Sports Copy Editor / Reporter, Lincoln, Neb.

I think it was Pete Gillen who called Lincoln "Siberia with 7-Eleven's," but I have a sister that lives there and likes it a lot.

 

Homer horseshit. I am amazed at the number of people in this trade who feel like you've got to be adversarial to be objective.

First, you are writing as a voice of the fan, or an extension of them. What I mean is they are reading what you see from a fan's perspective, so you better be able to articulate that. And besides, how many fans out there don't have a love/hate relationship with their teams? If they suck, they expect you to say that. If they win, they'll know it by how you write.

Look at Jim Reeves' column today in the Fort Worth Star Telegram on the Dallas-Seattle game and tell me there's something wrong with that, written from the pain that any Cowboys' fan felt.


Maybe this hijacks the thread and should be moved as a general comment to sports and news or journalism issues; if so, fine. But bullshit on the embarrassment over such a comment in an ad.


http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/columnists/jim_reeves/16404522.htm

 

ZERO need. This is when you tell the HR department to STFU and let you write your own job advertisements.

 

Couldn’t agree with you more. Any professional knows this ad is embarassing.

 

Agreed about the "Go Huskers." But sports editor John Mabry is a great guy and a top-notch professional. They've got a solid beat guy in Steve Sipple and one of the best young designers in Clark Grell. The paper aggressively pursues news stories about the Cornhuskers and competes head-on with Omaha. It's definitely worth looking past the amateurish homer ad.

 

Good to see John Mabry landed on his feet after that God-awful season he had with the Cubs last year.

 

I promise you some HR type threw that in there without even realizing what grumpy sportswriters would think. I worked at a college-town newspaper for six years and outgoing fanboys of the local college existed all across the newsroom except in sports. It didn't -- not one time -- affect what we did in sports.

To get hung up on that for more than 10 seconds isn't worth it.

As far as Lincoln goes (no I never worked there), the section more than holds its own against Omaha, the chief competition. The design is pretty fresh, writing is pretty good, they update their web site A LOT, throwing up stories mid-day to compete with rivals, etc. And they staff the holy hell out of Husker games.

I don't know much more than that.

 

lyman - good to see you've taken time off in your quest to vote for bush for a third time in the 2004 election. i know you are a busy man ... thanks for stopping by.

 

The polls are still open, from what I understand.

 

Vote early, vote often.

Lincoln didn't look like much of a town when I went through it, but the moral of this story is don't judge Lincoln by what's along US 6.

 

Lincoln's cool. The university does add some culture, aside from Nebraska football. Route 6 isn't a good indicator of what it has.

And Omaha is very nice, and only an hour away (if that).