The invasion of the sports section

Our centerpiece was 40-inch story from inside the chain on the sacrifice these guys do to their bodies. Figured that was athletic, and therefore sports.
We did ask features if they wanted it, but the editor works so far ahead he probably would get it in two months from now.

 

People would probably be interested in an Alyssa Milano blog or guest column once a week. Because of her apparent interest in baseball, it could be a real talker, and it's just as "directly related" to sports as pro wrestling. Would we want to go there? And if Paris Hilton were to start serial dating ballpayers, I'd imagine people would be talking about her. That would draw interest. Would it merit space in the sports section?

Every paper has to set its own parameters. If you think "Pro wrestlers are entertaining a lot of people with a popular but choreographed faux version of a real sport, and they use steroids, and people in real sports use steroids, so we should cover this in sports," then you've perhaps not taken the shortest route connecting point A to point Z.

Good writing could connect the two, but do these kinds of things poorly and you've put your daily news judgments about story placement in your sports section at the top of a very slippery slope.

 

If Alyssa Milano offered to blog on baseball for your newspaper and you didn't put it on your website, I'd say you were crazy.

This business is already on a slippery slope, in case you haven't noticed.

 

I've noticed.

 

It makes me mad that a man who was so respected among wrestling fans for his work in the ring will never be known for that. Instead he'll forever be known in the mainstream as the wrestler who killed his family.

When I think of Benoit, I'll fondly recall his great matches and moments over the last 15-plus years. And they are numerous. But then I'll remember what he did. And I hate that such a senseless, stupid act has ruined my memories of him.

Of course I hate that two innocent lives were taken. But the selfish side of me, the wrestling fan in me to a much lesser degree hates how he ruined some of my fondest memories of him.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/07/01/0702benoit.html

 

That was really selfish of that wrestler to ruin fans memories of him and all.

Hey, Charlie Manson was a riot, too, before all that unpleasantness.

 

Sorry, I don't buy that. Competitive eating and poker are not sports. They don't even remotely resemble sports. Frankly, I resent ESPN trying to shove them down the viewer's throats AS sports.

Competitive eating isn't anything but a quirky little "news of the weird" feature if it even belongs in the paper at all. Poker definitely doesn't belong in the paper.

 

I'll admit I watched the hot dog eating contest and loved it for what it was, mindless entertainment. I was also a big fan of Jackass, but would never call what those guys do a sport.

I think the biggest problem is that if someone sees it on ESPN, even though they defend by tooth and nail that E=Entertainment, that it has to be in the sports section. I definitely understand going by what the reader wants, but what if ESPN shows the World Championship of Kicks to the Crotch? Do we put it in just because it was on ESPN and the reader expects it to be in sports?

 

If it's not the A1 centerpiece, I don't want to read your paper anymore.