Ask Tom Jolly

Is this Scott Newman?

 

It's a shame you keep thumping this drum when it simply isn't true.

 

Perhaps for you since you seem to prefer Lifetime channel style football coverage, but for the majority it was a disaster.

Again if it was so great why did the Times pull her off the beat?

BTW - this was not just my opinion. You may recall that some of the finest football writers of our time weighed in with the same opinion.

 

Ben, it's not the deep pockets, it's the Times going for reporters of modest experience. You telling me the Times can't find top-notch people in their 30s, who might be a little more committed to newspaper traditions and might view a job there more as a brass ring than a stepping stone? If the Times is hiring people 2-3 years out of college, then the quality of journalism overall is at an all-time low and any notion of a farm system -- earning a shot, making mistakes in the minors -- is history. Just another disincentive for people to pay dues or consider a future in this industry.

I guess I don't understand the Times' urge to "discover" stars, when it can simply wait a few years, see if they're still good and pluck them then from secondary markets. It was that thinking, fundamentally, that led to the Jayson Blair fiasco.

 

The Times did not "pull her off the beat" and no matter how many times you say that, it doesn't make it so. Karen is an incredibly talented feature writer, and she is also one of the Times most essential and indispensable Olympic writers. Wouldn't have made much sense for her to continue to focus on the Jets when she had to produce an enormous amount of copy about the Olympics.

She's essentially a national NFL person now and a GA. I'm always curious as to exactly how much you understand our business Boom, but let me point out that if you're a creative person, it's a lot more fun to be a GA than it is strictly a beat person. And those positions are usually more coveted. So your suggestion that she was somehow demoted shows a serious misunderstanding of the way life in a newsroom works.

 

Have no understanding of the workings of your business other that what 21 shares with me or what I have gleaned here at sj.

I do understand the difference between good and bad sports writing from over 40 years of reading .

Agree that Karen is a fine writer - but not for a Pro football beat.

 

Again, it depends on the audience.

 

But why would you cover the Jets one way and The Giants another. It's not two different audiences.

 

Continue to maintain that if Howell Raines isn't there, Jayson Blair (specifically), doesn't happen . . .

 

When did this become the "Ask Boom" thread?

 

Let's ask Tom Jolly.