TJ Simers on changes in Los Angeles Times sports section going into effect Monday

It wasn't just one person who wrote the story, it was two -- their beat writer and their national college enterprise writer.

 

Look at LAT sports leadership. Does the background of anyone there strike you as having a line in her or his resume that reads, "Capable of playing the bad cop when fundamental expectations aren't met"?

 

Yes. And if I’m not mistaken, one or both of those reporters were part of the investigation that got the previous AD to resign.

Now *that* story is one that a plugged in local media is designed to break.

 

It takes a good bit of - something - to try and narrow down the universe of possible choices for an athletic director. That goes double for USC, which is less than a decade removed from plucking Lynn Swann out of the ether and giving him the big chair.

 

There is plenty of sports writing thanks to the internet, some of which might be both factually accurate and grammatically correct. But is there more good sports reporting?

 

Writing

Reporting

Not the same thing.

 

Good question.

Post-Moneyball, I think there's a great deal more analysis. Of what value and to whom I cannot say.

Over the past decade, I think we've lost clubhouse access, but the truth is we weren't doing enough with it when we had it. So now we're stuck with whatever fake postgame press conference PR departments stage for us.

With the exception of the big outlets covering the big leagues, it feels like things have gotten pretty thin at the beat level.

Of bonus pieces and longer features, let a thousand Lieblings bloom.

 

I don’t have an ideal place to stick this, but I think it speaks to AL.com’s attitude of “imagine writing for a houseplant, then deduct 10 percent.”

https://www.al.com/news/2023/09/lab...ay-how-is-it-different-than-memorial-day.html

 

Do they have a "Ten Best Labor Day Activities!" story and will they have a Readers Say followup?

 

I think there was a separate on “Is Starbucks open?”

 

Need to work on the van redesign, pronto ...

 

Wanted to circle back to this and underline the kinds of stuff national media do now



So here's a little report on the KU QB being available for Friday's game. I assume the reporter just texted the HC, or whatever, cites it as a "source" and goes along their day. Or that the source is the ESPN broadcast team that talked to the HC this week.

Here's the question: Can a local reporter easily get this confirmation from the coach without the coach thinking he's picking and choosing among the local media? There's nothing to gain for the coach in doing a local reporter a favor; there could be, in theory, something to gain from a national reporter.