Huff-you looked great tonight on 48 HRs’ was good to see you there–Are you still writing for TCR ? I have been a long time follower yet just found this site when I googled you–who the hell is Pete Kotz ?? scary !!
Hi Meemzy – thanks for watching 48! I’m no longer with TCR, quit a week ago. Writing sometimes for CBS’s CrimeSider crime blog (crimesider.com), True/Slant (http://trueslant.com/stevehuff). Pete is the former editor of the Nashville Scene. I didn’t agree with the direction the site was taking after he came on board and needed to do something new anyway.
So…should we just keep checking your twitter, and here, to find out when/where you’re writing? I’m glad you left TCR, I don’t agree with the direction either. We didn’t love that blog for the mindless (and apparently poorly, if at all, edited) posting of every stupid thing every stupid criminal or miscreant in the US does (enough with the QuickyMart thugs already)…we loved it for the thoughtful, well-researched and well-written stories with details we couldn’t get anywhere else. I will miss having that one-stop-shop of Huffinity at TCR but I look forward to the new directions you’re taking. And by the way, great job on 48Hours last night!
I have nothing against Pete personally at all. I was actually glad they added him. But I believe quality matters much, much more than quantity in crime blogging, and it seems like I was in the minority among people charged with taking care of TCR (folks over Pete & me). I also believe a blog doesn’t always have to be an add-on, a throwaway medium. I believe you can use blogs for primary reporting too. A newspaper mindset like Pete’s, though, will always minimize a blog and treat it as the throwaway place where you just post random crap related to the blog’s stated subject. That explains the glib tone and the glossover approach to the bigger stories.
I have a personal blog where I just throw stuff up there and not many people read it. I expect that because to me, it’s more like a scrapbook. Crime-blogging, though, is where I try to publish my finished product, with the “stupid criminal” stuff being diversions I use during slow news days, rather than the primary subject.
Mind you, they were patient with me in the past at times when others wouldn’t have been. Anyone who has read my work for a while knows I occasionally get a little sick of covering crime and just stop posting for a bit. I’m grateful to VVM for putting up with that a few times when they really didn’t have to. I have more gratitude towards the folks who brought me on to do that blog than anything.
It looks like I’ll post pretty regularly at CBS’ CrimeSider blog – sort of an “as long as they’ll have me” situation – and have another project I’m working on that I’m so excited about I’d love to just tell everyone – but I won’t. Not yet. It’s similar to crime blogging – but more, and more fun. I’m excited about it because I feel like it’s a good idea and I’m anxious to see where it goes once I get it up and cranking. I’ll keep people posted.
If the formatting of some blog posts seems 'off', it is because that post was transferred from my Tumblr, Random Lunatic News.
About Steve Huff (short version)
Comedian, author, screenwriter and basic cable demi-God Michael Ian Black has called Steve "a genius." Of course he didn't mean it, but it was still pretty cool. Best-selling true crime authors Ann Rule and Gregg Olsen have acknowledged Steve's contributions to the genre - according to Olsen, Steve Huff "invented serious true crime blogging." Steve's work has been mentioned in Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Seattle Times and New York Daily News. He has also appeared as a talking head on HLN, MSNBC, Fox News and TruTV. Steve lives in the Atlanta area with his wife, educator and blogger Dana M. Huff, and their children.
Solstice preparations going well now that I have a chac mool and stone knife. Almost certain the sun will come back this time. Almost. #fb5 hours ago
Re: the Solstice sacrifice – anyone got a chac–mool they could loan me for a few hours this evening? I'll clean it before I return it. 12 hours ago
It's the Winter Solstice! Up all night sharpening sacrificial knives. The bleating,honking and requests for cigars are getting tiresome. 12 hours ago
In a parallel universe, my kitty cat is losing a life each time she knocks another ornament off the Xmas tree. She's lost, like, 15 so far. 15 hours ago
Huff-you looked great tonight on 48 HRs’ was good to see you there–Are you still writing for TCR ? I have been a long time follower yet just found this site when I googled you–who the hell is Pete Kotz ?? scary !!
Hi Meemzy – thanks for watching 48! I’m no longer with TCR, quit a week ago. Writing sometimes for CBS’s CrimeSider crime blog (crimesider.com), True/Slant (http://trueslant.com/stevehuff). Pete is the former editor of the Nashville Scene. I didn’t agree with the direction the site was taking after he came on board and needed to do something new anyway.
So…should we just keep checking your twitter, and here, to find out when/where you’re writing? I’m glad you left TCR, I don’t agree with the direction either. We didn’t love that blog for the mindless (and apparently poorly, if at all, edited) posting of every stupid thing every stupid criminal or miscreant in the US does (enough with the QuickyMart thugs already)…we loved it for the thoughtful, well-researched and well-written stories with details we couldn’t get anywhere else. I will miss having that one-stop-shop of Huffinity at TCR but I look forward to the new directions you’re taking. And by the way, great job on 48Hours last night!
Thanks, John. Yes – check Twitter.
I have nothing against Pete personally at all. I was actually glad they added him. But I believe quality matters much, much more than quantity in crime blogging, and it seems like I was in the minority among people charged with taking care of TCR (folks over Pete & me). I also believe a blog doesn’t always have to be an add-on, a throwaway medium. I believe you can use blogs for primary reporting too. A newspaper mindset like Pete’s, though, will always minimize a blog and treat it as the throwaway place where you just post random crap related to the blog’s stated subject. That explains the glib tone and the glossover approach to the bigger stories.
I have a personal blog where I just throw stuff up there and not many people read it. I expect that because to me, it’s more like a scrapbook. Crime-blogging, though, is where I try to publish my finished product, with the “stupid criminal” stuff being diversions I use during slow news days, rather than the primary subject.
Mind you, they were patient with me in the past at times when others wouldn’t have been. Anyone who has read my work for a while knows I occasionally get a little sick of covering crime and just stop posting for a bit. I’m grateful to VVM for putting up with that a few times when they really didn’t have to. I have more gratitude towards the folks who brought me on to do that blog than anything.
It looks like I’ll post pretty regularly at CBS’ CrimeSider blog – sort of an “as long as they’ll have me” situation – and have another project I’m working on that I’m so excited about I’d love to just tell everyone – but I won’t. Not yet. It’s similar to crime blogging – but more, and more fun. I’m excited about it because I feel like it’s a good idea and I’m anxious to see where it goes once I get it up and cranking. I’ll keep people posted.
Hey Steve,
I was wondering where you were! I despise Pete Kotz “reporting” and that link for trueslant isnt working for me.