PINAC wins Best Overall Blog in South Florida

Photo by Vanessa Montes


After a long and feisty blog battle, Photography is Not a Crime was named Best Overall Blog in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best of Blogs Award Contest.

But the idiots at The Phinsider still think the joke is on me.

They can laugh all they want, but they are the ones who fizzled out in the final round of this contest. Just like the Miami Dolphins do in their regular seasons.

This is what Matty of Phinsider had to say about the Sun-Sentinel’s official results (he wasn’t at the award ceremony):

Unfortunately, we did not win the “best overall blog” category. We were in it until the end but ended up in the top three. The winner was Photography is Not a Crime. His blog personally isn’t my cup of tea. After all, the whole idea of his site was to highlight his court battle when he was arrested for taking photos of police offers just for the hell of it. The cops, obviously, were not very happy. From there, his blog morphed into some first amendment blog defending photographers across the world.

For the record, the blogger obviously didn’t learn his lesson the first time. He got arrested a second time for the same thing – taking photos of the police against their wishes. Can you get more self-righteous than that?

[On a personal note, if some dude was taking pictures of me for no apparent reason, I'd be pissed, too. And if I asked the guy to stop and he continued, you better believe there would be issues. Who the hell wants strangers taking pictures of them? Me thinks this guy has too much time on his hands.]

The blogger also asks for donations on his page to fund his legal defense – which is rather ridiculous if you ask me. But I won’t get into that. His arrogance and self-righteousness is evident all over his site – especially in this post where he mocks our community and our team a little bit more.

But the joke is on him. As you can see below based on these stats provided by an impartial web traffic site, we have more readers here in one week than he does in a year (and that’s a modest estimate, too). And I’ll take our very active and wide-reaching community over his 12 comments per day (and that’s on the high side) any day of the week.

Matty never names nor links to the “impartial web traffic site,” but provides some type of screen capture that states PINAC receives an average of 478 readers in a month.

I can assure Matty that I get many more times that amount in a single day.

Otherwise, how else would PINAC have earned more votes than his blog?

But trash-talking aside, I was truly surprised when they named PINAC as best overall during the awards ceremony Wednesday night.

I thought Worst Pizza was going to walk away with the award. He ended up winning Best Food Blog. And Phinsider won Best Sports Blog.

And Miami Beach 411, where I am a senior editor, won Best News Blog.

But now Lapp of Worst Pizza wants me to eat my words about this being a popularity contest.

I’d rather eat a slice of pizza. Perhaps at one of my local pizza joints where I plan to take him soon.

Or maybe in New York City where I will be this weekend.

But yes, it was a popularity contest. Aren’t all voting contests?

Despite Phinsider’s high amount of readers, they still had to turn to other sports blogs to help them with votes, attempting to use my allegiance to the Oakland Raiders as a way to motivate fans from the Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos blogs to vote against me (Phinsider is one of 200 blogs that make up the Sports Blog Nation).

And I turned to my peeps at Democratic Underground for votes, who’ve been supportive of me from the day I was first arrested for photographing cops against their wishes. Without DU, I would never have won.

I am leaving for New York on Thursday and returning on Sunday, so blogging will be minimal. Join me on Facebook to keep up with my updates in NYC.

Thanks to everybody who voted. It’s well-appreciated.

Now it’s time to get back to business.

Comments

Anonymous
Anonymous

I’m happy to b the first to congratulate you!!
Very proud of you, Carlos — this is awesome!!!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Seems like Matty doesn’t care what the law is. The day when he does something that is lawful and gets punished, he’ll be coming here for advice. Congratulation! Now where are the drinks?
Cristian´s last blog ..Black and White

Anonymous
Anonymous

Using his logic – your readers are more loyal, but I’m not sure I buy his premise. Compare the two at http://www.alexa.com and judge for yourself.

Sounds to me like Matty is being a little bit of a bitch. He should call up the random pixels guy and have a dinner completely devoid of interesting, lighthearted, or funny conversation.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congrats! You’re far more deserving and even if you didn’t win, you can sleep better at night that your site provides a far more valuable tool in the fight for liberty than a sports blog.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Carlos, I’m glad i took the time to sign up! congratulations!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Carlos, congratulations!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Are the vote tallys posted anywhere? I’d like to see the final results.

Anonymous
Anonymous

So what brings you to New York?

Got time for a cup of coffee?

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congrats! Too bad the morons over at Fish-In-A-Jock-Strap dot com don’t realize that their ability to publish the drivel they enjoy stems from the same freedoms that allow you to take photos of what you want in a public place.
Jeremy Brooks´s last blog ..February Challenge Montage

Anonymous
Anonymous

Honestly I am just glad this is over. Congrats but this got really old and seemed a bit unprofessional for all parties involved

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congratulations on BOB and Great Job on your blog.

Police intimidation and brutality are growing issues and more people need to document this problem with their video cameras. We need to protect our First Amendment rights.

Thank you for creating this blog!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Well, camera nerd, at least the Phins aren’t self-righteousness. You have to give credit where credit is due.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congrats Carlos.
The Straw Buyer´s last blog ..Michelle Spence-Jones re indicted and Katherine Fernandez Rundle chimes in on "SURRENDER"

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congratulations Carlos. I hope that you receive more awards in the future to recognize your important work.
JohnO´s last blog ..Atlantic City mayor orders journalists out of public meeting while allowing other journalist to stay

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congratulations, Carlos. Thanks for joining us last night, and keep up the great work.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I can’t help but snark at the people from Phinsider insulting your efforts and work. Your blog is devoted to protected the freedoms many of us take for granted; their blog is devoted to obsessing over the details of a children’s game.

That said, I’m glad this contest is over regardless of the outcome because I was honestly getting sick of hearing about it. You don’t need a piece of paper confirming you won a popularity contest that is actually a newspaper’s marketing effort to “prove” your accomplishments, let alone your legitimacy.

And definitely skip the local pizza joints. Wait until you come to New York. You’ll be glad you did. We have the best pizza in the world.

So where will you be?

Anonymous
Anonymous

Why is a Raiders fan mocking the Dolphins? Your team is shit and has no forseeable future, have fun being the laughing stock of the NFL.

Anonymous
Anonymous

congrats on your win. great site (minus this silly blog squabble – i just laughed a little bit at the absurdity of it all), but these tit for tat 3rd grade arguments is what twitter is for, no?

Anonymous
Anonymous

Well, your blog definitely is not my cup of tea either but, regardless, congratulations on your win. One of the things I liked best about the competition was getting to see other blogs based in and around South Florida.

Anonymous
Anonymous

The Phinsider is full of crap. Yes, your blog started as your rant about your court case. However, that was just the opening volley. Now PINAC has matured into the flag-bearer for a very important discussion of a disappearing First Amendment right.

Lets put it this way … you’re so far ahead of the curve on this issue that I don’t bother writing about it. I concede that turf to you.

One thing that they certainly do not realize is that when you fight for First Amendment rights, you do so on behalf of us all, including those semi-literate dickwads at Phinsider.

Fuck the Phinsider. PINAC may get a lot less readers, but then again, more people watch “Dancing with the Stars,” than tune in to NPR, but which group of readers do you want?

Let those morons have the uneducated fucks. You’ve got a strong following among First Amendment lawyers and politically and socially informed citizens. They can have the ass-scrapings.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congrats Carlos!
Mambi Watch´s last blog ..Postponed Cuba Conference [Updated]

Anonymous
Anonymous

HAHAHAA. For a sports blog, they sure dont know how to practice good sportsmanship.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Taking photographs is in the First Amendment? Really?

Its a meaningless award. It means that your followers (or you) have more time on their hands than others. Hardly anything to get all puffed up about.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I didn’t vote, but us west coasters support you.
Rob´s last blog ..San Diego Trolley And Constructing The Bridge To Nowhere

Anonymous
Anonymous

What makes us all different is our passions. Some write about food, others of sports, tech, ideals, places and like you…on human rights. Those that appreciate your writing, resources, organic thoughts, and identify w/your blog are the ones that should matter most to you.

Congratulations Carlos! btw, did you give your prize to your mommy?

@vanessamontes
Vanessa´s last blog ..vanessamontes: ((Wow, lots of events)) RT @mashable: Mashable’s Weekly Guide to Social Media Events – http://bit.ly/9iFPE3

Anonymous
Anonymous

Congratulations, but lets be real; this is the best blog in south florida in the same way that Tom Jenkins is the best restaurant in Fort Lauderdale (according to Yelp). When the voters are all donning backwards baseball caps you’re going to get a pretty silly result.

Duh and Tom Jenkins is the best restaurant in Ft Lauderdale and I don't even own a hat.

Also your missing beachedmiami.com as the best blog for young folk.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Really! A sports blog looking down on someone documenting serious rights violations!
Seriously, how can someone who reports on which crew of steroid-using, closet homosexuals wearing shiny uniforms and tight pants will win a match that is chock full of man-on-man groping look down on anyone? Especially when that person places actual stock and concern into the outcome? I imagine one of those guys who cries like a little girl when “his team” loses.

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