Today in "Why Detroit Can't Have Nice Things:" one Detroit newspaper caught a writer for another Detroit newspaper tagging up a brand new bridge—which was, by definition, the nicest thing in Detroit. Allow us to defend her crime!

Oneita Jackson is a copy editor and blogger at the Detroit Free Press, where, she says, "I make a living running my big mouth telling people how they should behave." She just tagged up a bench on the brand new bridge because it was cool, and everyone else was doing it. What were the chances some videographer from the Detroit News Michigan DOT would be walking by at that exact moment? Oneita, it's okay; consider the following defenses.

1. Tagging is cool.
2. Everybody else was doing it.
3. Your apology was actually a model of forthrightness, and will make everyone like you more.
4. Plus it got 577 comments and counting! That's money in the bank.
5. You're all up on the blogs—which is the purpose of newspaper journalism, in 2010.

Tagging= Fame. So don't feel too guilty, Oneita. Just come up with a more subtle tag than "Oneita Jackson."

[Via Romenesko]