Christie Blatchford

September 4, 2002 4:15 PM

Christie Blatchford 's 9/11 road trip: From Montana to New York on a first anniversary odyssey "to audit America."
posted by timeistight (12 comments total)

There has been so much America-bashing here lately that I wanted to link to a fellow Canadian who, like me, loves America, warts and all.
posted by timeistight at 4:22 PM on September 4, 2002

Interesting link, time....I'm going to follow it til she gets here to NY--thanks!...I'm surprised that she can't get good meals tho...

and it's our warts that make us so tasty and chewy!
posted by amberglow at 4:39 PM on September 4, 2002

Timsight as a Canadian your also American, as in the continent you reside. So from an American of the US, thank you, hopefully I can do a similar trek in your land by rail.
\!!!/
posted by thomcatspike at 4:44 PM on September 4, 2002

Reminds me of a story last year this time I was driveing from San Francisco to Washington and was in Arizona about 1 week after 9-11 .. I often pull into National Forests to sleep for the night and this night as I poked along a logging road I saw another car off in the forest with a makeshift camp. It was a beat-up early 80s station wagon with New York tags filled to the brim with stuff. Not your usual sight so I kept on going but have to guess someone was getting as far away from NYC as possible! That was an interesting trip to see the country right after 9-11 in particular Texas along the border I was stoped 5 times by border patrol in the Great Bend area.
posted by stbalbach at 4:51 PM on September 4, 2002

as a Canadian your also American

No offense tomcatspike, because I see the intent of your remark is nothing but nice, but since most citizens of the USA call themselves American and only mean it to represent their own borders, and since most of the world also does this, I as a Canadian do not want to be called an American. Call me a north american, or a canadian, or a hoser, but not american. Maybe it's irrational but it really insults me, and I'm not alone in that, by far.

Way way way more insulting though is having Christie Blatchford represent me as a Canadian :p This little road trip of hers may be innocuously interesting, but for me she has a decades long history of yellow biased dangerous "journalism" behind her which I find intolerable. She's written so much crapola she'll never redeem herself.
posted by zarah at 8:10 PM on September 4, 2002

(For those who are interested -- and in light of zarah's comments -- here's a profile of Christy in the latest issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. She's best known as a crime columnist.)
posted by mcwetboy at 8:25 PM on September 4, 2002

that was an interesting profile of her (and not without its own biases), but as they say, she's a good read! and a good subject for a read!

zarah, don't worry--not many americans at all read the National Post (which I never heard of until tonight) and on behalf of all americans I promise not to judge all canadians by her....I wonder why she got the assignment (because 9/11 was a crime?)...and "to audit america" sounds weird to me--were we cheating on our taxes or something?
posted by amberglow at 8:40 PM on September 4, 2002

growing up at my house you could always tell when my dad was in the middle of reading one of bitchford's columns due to the swearing coming from the den - he never ever called anyone else a "dumb broad!" :-D no surprise that she's worked at both the toronto sun and now the nat'l post. both those papers make excellent kitty litter liners.

i'm with zarah on not being called an "american". it may be geographically accurate, but not semantically, socially, emotionally, etc.
posted by t r a c y at 8:53 PM on September 4, 2002

"National Post: BLATCHFORD FINDS GOODNESS IN AMERICA'S IN-BETWEEN PLACES"

God that's Onionesque.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 9:09 PM on September 4, 2002

Blatchford got the job because: a) she's more in touch with, and more honest about, her emotions than anyone else at the Post, b) she's a fan of America and americans, and c) she's a raging workaholic.

I think she's a national treasure and I'm stunned that anyone disagrees. Ahh, MetaFilter is such a learning experience.
posted by timeistight at 12:50 AM on September 5, 2002

Sorry time, but I gotta stun you again. Blatchford's ongoing love affair with her ability as a bullshit detector can make for some (unintentionally) funny reading, but everything she writes is based almost soley on her emotional response to a situation.

Admittedly, many bone-dry journalists could use some of her fire, but I just find her a little too flighty and knee-jerky (mmm... knee-jerky).

Now Alexandra Gill -- there's a journalist I'd like to share a dinner with! Funny, clever and cute as the proverbial button.
posted by Polo Mr. Polo at 6:59 AM on September 5, 2002

Ahh, MetaFilter is such a learning experience.

Yea, timsight, I was hosed by a hoser. ;p My family from the North Western part of America were thought of as citizens of the United States while living in Canada. I get you zarah as the Canadians didn't refer to them as Americans either.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:45 PM on September 6, 2002