Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Aug. 2 issue: Rafael Palmeiro stories
Thanks--without sarcasm--to RedEye for running the Rafael Palmeiro story where it belongs--in the Sports section. RedEye's cover story on the Atkins Diet is still inane, but at least has something to do with health and business; and today's Page 3 contains mostly news and relatively little crap.
Today it's the Tribune exaggerating the news value of an inane story. For fucking shame. Steroid use is not worth two huge, boring photos of the same guy standing motionless with the same expression, two pulled quotes, or space anywhere in the A section of any daily metro or national newspaper. Professional sports are part business, part artificial universe. The Sports section exists to cover that artificial universe. This story might be important in this context, but outside that, steroid use among professional sports players just doesn't fucking matter. I wasn't surprised when Congress began making a big deal about this, but was appalled when newspapers followed. Today, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and Trib Co.'s Orlando Sentinel are among the papers encouraging this stupid error in news judgment.
Today it's the Tribune exaggerating the news value of an inane story. For fucking shame. Steroid use is not worth two huge, boring photos of the same guy standing motionless with the same expression, two pulled quotes, or space anywhere in the A section of any daily metro or national newspaper. Professional sports are part business, part artificial universe. The Sports section exists to cover that artificial universe. This story might be important in this context, but outside that, steroid use among professional sports players just doesn't fucking matter. I wasn't surprised when Congress began making a big deal about this, but was appalled when newspapers followed. Today, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and Trib Co.'s Orlando Sentinel are among the papers encouraging this stupid error in news judgment.
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I have to say I'm not quite in agreement with you on the Palmeiro thing. While I agree that the Trib and other papers overplayed the story, I do think that sports stories with a "human" angle have a place on the front page. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, if a sports story really is news (even in a minor way), it's better to have it jump or refer from the front than to have it on, say, page 7 of the news section. The front page should provide lots of different reasons to read the paper, and when a sports story might appeal to anyone who might not read the section normally, it seems fair to consider it for the front.
As for the "artificial universe" of sports... sure, that's true, but stories like the steroids scandals touch on universal human issues outside the game (in fact, most good sports writing does this, sometimes in ways that newswriters just don't get). I think a more serious "artificial universe" we need to pay attention to is entertainment and celebrity "news." I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but there was no reason why we needed "all Jacko all the time" earlier this year (tho it wasn't nearly as bad as OJ's trial). Given the choice between the two, I'd much rather read about steroids.
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As for the "artificial universe" of sports... sure, that's true, but stories like the steroids scandals touch on universal human issues outside the game (in fact, most good sports writing does this, sometimes in ways that newswriters just don't get). I think a more serious "artificial universe" we need to pay attention to is entertainment and celebrity "news." I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but there was no reason why we needed "all Jacko all the time" earlier this year (tho it wasn't nearly as bad as OJ's trial). Given the choice between the two, I'd much rather read about steroids.
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