Dog bites man.

Wicked, civic pride is the backbone of the whole story.
Boston got over on NY.
We're gonna send a reporter to rub it in and see how NY responds.

 

One guy wearing a Red Sox jersey is going to gauge the response of 10,000,000 people?

 

Forgive me for I am an idealist. I'm young and naive enough to critique stories on their journalistic and artistic qualities alone. Sure it was popular, and sure it probably played well with the fans, but there's my "Monday morning quarterback" opinion of it. I didn't like it regardless of how much it sold and how much profit it turned out.

Maybe "crap" is too harsh a label for it, but I am disappointed that good journalists could not think of a better angle.

 

Yeah, no crap. Maybe they glossed over the real story: one out of every 100 people even looked at the guy, and only 10% of those people even gave a crap about baseball.

Not exactly like he's strolling across the Ohio State campus decked out in Michigan gear.

 

I have many goals as a journalist, but one has never been work at a newspaper that is considered "popular." That word never even enters the equation. This isn't high school. Words like "ethical", "integrity" and "creative" do enter the equation.

Sure, a newspaper could write only stories that everyone would like, rehashing the same old crap other papers have succeeded with in the past. It would make our jobs easier and we might make more money. But if you wanted an easy job that makes money, you are in the wrong business.

I've always thought it was our job to inform AND entertain. And believe me, both can be done at the same time. What this story does is entertain. But does anyone learn anything? Yankees fans hate the Sox. HOLY SHIT! Instead of this stupid ruse, how about finding a Red Sox fan that lives in New York and how he celebrated? Or finding out what the scene was like in New York sports bars? I know these aren't groundbreaking, but at least they take a little more thought and work than just wearing a Sox hat.

 

Good or bad, this story made money on the Web. Many newspapers would be ecstatic to get those kind of hits on a 15-incher that required little budget money and reporting.

 

Bravo to Ty.

Someone finally offered some alternatives.

Pilot, no one claims the story is a scientific survey on how everyone in NY felt.

Judging by everyone's responses, I'm guessing a lot of you weren't thrilled with T.J. Simers making fun of the Nebraska folk. Same premise.

By the way, here are the latest results on The Globe's most-emailed story of the day. I agree that for the most part the masses are asses -- but judging by this, I'd say the story was a success. I don't see how you can argue otherwise. It's almost double.

956 Sneers, loathing greet a Boston fan in NYC
548 Flying high again
494 The Rolling Rally
424 Reason to celebrate
363 Photoshopping the Red Sox
296 Red Sox World Series celebration
262 Jordan's knows cost of victory full well
211 A triumphant return
189 Bistro ending its soulful reign

 

The "foof" probably did what his editor told him to do.

 

Made money? How do you figure that?

 

That would be correct.

I wouldn't consider 956 people "masses." Certainly not enough to extrapolate that hundreds of thousands of readers found it fascinating. The only thing I get from it is that roughly 1,000 people saw fit to annoy acquaintances by sending it to them -- sort of like those "You Know You're From Dubuque When ..." Or 10 people e-mailing it 100 times. Whatever. It isn't just this story, I have a problem in general with "number of hits" or "most e-mailed" trumping our news judgment.