As David Carr pointed out, the strengths of “Brussels Sprouts Journalism” include its concentrated power working in one direction. The Texas Tribune did not cover the Fort Hood story, because while it was breaking news, and they were so close, it wasn’t theirs. The team has a job to do: to inform the public about about prominent political events in Texas. They are a niche, and that means having one focus, and there is definitely a positive effect of such a newspaper. Their job is to be concise, informative, and responsible in their reports about political affairs in the government. Additionally, when people know of the sites existence, they will visit to enhance their knowledge about politics. Sure, they are not a main news source, but Texans have regular newspapers for that.
I don’t know that David Carr includes enough background in the story, but he does have a lot of quotes. Even so, the article is not well rounded, because it only describes the Texas Tribune, rather than bringing up other examples of similar start-ups.
Leaving out the first paragraph about Fort Hood, I think that this article is almost a type of press release for a web site. Carr could have included other people’s opinions, other than the ones that worked in the Texas Tribune. Yes, there is a bias in Carr’s reporting in this piece.