The end of candy blogging, part II...the thrill of the scoop

Ironically a couple of candy bloggers have urged me not to stop just because others are doing it. I think my perspective on this dates back to my days as a reporter where there was quite a thrill to being the first (or only) person to cover a story. I can't quite translate why being the first matters. Or why having your story picked up by others means so much, or when its not credited to you, conversely annoyes the hell out of you. That it's an ego thing is pretty much the only way to explain it, and while I imagine it doesn't make much sense to people outside of the profession, now that more people are blogging I suspect the deep interest in being first, and/or being credited with being first by others, becomes a little more understandable.

Granted many in the media take the concept of being "first" and/or exclusive way too far. Especially if its some story that is going to be reveiled naturally anyway. A real scoop in my mind is when you are the first to cover a story that no one else would have ever covered without your reporting. Being the first to report the weather or pregancies isn't exactly news.

There are so many news/politics bloggers out there I think this is kind of why I have stayed away from that aspect as well despite the title of my blog being "Newscat." I don't want to be the 500th blogger to chime in my opinion about Cheney shooting a guy in the face unless actually have something unique to add to the discussion.

So when I realized how many other candy blogger there were out there, well I hate the feeling that I would be going over the same ground that, frankly, they can do better. There are other things I've contemplated reviewing food-wise, everything from Slim Fast Shakes (which I have every day) to varieties of Lean Cuisines. At least so I can offer reviews of other products people haven't already gone over with a fine-tooth comb.

Anyway when I have the time I need to write about the one big blog-type scoop I had in 2003 involving a certain Howard Dean quote. I wasn't blogging back then, but if I had been if might have been the one news item I had that could have gotten me some attention. I think of it now as "the one that got away" because the e-mail account where I stored the information was closed a while ago, and I didn't even think to save the important e-mails with my evidence. Anyway I will talk about it soon.