It's amazing what passes for energy reporting today

These are direct quotes from FuelFix, Chron.com's "energy blog" that provides a majority of Oil & Gas industry coverage for an organization that fancies itself the newspaper of record in the energy capital of America.


A Beauty Queen, Scots in Kilts, OTC Virgins. Joy Sewing, Fuel Fix at Chron.com:

One of the first big parties of OTC was Monday night’s UK Energy Excellence reception at the Hilton Post Oak. OTC vets know the Brits like a good party, and OTC virgins (or newbies) are just happy to be invited.

OTC Virgins? This is what happens when someone in the editorial chain-of-command decides that it would be a good idea to treat a major O&G industry conference as a soceity event.

Julia Stewart, 25 said she holds the title of Miss North Scotland. She’s also a business development manager for Chronos Oil and Gas. This is her first visit to the United States and she’s taking it all in. On Saturday, she took a taxi to NASA and the Galleria. “I went to Victoria’s Secret and got a bikini, perfume and lip gloss. My boss bought them for me,”

Oh did he?

. If there was anyone who looked like a British model, it was Christopher Dunn, 25, of the British Consulate-General Houston. His hair impeccably coiffed, so were his brows. Blue suit, argyle socks

It's not bad enough that Chronblog is consistently scooped by out of town news outlets on local stories (see: Enron and the UA/Continental merger for examples) but, when they are there, this is the quality of business journalism that readers are told to expect?

How funny we must look.

Were this in the features Star section it would be OK, but this is planted firmly in the section that's ostensibly reserved for legitimate oil and gas industry news. Obviously no-one at Chronblog understands why this is a problem, which is why they are how they are.