Newsday sports: Don't worry, be happy

[GuessWho]

Sorry if a db.

http://www.observer.com/2010/media/newsdays-sports-page-its-all-good

 

[Ben_Hecht]

You sorta suspected that if and when a story like this came down the pike,
the paper in question was odds-on to be the subject, under its current
ownership.

Stay away, LBJ. Stay FAR away.

 

[slappy4428]

This fluffy policy is so in Ray Barone's wheelhouse...

 

[Dr. Howard]

Another once-great paper that will ruin any fish it wraps. Big ups to Wally Matthews for telling them to stick it. Dumbing it down is one thing (and not a good one). Dulling it down is another. Sounds like USA TODAY, where they prefer columns that have no opinion. Unless it is a really stupid opinion about women in sports from Aunt B. Imagine Newsday covering WW II: "American troops today liberated a place where Germans weren't nice to a lot of Jews and didn't feed them perhaps as well as they should have."

 

[RickStain]

Another once-great paper that will ruin any fish it wraps. Big ups to Wally Matthews for telling them to stick it. Dumbing it down is one thing (and not a good one). Dulling it down is another. Sounds like USA TODAY, where they prefer columns that have no opinion. Unless it is a really stupid opinion about women in sports from Aunt B. Imagine Newsday covering WW II: "American troops today liberated a place where Germans weren't nice to a lot of Jews and didn't feed them perhaps as well as they should have."

Sports isn't news.

*ducks and runs*

 

[Drip]

I love the classy way Wally Matthews ends the story. Sweeeeet.

 

[wallace_matthews]

Drip, I'm sure you know that I didn't end the story with that quote, the writer did. It was something said over the course of a long interview, and frankly, I'm sure at some point I said worse than that. Would I have chosen for the story to end that way? Of course not. But far be it from me to tell a writer how to write his story, anymore than I would want anyone else to tell me how to write mine. Which, of course, is what all this is about.

 

[cranberry]

Nowhere in the Observer story does it detail the new policy, so how is the reader supposed to reach an objective conclusion?

And, sorry, but I'm tired of hearing about Wally Matthews' heroic stands for journalism whenever he fights with some editor and leaves his latest job.

 

[wallace_matthews]

Never said it was a heroic stand, either. I just made a decision based on my comfort level with my workplace and what I thought I needed to do to support my family. If the writer chose to portray it as anything more than that, his choice. I'm just a guy trying to make a living the best way I know how.

 

[cranberry]

Fair enough. The Observer writer seems to have had a pretty clear agenda.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

It's not as if Matthews was the only one to speak up. Others did, as well,
but didn't want to be named -- at least, until they've landed comperable
employment in environments of greater integrity.

 

[Drip]

Drip, I'm sure you know that I didn't end the story with that quote, the writer did. It was something said over the course of a long interview, and frankly, I'm sure at some point I said worse than that. Would I have chosen for the story to end that way? Of course not. But far be it from me to tell a writer how to write his story, anymore than I would want anyone else to tell me how to write mine. Which, of course, is what all this is about.

Wally, I left out the world the as in "the way the Wally Matthews story ends."
Anyway, I'm glad that things have worked out for you.

 

[oscaroscaroscar]

Any journalist worth his or her integrity should be more outraged by the Newsday policy and less concerned with the typical sniping about having to hear about someone's heroism or defining their class.

Regardless of how Wally Matthews came across in the story, the issue here is a newspaper limiting its writers' ability to provide critical commentary. That should be a lot bigger issue than anything else. If you doubt Matthews' complaints or think he just wanted to go to ESPN, then you should ask the same question someone did when he took the job -- why would he leave a column for a beat job since he's an excellent columnist? You should also, as someone pointed out, check all the other quotes from other current Newsday employees about this policy.

It's a BS policy that instantly poisons the credibility of the section and that's the bottom line. As for the other point, I don't necessarily think Matthews acted like a hero by leaving, but he sure as hell acted like a journalist. Maybe these days, it's becoming rare enough that some folks see that as heroic.

 

[Drip]

Well, for every Wally Matthews, there are 100 more who will gladly tow the line.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Just out of curiosity, is that sports editor someone from our business, or is it a newly installed Dolan flunkie?

 

[Della9250]

SE is a former ASE at the Daily News.

 

[HanSenSE]

Maybe they can get someone from the Devils' website to write stories?

Seriously, this has Santa Barbara written all over it.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Well, for every Wally Matthews, there are 100 more who will gladly tow the line.

And those 100 more tow the line because they need the paycheck for a roof over their head.

 

[Fran Curci]

Try "toe the line."

 

[Boom_70]

Does Henry Hect still work the sports desk. He never wrote an unharsh story