WHITLOCK - Newspapers are key to democracy

[Hammock Parties]

Run for mayor, yo!

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/col...ry/946541.html

People keep asking me what’s next now that King Carl Peterson has been stripped of his throne.

The answer is simple. You don’t understand this column if you believe the hunt for Peterson drove the content here. King Carl was a handy foil, not the focus.

His demise, however, has caused me to reflect about the industry I love.

Somewhere along my sophomore year of college, being a big-city newspaper columnist became my singular, professional obsession, replacing my childhood fantasy of playing in the National Football League.

My teammates would trace the career change to the spot on the bench my already-ample butt warmed along the sideline my re-redshirt year. They’re probably right. The humiliation of that second season sparked an intellectual awakening and evolution. It caused me to define myself beyond football.

I needed an identity. Journalist/columnist/entertainer/provocateur fit my personality rather nicely. They were the titles/characteristics that made my writing hero, Mike Royko, the best newspaper columnist of all time.

Perhaps it’s an embarrassing admission revealing the immaturity of my personal life, but I must admit I’ve known no greater passion than my infatuation with being a relevant newspaper columnist. It consumes me.

And now I’m scared.

The conventional wisdom is that newspapers are dying. We’re slashing employees, young people allegedly ignore us and what we report and say somehow matters less. A major newspaper in New York recently eliminated the sports columnist position. The two newspapers in Detroit announced last week they’re soon only going to offer home delivery three days a week.

We’re all hurting in this economy. The pain we feel at The Star when our valued colleagues are let go is no different from the pain you feel when a friend or loved one is laid off at Sprint, Hallmark or Ford.

But I want you to consider something when you think about the future of newspapers:

You can’t have a democracy without us. If newspapers are dying, so is our system of government.

That is not written as a plea to buy our product. It’s written as a plea for you to understand you have a stake in the newspaper industry. It’s written as a plea for you to value and seek good, reliable, challenging and thought-provoking information.

If you do those things, newspapers will survive the troubled economy and rebound with a product that makes sense in the instant-information age. Our democracy depends on it.

That probably sounds ridiculously self-important coming from a sportswriter. The conceit does not diminish the truthfulness.

Let me explain with a short story.

On the same day that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt relieved Peterson of his responsibilities as president/CEO/general manager, my alma mater, Ball State, officially announced that its football coach, Brady Hoke, had accepted a job at San Diego State.

Y’all know I love Ball State. I was insanely distracted on Monday when Peterson was chopped.

My mother, who lives in Indianapolis, called me to gossip about the news. She’d heard on her television evening newscast that Hoke left Ball State because the Aztecs offered $300,000 more than BSU. She repeated this bit of information to me, and I chuckled in a twist of amusement and disbelief.

Since late September, I had worked feverishly trying to get the Ball State administration, Indiana print and broadcast media and the school’s boosters to grasp that Hoke would have no choice but to leave if the school failed to invest in his assistant-coaching staff and coaching facilities.

I pegged my Cardinals as BCS-bowl threats during the offseason and realized that the school’s non-support of the program the previous five years would make Hoke, a BSU alumnus, tempted to leave.

The school’s president and athletic director — the Mickey and Mouse of Division I athletics — baited Hoke to depart by offering him a new contract that included no improvements for his assistants. It was an offer he had to refuse, and they knew it. After a 12-1 season that saw the Cardinals ranked in the top 25 most of the year, Hoke’s best assistants were candidates for other jobs. Already some of the lowest-paid assistants in their conference, they were not inclined to stick around for no new money. Hoke’s foundation at Ball State would be undermined. He had to go.

You can only find that kind of context in properly staffed, well-funded newspapers committed to journalism. We’re losing that. The Indianapolis newspaper no longer has a reporter to cover Ball State. The newspaper in Muncie, where BSU is located, has no competition and little incentive to dig for news. The real story that precipitated Hoke’s departure was never told.

It’s not good that we have fewer journalists scratching for the truth.

We can’t govern fairly without substantive information. Never give up on newspapers. We’re more worthy of a bailout than the jokers on Wall Street.

[Extra Point]

If they keep the inferences and opinions in the editorial section, they'd be alright. Some of the reporters actually do objective reporting, like Dillon on the topics of ag vs. environment. If they stick to nuts and bolts journalism, great.

Kent Babb and David Boyce are the only sports journalists on the Star's payroll. I'd love to see Teicher or Candace what's-her-name go prior to either.

[mikey23545]

Yeah, Jason Whitlock and the founding fathers just go together....

[triple]

Originally Posted by Claythan

That is not written as a plea to buy our product. It’s written as a plea for you to understand you have a stake in the newspaper industry. It’s written as a plea for you to value and seek good, reliable, challenging and thought-provoking information.

It's too bad that in recent years those who write the information have earned themselves a reputation for bias and for reporting only in ways that fit their own agenda.

Newspapers are migrating to an online format, that was inevitable. There's more to it though.

People don't trust the "old media" - at least not nearly in the numbers or in the degree of confidence that they once did. And it's a reputation that is well deserved. The old media has earned it.

[tmax63]

Major print media and TV has earned a new reputation for bias and lost the trust of the "old media". Since the internet has arose people can look for more news, less bias or at least bias in the direction they want. All for the cost of internet service instead of a subscription.

[hawkchief]

I have no pity for any of the "news" outlets, print or otherwise that are failing somewhat due to their transparent liberal bias. While there are other factors working against them, i.e. the internet, most have sped up the process of their death by spewing their liberally-biased political opinion for years, and many people are fed up with it.

Rather than having fewer "journalists", "scratching for the truth", as Whitlock so selfishly laments, the Star and most other major newspapers, like the major network news, outlets have become shills for the Democratic Party. There is nothing more predictable than guessing the Star, NY Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune etc, etc, are in support of liberal agendas across the board any time any election comes around.

I laughed out loud when Whitlock complains that we need newspapers to preserve our democracy, when they have done so much to fragment it, in their own efforts to sway our country to the left. I have zero pity for him, the Star, NBC, CBS, ABC etc. They are getting their just desserts.

[triple]

Originally Posted by hawkchief

I laughed out loud when Whitlock complains that we need newspapers to preserve our democracy, when they have done so much to fragment it, in their own efforts to sway our country to the left. I have zero pity for him, the Star, NBC, CBS, ABC etc. They are getting their just desserts.

precisely...

these people complain that without newspapers, we won't have anywhere to get information. but we lost that several miles back. they stopped giving us information long before my era.

now they give us boilerplate, biased opinion, and are practically just PR newswires for the candidates and agendas of their choice. what you find in the mainstream media that isn't political agenda-pushing is just sensationalism.

the days of virtuous journalism are gone. newspapers are what only tabloids would have dared be not long ago

[DJ's left nut]

Newspapers have been 'making' news for the better part of the last 15 years (arguably longer than that).

Simply put: Democracy has moved beyond the newspaper. When we want news, we can generally find it in a more pure format somewhere online, rather than have to sift through the filter of a pack of ideological editors who feel the need to spoonfeed their version of the news to the masses.

The last electoral cycle did more to show how useless the newspapers have become than I thought possible. It really was a sickening display. These fossilized institutions can't die out fast enough as far as I'm concerned.

[Adept Havelock]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Wouldn't it be great if Clark could fire Whitlock as well?

Yep. Can he fire Athan first?

As for those bemoaning "partisan" newspapers, in this country Newspapers have almost always been partisan. All the way back to the earliest broadsheets of Colonial times. There's nothing new about "editorial" content bleeding over into the rest of the paper. Hearst's "Yellow Journalism" ring a bell?

The myth of the "non-partisan" press of a bygone era is just that...a myth.

[64 Chief]

I will never spend another dime on a newspaper to read their political biases. Fatlock is as bad as any of the writers in trying to insert his liberal spin as sports' commentary. Long live Drudge and Lucianne.com. The last election was the final nail in the coffin of newspapers' objectivity. America will be better off without you. Get a real job producing something of value to fellow citizens.

[JuicesFlowing]

Originally Posted by Claythan

Run for mayor, yo!

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/col...ry/946541.html



Somewhere along my sophomore year of college, being a big-city newspaper columnist became my singular, professional obsession, replacing my childhood fantasy of playing in the National Football League.

Can he block on the right side?

[hawkchief]

Originally Posted by Adept Havelock

Yep. Can he fire Athan first?

As for those bemoaning "partisan" newspapers, in this country Newspapers have almost always been partisan. All the way back to the earliest broadsheets of Colonial times. There's nothing new about "editorial" content bleeding over into the rest of the paper. Hearst's "Yellow Journalism" ring a bell?

The myth of the "non-partisan" press of a bygone era is just that...a myth.

Probably right, and it's taken the proliferation of more real news outlets on the internet and cable TV to fully expose just how slanted the mainstream media is in the U.S. It completely disgusts me how many people are constantly spoon-fed the left wing agenda by these groups and disturbing how many of our citizens are stupid enough to consume it as legitimate information.

It's no wonder douchebags like Al Franken can get elected to positions of influence in our country.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Originally Posted by 64 Chief

I will never spend another dime on a newspaper to read their political biases. Fatlock is as bad as any of the writers in trying to insert his liberal spin as sports' commentary. Long live Drudge and Lucianne.com. The last election was the final nail in the coffin of newspapers' objectivity. America will be better off without you. Get a real job producing something of value to fellow citizens.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Print is dead.