State of the Blog~Mean Mister Brownsville's First Fifty Days

by Jim Barton on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 3:39pm

     The plan was to recap this blog's first 100 days, just as John Fitzgerald Kennedy's first 100 were chronicled back in the day.  As you may recall "Mean Mister Brownsville" did "The First 100 Days of Tony Martinez as Mayor of Brownsville", detailing Tony's accomplishments so far in a very short article.  The editorial staff of "Mean Mister. . " discussed the advisability of waiting the full 100 days to do a recap of blog accomplishments.  The consensus was that the blog would not likely last 100 days, so it might be best to cut that time frame in half and do a quick self-congratulatory piece before the blog died entirely.
     Before boring you with readership data, accolades, etc., it may be appropriate to mention the honor "Mean Mister Brownsville" feels in working alongside, learning from and plagiarizing three future, first ballot Blogger Hall of Fame blogs in our town:  "Downtown Browntown", BROWNSVILLE VOICE and "El Rrun Rrun".  These three pioneers, trailblazers have broken the barriers, fought the fine fight, dealt with the abuse as the local establishment has sought to stifle, stymie and squelch their first amendment efforts on behalf of our community.  MMB would simply not exist today without them.
     The three legends deal with the proverbial writer's block, dry spells and slow news days in uniquely personal ways.  El Rrun Rrun's Juan Montoya may simply pull off the top of the stack of donor articles he has received unsolicited and publish one or rework an old article, adding a new twist to make it current.

Bobby Wightman-Cervantes of BROWNSVILLE VOICE may get a late night comment from his favorite numbskull Carlito that will get his creative or defensive juices flowing.
 Downtown Brownsville's Jerry Mchale just needs a picture.  One of Jerry's first record album purchases was "Every Picture Tells A Story" by Rod Stewart.  All Jerry needs is one pic.  He closes his eyes and knows instinctively what happened including exact quotes.
     My list of mentor publications does not include the Brownsville Herald.  The Herald contains a key ingredient not found in the blogs:  cowardice.  It is not widely known but the Herald faced extinction this past spring barely escaping a ban by a mere 30 percentage points.  I'm told that one of the 30 Mexican businessmen participating in the downtown photo-op sponsored by mayoral candidate Edward Camarillo was hit in the face by a stray Herald blowing in the wind.  The businessman stuck his $150,000 investment back in his pocket, got in his Mercedes and went back to Matamoros.  To save face a Camarillo aid suggested The Herald be included in the green initiative.  Customers of Pet Smart and PetCo, Brownsville locations only, would pay $1.00 for bird cage liner OR, at their option substitute one of several tightly wound, yellowing Bargain Book papers likely on their front lawn for The Herald.  The Brownsville Herald itself would be banned from its primary use.  But Camarillo lost, having his Facebook default photo removed.  We dodged a bullet.
     Now, as to the state of the blog:  The first 50 days of operation garnered 10,000 page views.  If we had been advertising at 3 cents a hit, that could have generated $300 per advertiser.  But, Carlos Masso never returned our phone calls and Burma Shave is out of business.  We have to be content with a primary United States audience with Great Britain in second, Mexico in third and the surprising Russians in fourth.  Google lumps all the former Soviet Socialist Republics into one big country, sort of ignoring the status of Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Estonia, etc.  The most popular article  was "More on Erin and Yolanda Including Raul in the Precinct 2-2 Justice of the Peace Race" with over 400 hits the first day.  There were 59 total articles written in the 50 days.