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Thursday, August 09, 2007

Home Runs and Front Pages

David Elstein of Durham wonders why The N&O put on the front page today a Barry Bonds story that looked not at his record-setting home run but at the broader issue of drug cheating in sports. The game story was on the sports front.

“The A1 article by (Luke) Decock could have been written weeks ago in anticipation of this event, and I don’t think it’s fair to the readers,” Elstein wrote.

Sports Editor Sherry Johnson has a good response to that query: “The reader is right in that the 1A story was planned and prepared well in advance with an eye toward engaging and informing the general population about Bonds breaking the record, those readers who aren’t passionate about the sport itself but interested in the significance and nuances of the event.

I know that celebrity obituaries are often written in advance, but holding an article until 756?

Paul Posted: August 09, 2007 at 02:35 PM | 6 comment(s)
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1. John Lynch Posted: August 09, 2007 at 04:15 PM (#2479259)

The sports story told people what happened. The front-page story told them why they should care.

Somewhere in the course of human history, journalists got the idea that I should be told by them why I should care about something. I hate that crap.

2. too fat and ugly to play third Posted: August 09, 2007 at 04:20 PM (#2479273)

It's better if you pretend David Eckstein wrote the letter.

3. Mike Emeigh Posted: August 09, 2007 at 04:23 PM (#2479281)

DeCock story to which the article refers.

I think the quote from Bill James that appears in the original article nails it:

Records, James wrote in an e-mail message, shouldn't be cloaked in nostalgia.

"Records last awhile; then somebody breaks them," James wrote. "Athletes will use any resource available to them to break the records. It's always been that way. There has never been any time when the world of records was pure and simple."

-- MWE

4. Jolly Old St. Nick (now, with Screen Name history) Posted: August 09, 2007 at 04:38 PM (#2479296)

Somewhere in the course of human history, journalists got the idea that I should be told by them why I should care about something.

Then I guess you'd better never read another newspaper, turn on another radio or TV, or open another website, because unless you own any of these entities yourself, you're always going to be seeing or hearing stories or opinions that somebody other than yourself thinks that you should care about. Are they going to print stories that they don't think you should care about? Would you, if you owned that paper?

5. I am Ted F'ing Williams Posted: August 09, 2007 at 05:26 PM (#2479357)

those readers who aren’t passionate about the sport itself but interested in the significance and nuances of the event.

It makes no sense that someone who has no passion for the sport would be interested in its nuances.

6. Loren F.'s well-anchored glenoid Posted: August 09, 2007 at 05:33 PM (#2479367)

Well, Bonds's 756th HR was a big deal. So people who don't follow baseball passionately but are interested in the general zeitgeist -- what their colleagues will be discussing around the proverbial water cooler, be it the death of Ingmar Bergman, the last Harry Potter book, etc. -- might be interested in the story.

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