The Baltimore Sun was a sponsor of the event. Did I miss the disclosure in your riveting article?
Do you have any journalistic integrity? Or are you just another corporate pawn? Journalism is dead and you will not post this.

And yet Mr. Maher does not challenge a single factual statement in the article.

Maybe Mr. Maher would have had an easier time challenging the "factual statements" in this article if there WERE any factual statements in this article to begin with.

I live in Hampden, just off the Avenue, and the crowds were MUCH thinner this year than any of the past 6 years I've lived here. I didn't even have to fight any traffic or circle for a parking space, as I've had to do during every past HonFest. It was pretty obvious that all of the various controversies that Ms. Whiting has fomented have come to bite her in the rear.

Enough already, McIntyre. You mock only yourself. Your fixation on this makes everyone wonder just what hold Denise has on you. As for crowd sizes, I was actually able to find a parking spot in front of my Beech avenue home this afternoon, so I would guess a little less than previously.

Uh, you mean the article's one fact: that people showed up?

No, Mr. Maher in fact did not challenge that as that was not the point of his post. The point of his post was your lack of journalistic integrity as evidenced by your not disclosing that your employer sponsored an event you are promoting.

Now, which is more important? You have a fifty-fifty chance of getting something right. Cool, huh?

RTFP, as we say in the newsroom. My employer also ran a front-page article quoting the people calling for a boycott of Honfest.

See for yourself:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-ae-honfest-boycott-20110609,0,1014186.story

Had never heard of Denise Whiting or any hon-related events or controversy before today, but Honfest looks like it's probably a lot of fun for the participants. Full disclosure: most of what I know about Baltimore comes from watching "The Wire" and "The Corner," so an event as lighthearted as a honfest seems refreshingly lighthearted in comparison.

We are not talking about the front page, Mr. McIntyre, we are talking about you and your articles. You continually slam those of us who take umbrage at Whiting's tone and stance yet you don't seem to be able to take responsibility for your own actions. You are good at Dodge Ball, though.

Journalistic integrity 101 would prompt you to cite the front page article or disclose in a simple single sentence that The Sun is a sponsor. How long have you been at this job???

I am a long time vendor at HonFest. Crowds were noticeably smaller and my revenue was significantly smaller on Saturday. Just sayin'...

"See for yourslef"? For someone who claims to be an expert on the English language, you sure do make a lot of spelling errors. I guess you're just keeping on us all on our toes.

Just because your employer won't disclose its relationship with Honfest in its articles, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't either. Add me to the list of people who question your integrity.

I'll give you some credit, though. Unlike Denise Whiting, you don't go out of your way to suppress dissenting views.

Hmm............. would this, the-world-against-Ms.-Whiting fuss, be technically classified as an ongoing imbroglio, a dustup, a rhubarb, a squabble, a tiff, a contretemps, a scrap, a misunderstanding, or just a plain public embarrassment? (Or none of the above.)

Why pretty soon we're going to witness a hysterical storming of The Sun's headquarters by a motley horde of pitchfork, blazing torch totting anti-Honfest malcontents, demanding Prof. McI.'s bespectacled head skewered on a pointy post. (Ugh!)

Geez, can't we all just try to get along, children?

This whole affair, from this distant, lone observer's perspective out here on the Left Coast, is frankly getting slightly tired, and tawdry. Kinda takes some of the charm out of the fairly positive image of your Charm City i would have to say.

But, to be fair, as a non-local, I'll stay out of this neighborhood fracas, and let you hometown Baltimorites (?) keep at it. Why this almost predictable palaver is becoming a welcome annual rite of late spring for your fair city.

For me, there are many more burning issues of greater import and consequence to reasonably debate these days, but as i say, who am I to judge, hons?

(I wonder what your native son, director John Waters, would have to say about this whole 'hon' hullabaloo? He kind of has a dog in this fight, don't he?)

ALEX

Alex, I believe John Waters has gone on record as not being amused by the whole faux Hon biz.

People are getting cranky. I choose to blame it on the heat and humidity. Tomorrow will be a nicer day.

Odd. Baltimorebrew.com saw much the same things that The Sun did:

http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2011/06/12/honfest-2011-hot-and-hair-y-steamy-and-meme-y/