New York Times Buries Urban Climbing Story
Apparently, if you’re going to infiltrate and blog about covert underground operations, say a subterranean rock climbing lair, you should get permission to blow up the spot first. “This is both the neighborhood-y, Local thing to do and simple journalistic ethics,” according to The Local, the Times’ Fort Greene/Clinton Hill-based blog. The site unpublished yesterday’s story about a “secret underground climbing gym.” Unfortunately, redacting the post about “one of the best kept secrets in Brooklyn” only generates more interest and it’s not like you can hide the cache (props!). Or the screengrab presented in its entirety after the jump.
by Will Sherman on July 10, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Editor-in-Chief:
please take this down! With all due respect, we really want to keep the climbing gym a secret. If the word gets out (through blogs like this) it will very likely be shut down for good. Please, I urge you to remove this posting. Thank you.
just got the word- the basement has been shut down for an undetermined period of time. thanks a lot NYT.
Dear Jed,
You are undeniably the worlds greatest douchbag. Instead of paying respect to a place that has remained a secret for 20 years, you have insulted the owners and patrons by comparing them to “geckos” and “endearing fellows that just like to drink beer and look at pretty girls.” You could have written this story a million different ways and retained a sense of respect for this small community that allowed you in, gave you rock climbing shoes and kindly showed you where the gym was. Instead, you chose to write a deprecating article filled with terms such as pot smoke, body odor and geckoes, as if these were the main elements and reasons to come to this gym. The bottom line is that any one who goes is there to climb horizontally across the wall like human geckoes which is a whole lot harder then being a pencil pusher such as yourself. Thanks to your groundbreaking journalism and lack of any type of moral fiber, this gym is now CLOSED. Like i said, you are the WORLD’S GREATEST DOUCHEBAG. Maybe you should reread that quote about courage because success isn’t final. Hope you enjoyed selling your soul for a story that has now been taken offline.
Congratulation for making me pay 22 bucks so i could climb for a couple of hours in an “acceptable” gym over-run with screaming 9-year olds and soccer moms. You really did nyc a favor by bringing down the only place where I felt an authentic community feeling doing what I love to do. You betrayed a trust that was given to you, so that means you are on your way to becoming yet another self-centered reporter.. because this world is short on that.