1HPGrad said:
Aside from Whitley, never been a fan of that section (even when Mrs. 1HP worked at the paper). Too much fluff and chest pounding for my taste. As such, I've never bought into the Church of Hoppes and was more amused than moved by his latest sermon. Amused in the sense that it's ridiculous how important some people think they are. Doesn't he have more pressing issues inside his own building?
Agree 100 percent. Hoppes and so many other SEs need to get over themselves. They work in a subjective business where they can get away with portraying all of their own hires as "effin' studs" and all of a previous regime's hires as mediocre or worse. They sit on their asses in the office and in meetings, making decisions based on stuff they might have learned 20 years ago when they actually manned the front lines of journalism, or they go by what they hear from their pets on staff. Once in a while, they head out to an event and get shivers if someone from the team acknowledges them.
I've never met Hoppes but I've met plenty of his cronies. They love tracking the careers of those they hired along the way, as validation of how astute and influential they are -- even though, as he mentions in his li'l sermon, Carter's "career" in Tampa lasted just nine years. They typically show zero creativity for keeping mid-career journalists fresh or challenged in positive ways (or even employed), because they have NO IDEAS for that. Besides, it doesn't make them look good. They don't foster much camaraderie within their staffs, because they work in these artificial fiefdoms in which good management is defined as ripping someone's role away from him and handing it to someone else. They allow their "stars" to stomp all over the paper with their drooling pursuits of moonlighting gigs and, in their cowardice in confronting such situations, sell it to the bigger bosses by claiming synergy and cross-promotion. They erode morale by letting a hand-chosen few get all the gravy gigs, pumping them for contests and recognition, while the section largely gets produced by worker bees who get little glory.
So often, sportswriters get labeled as frustrated jocks. But SEs like Hoppes -- safe in their well-paying jobs while spouting the "rah rah" nonsense of this business -- are frustrated team captains or coaches. They actually mistake themselves as the reasons for their section's success. They either aren't interested in or aren't adept at the meat-and-potatoes of their jobs, which ought to be helping their staffers do their jobs more effectively, period. Oh and maybe, in this horrible newspaper climate, focusing more on the folks with families and derailed dreams who fought the good fight for so long and might be fed up with this "calling" blather as they search for a little job and income security.
Yeah, get all goose-bumpy over whipsawing your staff to break -- by five minutes -- the scoop of some knucklehead millionaire nose tackle telling his agent he wants to be traded. Meanwhile, fire a few staffers (probably no one you hired) and shrug at the harsh biz we're all in now. Let's go get 'em tomorrow, troops!
