Transformers: Protect, Destroy, Inform

Credit (begrudgingly): Crain's cover, Monday June 25

The transformer explosion in the Bronx yesterday afternoon (even if there really wasn't one) that caused power disruptions along the city's East Side was a fitting metaphor for how the story broke. Old media was slow to respond, the information distribution grid has been blown to bits. Who was first to report? You'd have to look at the YM Dodgeball HottWire (3:47pm) for that answer. Subscribe here. And when the 45 minute nightmare was over, we were also first on the scene to announce:

power just came back on. we survived. community held together. bless all.

One devoted reader* responded, "you broke that story half hour before anyone else touched it." That, my friends, is the power of citizen media - it never dims.

Related: Even in Blackouts posted on Krucoff.com on June 27, 2005. SPOOKY.

*Okay, it was Brian Van but cut me some slack!