TBL talks to Karen Crouse

Ah, no. Not unless Karen was aiming for a cloying, clueless, upper class preppy geek, brawny lads frolicking on a greensward tone. Which I kinda doubt.

And again, for my money, if you can get Laverneous Coles to tell you he was sexually abused, you have a free pass to "miss" about umpteen dozen "scoops" about how somebody's signing bonus was actually $11.2 million instead of $11.6 million.

 

A-fucking-men.

 

I don't understand, especially in these times, any argument that suggests newspapers should be filled with stories that readers can get elsewhere, only more quickly and for free.

Newspapers need to differentiate their product. If I'm a Jetshead, I know the nuts and bolts before Karen's story is even filed, let alone on my doorstep. I'd rather get from her something I can't get anywhere else -- like the Coles story. That's what will keep people reading newspapers: giving them stuff they're not getting anywhere else.

 

Nice post, Jones, but I already read that on espn.com.

 

Honest to God newspapers need two beat writers on every beat - the breaking news/Web guy/gal and the next day in-depth guy/gal.

 

That is all well and good but the question remains-- If Karen's work on Jet's beat was so great and groundbreaking for 2006 why was she not the Jet beat writer for 2007 ?

I still don't understand why The Times could not have given the readers both the features of Karen and the nuts and bolts. It's how they cover the Yankees - Tyler Kepner does the nuts and bolts and Jack Curry does mostly features.

 

Simple answer: Because the Jets aren't the Yankees in NYC.

You know, Greg Bishop isn't exactly your classic beat writer, either. I'm not sure if he ever had a pro beat before this one. He was strictly enterprise/projects at the Seattle Times. Looks like they use the Jets beat as a starter NYT beat, then move people off of it pretty quickly.

 

I dunno, Boom. I wrote the Blue Jays beat the way she did the Jets, and I lasted two years on it. I just moved on. Probably true for her, too.

I don't disagree with you that ideally, you give your readers both. BUT, if you were going to give them one or the other, I'd want good features every time, maybe with a rock-solid notebook type thing to take care of the day-to-day news. I think that's how I'd approach it.

 

Because any beat position is really a slop position. sausage-making.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I helped her out with a story years back--an asshole coach stiffed her (I was there for that), so I shot her a couple of quotes after I button-holed him. No sweat off my, uh, back. Non-competitive deal. I had never met her before, hadn't said two words to her. I just thought the coach was way out of line. (Okay, Ron Wilson, if you have to know.) Most people would thank you and move on and forget your name ten minutes later. A week letter I got a note in the mail (yes, this story is that old), a thank-you. I'm hard-pressed to think of someone else who'd do that. It's not that she isn't arrogant. She's almost too kind to be in the business. Thankfully, she has so much talent for a certain type of hard-to-get, hard-to-do story that she can drown out all the jerks yelling at the top of their voices. Her lofty position save her eardrums wear and tear from the braying of those beneath her. (BTW: How many here are former scholarship athletes? Maybe that's the reason for the envy.)

YD&OHS, etc

 

A much better-worded recollection of my experiences with her, too.

 

You truly are a friend of the friendless, FOF!