The Sporting News

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by HatterDon, Jul 2, 2007.

  1. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    Rant alert!

    The last time I renewed my subscription to American Heritage, I was offered a free subscription to one of several publications. Although none of them interested me, I accepted one to The Sporting News.

    Now, at one time, The Sporting News was known as "The Baseball Bible." it was a thick, tabloid-size weekly newspaper that had extensive and exhaustive coverage of baseball only -- major and minor leagues -- to the extent that each week's edition carried not only all the major league box scores but also those of all the AAA leagues, and line scores of games in the lower minors. Intersperesed in all of this was writing from top baseball columnists in all the major league cities, as well as extensive coverage of each major league team's talent in development, along with good coverage of college baseball.

    From about the age of 10, I saved my pennies to buy Mad Magazine and The Sporting News every time they came out-- reading them both from cover to cover. When I joined the Air Force in 1964, my father bought me a subscription that I kept for almost 10 years. It was a way to keep up with baseball from places like England and Vietnam. I finally cancelled it when [a] it started covering other sports, stopped providing performance statistics and box scores so that there'd be more coverage of excessive salaries and drug abuse [cocaine and marijuana in those days], and [c] when I got rid of most of the habits in my life that cost money and only served to distract me.

    All that's prologue to the rant. I just finished my first edition of The Sporting News in over 30 years and I'm stunned. The longest article is one page. Most "articles" are one to two paragraphs, and they all have the tone of two wise-asses trying to make up cute jokes -- "the Mets dropped a three-game series to the Phillies last week; guess they'll try to sign EVERY RELIEF PITCHER IN BASEBALL NOW." There's no "news" involved in it. It makes Entertainment Weekly look like Foreign Policy and People look like the New Yorker.

    It's nice and glossy though. What a come down. No wonder we're becoming increasingly functionally illiterate in this country. :twisted:

    Boring-old-guy rant over.
     
    #1
    HatterDon, Jul 2, 2007
  2. Team_of_McBrides

    Team_of_McBrides New Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2007
    Don't like the superficial glitz and glam of sports writers today... It seems more writers are interested in thrashing the players/sport they cover than actually reporting news.

    I place a fair amount of blame for this development on ESPN, but other media outlets have caught onto this fad as well...
     
    #2
    Team_of_McBrides, Jul 2, 2007
  3. timmyg

    timmyg Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2006
    its a pity, but its called tabloidization. remove the actual content and make it look nice - tsn is no different.

    practically all newspapers will become rags in the (near) future. i'm currently interning at a paper and i gotta say - i cant wait to get older!

    have you ever read fourfourtwo though? i'm told thats really good, although not about baseball.
     
    #3
    timmyg, Jul 2, 2007
  4. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    Blame it on whoever you like... the average person has no 'need' to get to the why's and wherefor's, we used to see in journalism. Most say this started with USA Today.. but it started before that.

    If we wanted to see real 'in-depth' reporting we had to read weeklies or the Wall Street Journal.

    The most laughable example of the dumbing down in reporting, though, is local radio news.

    How about the hourly news breaks where the jingo is 'IN-DEPTH Team Reporting' where we get an additional two sentences on the subject.
     
    #4
    pettyfog, Jul 2, 2007
  5. jmh

    jmh New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Re: RE: The Sporting News

    I would've said ESPN.
     
    #5
    jmh, Jul 2, 2007
  6. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    RE: Re: RE: The Sporting News

    I think ESPN does what people want to see and hear ... if you actually measured the time they spent on a subject, I think you'll find it's more than you think but you also have to consider they are covering all sports.

    If you want more time spent on YOUR favorites... then just wait a year or so... example there is just now a 'Big Ten' networks which is going to cover everything in the Big Ten, originally produced in HD and running 24/7
     
    #6
    pettyfog, Jul 2, 2007
  7. Team_of_McBrides

    Team_of_McBrides New Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2007
    RE: Re: RE: The Sporting News

    I must admit I have been sucked in by the whitty reporting of ESPN commentators and journalists, but it seems to have gone overboard. Moderation after all is the key to happiness...or so I am told.
     
    #7
    Team_of_McBrides, Jul 2, 2007
  8. phillybiz

    phillybiz New Member

    Joined:
    May 8, 2007
    Location:
    Arcata, California
    Absolutely loved the sporting news as a kid. My Aunt bought me a subscription. I think Jim Palmer was on the cover for some reason. It had to be better back then. I think baseball in general was better. Mel Allen still did this week in baseball and Pete Rose was still playing. Talk Radio is a major culprit for the demise of print media. It's fast and easy, and most americans these days love nothing better. Wether it's food, women, or sports. However, there's still some good columnists out there. Bill Conlin, Bill Madden, and Bob Ryan to name a few. But sadly it's a dying breed. Just like listening Jack Buck, Harry Kalas, or Vin Scully on the radio. Now they cram ego hungry morons like Berman down your throat. Well, that's my rant.
     
    #8
    phillybiz, Jul 2, 2007
  9. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    RE: Re: RE: The Sporting News

    My only complaint about ESPN is the ESPN2 business hours coverage. ... if you're working at home or have days off, you cant expect to see 'all fresh' coverage on there... even Mike & mike starts to repeat itself after a couple of hours... but then, that's the format. They dont expect camp-on viewers or listeners.
     
    #9
    pettyfog, Jul 2, 2007
  10. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    'fog. I don't blame USA Today for the decline. I do a lot of traveling, and I think it's better than 85% of local newspapers out there -- maybe more.

    I think the downfall in all print came about with People Magazine. There was barely enough for Walter Scott to put in his one page "Personality Parades" in Parade Sunday supplement. When it came out as a complete magazine, I laughed. When its circulation exceeded the three major newsweeklies I coughed.

    There is a perception that there's a niche out there for everyone in magazine world except, obviously, people who'd like something intelligent and thoughtful to read in any genre.

    Most American magazines suck in comparison to their elder generations. I didn't expect to see the best sports columnists in every city in TSN like what was the case at one time. I just wasn't expecting a magazine that not only didn't attempt to commit any journalism, but that absolutely reveled in the fact that this will never be their aim!

    As for ESPN, I'll grant you that SportsCenter isn't what it was, but they do make serious attempts at television journalism. You see more investigative reporting on an episode of Outside the Lines than you'll see in a season of 60 Minutes . It isn't as substantive as HBO's sports documentaries and Bryant Gumble's video magazine, but it's better than anything else out there. My problem with ESPN is in the games they cover. They have to realize that they aren't a local New England based station, and that it's okay to show someone other than the Yankees, RedSox, and Mets.

    Okay; perhaps my rant wasn't over! :oops:
     
    #10
    HatterDon, Jul 2, 2007
  11. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    Yeah...more SPURS.. or is it as Chris Walken said 'More Cowbell!'

    Sorry ... I cadged that from the bigsucker crew forum
     
    #11
    pettyfog, Jul 2, 2007
  12. martin

    martin New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 10, 2005
    One reason why The Sporting News changed is because the info they used to be good at providing - stats & results from all levels of pro baseball - is available elsewhere, usually free and in real time. You can get live baseball stats, updated on a pitch-by-pitch basis, at mlb.com. A week-old stats digest is not news anymore.
     
    #12
    martin, Jul 2, 2007
  13. Team_of_McBrides

    Team_of_McBrides New Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2007
    Valid point martin. They had to adapt the magazine to keep the readers interested. So technology is to blame... ;)
     
    #13
    Team_of_McBrides, Jul 2, 2007
  14. Spencer

    Spencer Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2005
    What gets me is papers trying to emulate blogs and tabloids. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis is a perfect example of that. There are things newspapers do well and they need to stick to those things. By running a page everyday which is a week emulation of whats in People your not going to capture the audience who read People but you are going to alienate your core readers.

    I read the Pioneer Press everyday because I want to know whats going on here in my city. I want to know about the mayor pushing out the fire chief, the school boards shenanigans, the latest 14 year old who's gone and shot another 14 year old on the bus. These are things I can't read about anywhere else. But all to often their coverage of said events is weak, shallow. They run their stupid celeb sh!t and tons of wire. That's all information I can get in other places, and those other sources do alot better job of it to. When I want national, international I'm going to read NY Times or Wall Street Journal, not wire in the PiPress.

    But the most worrying thing to me is that people are ignorant and have no desire to be otherwise. I'm captivated by what goes on in the world, why things are the way they are(thats sounds corny I know, but its true), but god it seems everyone else around particularly in and around my age aswell as people far older just can't be bothered. They simply don't care, find no reason to pick up a paper or book of any description. "Its too depressing". Its easy to say its worse in this regard then it was but I have nothing to base it off, you old farts would have to chime in on what it was like in your day. I do know that what I see now is NOT good, very worrying.
     
    #14
    Spencer, Jul 2, 2007
  15. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    Good for you, dont stop thinking that way. What the journo schools used to teach was who what where when and why... about 30 years ago they dropped background which fitted the 'why'

    Now the 'why' is served by some who word stories so that their views are served by implication.
     
    #15
    pettyfog, Jul 2, 2007
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