Bill Conlin on the business

Washington Post Live.

Whatever that is.

 

My favorite line:

"A sportswriter is entombed in a prolonged boyhood."

Indeed...

 

And maybe that's another reason why no tears will be shed by the readers.

boyhood
toys
toy department

You don't have to make too many jumps to get from the first to the latter. People won't cry over the loss of something they don't perceive as a "real job."

How many times have you heard people say, "Man, I can't believe you get paid to do that. They pay you to go to the games!"

That said, I still love the column.


(no offense to girls and girlhood, of course)

 

And, of course, any time a sports writer does real journalism, they throw a shit fit because, "Write about what happens on the field!"

 

It is fine for Conlin to wax about the good old days and late/great columnists, it is fine to salute those who recently lost jobs, but I completely disagree with the need to publicly lament what everyone considers the demise of newspapers. This doesn't just go for this piece, which is most eloquent, but for quite a few of these "woe is us" columns that have been written of late.

For one, why does the reader care when they have their own problems? Sports is supposed to be the escape. Second, why would you tell the reader that pretty soon we won't matter? You're encouraging your readers to give up on you.

I'm not saying to bury your head in the sand, I'm saying don't forget your getting paid to do this now. Feel bad for yourself and friends in the business on your own time, when you're on the clock give the work the best effort you can. If you want to weep, do it on your personal blog or something.

 

Dave, find me a significant newspaper that has more editorial employees (and I'm including video, audio, web, etc.) than it did 10 years ago.

 

Thank goodness for Dave Kindred, who not for the first time presents the truth in easy-to-digest (if hard-to-swallow) bites.

Two things I want to get Out There:

1) You can dismiss this if you want since the man does sign my paycheck every week, but I can't tell you how refreshing it was to hear Rupert Murdoch's speech on the State of Newspapers that was posted here a few weeks ago. Look, I am as depressed as anyone when I make my daily tour of the Obit Page (aka Romenesko), and I've had more friends than I care to think about feel the awful pinch of these troubled and troubling times. But say whatever you want about the man, he is one of the few who not only still believes in mainstream media, he puts his money where his mouth is. And this is his main point: you can wallow and whine all you want, but wallowing and whining will get you exactly nowhere. Maybe there is no way out of the death spiral, but -- and here's an idea -- MAYBE THERE IS. Find it. Get after it.

2) To whoever wondered about Dick Young's relevance: not only is Young still relevant, he should serve as a beacon for the rest of us who still work in the business. Sure, you can dismiss what Young became in hid declining years, that's fair. But understand something: It was Young who, by himself at first, single-handedly kept the sports page relevant when radio and TV came into play. Yes, he sometimes did it by taking the gloves off and whispering "f***" into some radio reporter's tape recorder, and that was bullshit. But at a time when there were just as many people whining about how TV and radio would make newspapers irrelevant, he was at the forefront of -- and here's an idea -- DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY. He started going into clubhouses. He started covering his teams with the same respect and feistiness that the best political reporters covered the state house, and the best cop reporters covered the precinct. And please don't for a second try and sell me that things are worse now: they may be DIFFERENT now, but Howard Cosell in 1965 with his microphone presented just as much of a newfound threat to the pressbox as Deadspin or Rivals or Bill Simmons does now with a laptop.

And it's worth pointing out: yes, thousands of us are getting downsized now, and it sucks. But back in the '40s and '50s and '60s, slews of newspapers went completely out of business -- 10 in NYC alone -- and that cost TENS of thousands of people jobs. With rare and unfortunate exceptions (so far at least) that hasn't been the case ... yet.

Young spearheaded a movement that kept us relevant for 40 more years; who among us will figure out what'll keep us going for the next 40?

Mike Vaccaro
New York Post

 

Ditto

 

All that is true.

But by taking a subtle jab at people who want to make a living at their occupation, who need to do so to maintain a family, a home and everything that goes along with it, I feel like Dave turned this into a character issue. A matter of "who wants it more." This is the same tripe I've been hearing for years from bean counters who refuse to give raises, who keep cutting staff - "I guess I always thought there were more important things in life than money" - and I'm frankly tired of it.

 

Waylon, what he's saying is that if you want to pursue the dream, you will find a way to make it become reality.

 

Sounds great!