Michael Specter Wins the Slate Hackathlon
The readers have voted, the
ballots have been counted, and the judges have crowned Michael Specter, a
Moscow correspondent of the New York Times , the winner of the first
Slate
Hackathlon. More than 1,400 votes were cast in the four
events. Here's the final breakdown, by percentages:
We contacted Specter to
offer our congratulations and ask how he feels about winning the first
Hackathlon. "I'm far too overwhelmed with emotion to rely on mere words," he
e-mailed back. "Also, I can't really write anything anymore unless you give me
two hours and a cheat sheet."
Specter has a reputation for
being a sore winner that he bolstered during the Hackathlon. Although he led
the contest from the beginning, he obviously took no joy in his success.
Instead, he repeatedly accused his hack protégé, Malcolm Gladwell, of cheating
by writing parody, which was prohibited under the rules, and filled the
Hackathlon referee's e-mail box with his whining.
Specter
will return next fall to defend his title against three new challengers.
Who's the fairest hack in
all of journalism? With your help, we hope to settle that question with the
first
Slate
Hackathlon.
We've invited four of our
favorite hacks to compete in four weekly journalistic events designed to
showcase journalistic glibness, intellectual sleight of hand, greed under
pressure, and a total disregard for what the rest of the world thinks.
Actually, our four contestants have already demonstrated their disdain for what
others might think by accepting the Hackathlon challenge.
Our Hackathletes are
Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker ; Hanna Rosin of the
New Republic ; Michael Specter , a Moscow correspondent for the
New York Times ; and Geoffrey Wheatcroft , author of The
Randlords and a contributor to British publications too numerous to
mention. (For more on the hack ethic, click to read Gladwell's exegesis.)
The four weekly events are:
an op-ed in the style of the New York Times (750 words or thereabouts);
a New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece (750 words or thereabouts); the
first 1,000 words of a Vanity Fair profile; and a breaking news story
(750 words or thereabouts).
The subject of their
hackwork will remain a mystery to all until the weekend of the competition,
when
Slate
will e-mail the Hackathletes the assignment and a
cheat sheet of facts, figures, and quotes from which they can crib. The cheat
sheet will be posted for readers' inspection. The Hackathletes may not make up
quotations (sorry, guys). They may take no more than two hours to complete the
assignment. They may, if they so desire, do additional research. But they
shouldn't. As a great hack once said, the essence of hackery is "adjusting a
minimum of information to produce the maximum journalistic effect." (The only
editing
Slate
has done to the pieces is a quick spell check.)
The winner of the Hackathlon
will be determined by an online vote of
Slate
's readers. Readers
may vote once in each of the four events. The Hackathlete who polls the
greatest total will be declared the winner and will return next year to face
three new challengers.
To vote you must be a
registered
Slate
reader. If you've never registered, we suggest
you do so now by clicking here. But you can always register later.
Hackathletes, to your
marks!
