first to report important stories, provided a free expression platform that is simply unparalleled since the days of the pamphleteers but today the local paper decided to give a bit of coverage to bloggers who objected to a frog cartoon and the new design of the ATA mascot.
It’s the bus stop illustration with the cracked sidewalk that’s been the buzz on the Internet, where bloggers have labeled the frog as lazy, homeless and drugged, among other things.First of all, it's funny that the article got the address of the KC Rag Forum wrong. Secondly, this story is more than two weeks old. Finally, who cares?
Put him at a bus stop with a busted sidewalk and it sends the wrong message about Kansas City transit, they say.
The city already has an image problem with transit, said David Johnson, who criticized the character on his blog kclightrail.com. “This picture didn’t really try to improve on that image.”
Other bloggers have been more blunt.
“What about a stoned frog waiting for a bus says you too should ride the Metro?” one blogger wrote at kcrag.com.
“The street is crumbling, the bus sign is bent. His only friend appears to be a pigeon, and the bus is nowhere to be seen.”
Every day, Kansas City bloggers are contributing to this town's discourse in unique, amazing and unprecedented ways but The Star is highlighting only chatter related to a cartoon.
The failure of this floundering corporation to understand the digital revolution that is impacting media is part of the reason they keep having to fire people . . . Maybe, just maybe, if blogs weren't regarded as the enemy The Star could adapt to changes that are currently taking place in the media landscape rather than seemingly being content to have this town's daily paper go the way of the dodo.
ummm, yeah, well, i ride the bus, and while many people on it are normal and sober, it's no secret that no one cares if you are stoned, drunk, babbling, carrying a can of beer, stink like a bar, want to ramble and boast about how you kicked out these mexican guys from the bathroom where you bounce for doing coke, etc.
ReplyDeleteand twice this week, mr. bus driver waived cash-paying me past the fare box. a case of cuteness? i don't care. i think he's doing his own social experiment: will the anomalous white girl without the bus pass question or just move on? union plan to reduce revenue? : )
mascots don't "work" anyway. no one is going to think, "frog!" when their car breaks down or they are standing in the sun or freezing rain spending twice as long to get anywhere because they have never had a car and never will.