Sportswriting Can Transcend Sports

INQUIRER SPORTS COLUMNIST David Aldridge was fired in January. He was among the staff who were let go because of budget cutbacks.

After everyone freaked out, Aldridge (on the right in the photo) was brought back. The management realized that Aldridge has a powerful voice that the staff and readership appreciate.

It's a good thing he's back. Not only is Aldridge among the most plugged in reporters covering the NBA (and other sports), he is a fine writer with compassion and sensibility. And yesterday, the Inquirer published one of his most poignant columns ever.

"I'm angry that people cry about Sean Taylor's death because he was an outstanding football player, as if his death has extra meaning because he had great closing speed," Aldridge wrote. "This is not about sports."

"We have buried 200 Sean Taylors in this city this year. We don't know what would have come of their dreams and hopes. They deserve our tears, too, for they may have been anonymous to you, but they weren't to their mothers and fathers, their best friends and lovers, their teachers and mentors."

Read his piece. It shows how the world of sports connects to society at large. He has taken an event and connected it to the issues facing our city, and the culture in general.

IN OTHER SPORTS NEWS: Joe Paterno is making Bill Conlin money, but if it wasn't for journalists, you never would have known.

ALSO: In Pittsburgh (and anywhere there is local news for that matter), they are using sex and football to draw in readers.

Memo to Conlin: The Web Is Now World Wide

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS sports columnist Bill Conlin will respond if you e-mail him. And he doesn't seem to take criticism lightly.

When a blogger questioned one of Conlin's recent articles, Conlin wrote back, "The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth-I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers."

Whoa.

And then Conlin explained how a 73-year old sportswriting legend pays the bills:

"My fastball has slipped so much that when I attempted to accept the buyout on the table in 2002 (I was already 68), the editors took me to lunch and asked what it would take for me to keep working. I replied one less column a week and reduced travel. At a second meeting, they gave me a two column a week schedule, sharply reduced travel and a mandate to write mostly commentary. They also gave me a generous signing bonus, a quarterly performance bonus and matched the lump sum that would have accompanied the buyout package. They also continued the subsidy of my Florida condo that has been paying the taxes and monthly maintenance since 1987. By law, they had to begin paying me my full pension in 2004, so at age 73 I'm making the top salary at the paper plus collecting the biggest monthly pension check ever paid out. With the social security check my wife and I receive, I'm making ballplayer money for two columns a week."

Is there anything wrong with the old guy cashing in? Was it wrong for the blogger to post the dialogue? Or should Conlin realize that bloggers can publish just about anything these days?

IN OTHER SPORTS NEWS: The beat writers covering the New York Knicks say that if they write critically about the team, the team won't give them access or information. READ the story. It is awesome.

A Journalist In Jail

ASSOCIATED PRESS photojournalist Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, is being held by American forces in Iraq. He's accused of being an insurgent, although exact charges are unknown. The US military has not disclosed details of his April, 2006 arrest or the reasons behind it.

"In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, although the military has sent out a flurry of ever-changing claims," AP president Tom Curley wrote. "Every claim we've checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance."

Hussein was on the AP team - along with Jim MacMillan - that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for their war coverage.

The AP reports that U.S. officials have asserted Hussein offered to provide false identification to a sniper seeking to evade U.S.-led forces, that he possessed bomb-making equipment, and that he took photographs that were synchronized with insurgent blasts. The AP has found no corroboration of the accusations.

"We believe Bilal's crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see," Curley wrote.

By the way, yesterday's guest, Jim MacMillan, will be teaching a course in Journalism and Psychological Trauma next semester. Check out the course description here.

Journalism: Isn't It Romantic?

THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES broke up with his girlfriend. Is that news?

What if the relationship was an affair that began when the mayor was married?

What if the affair was with a local television anchor/ reporter?

That was the case - the mayor dated Mirthala Salinas (pictured above) who was then working for Telemundo. She actually read the news of mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's divorce on air ... but failed to mention that she was a major factor in the split.

Was it wrong for the reporter to date the mayor (forget for a moment that he was married with children)?

Here in Philadelphia, NBC10 anchor Renee Chenault Fattah is married to a congressman who wanted to be mayor. Should she have stepped away from her job during the mayoral campaign?

A New York Times political reporter wound up marrying the White House press spokesperson whom he dealt with daily during his coverage of the Clinton administration. Was it wrong for them to begin the relationship?

Or is love uncontrollable? Why should you pass up on romance because of your job?

Online Sex Predators Are Bad. News at 11.

THE IDEA OF ADVOCACY journalism has been around as long as niche publications, with the main concept being that the media outlet should act in the best interests of the community it serves.

The danger is that you are allowing the media - which has a vast audience and massive influence - to decide what the values of the community are.

But everyone can agree that adults should not be preying upon children online, right? And now an Albany, NY local newscast is championing laws against online predators.

Metroland writes that WRGB "reporters get behind specific issues of the day, agitate for change, and act as the mouthpiece for their viewers." When education reporter Michelle Smith (pictured above) reported in September that there are no laws in New York state to make it a crime for an adult to use the Internet to attempt to arrange a meeting with a child, hundreds of parents responded, and Smith had found her cause.

“They started asking for my help,” Smith told Metroland. “They wanted to know what they could do.”

Should the reporters advocate for change? Isn't it their responsibility to make the community better, safer? If government is dropping the ball, isn't it the role of the journalist to stump for action?

Or is this just a blatant ratings grab, a massive suck up to the community on an issue that is such a no-brainer it's almost insulting?

BY THE WAY, welcome back from your mini-break. Here are a few other interesting items worth mentioning:

Inquirer columnist Tom Ferrick makes fun of Ann Weaver Hart and John Street: How he chose Temple.

And a Time magazine editor-at-large blames a great book for creating the cult of personality presidential election process.

Does The World Care About Donda West?

THE PLASTIC SURGEON who operated on Kanye West's recently deceased mother appeared on the Larry King Live program. For about 1 minute. Then he left without really saying anything (click the blue link to see the video).

Bizarre. And now I'm full of questions: why did the guy even show up? He says the media has the story all wrong. What's the story? Why did the guy leave? Did Kanye scare him?

More importantly, should Larry King even be interviewing the doctor who operated on the mother of a celebrity? Do we really need that kind of information? Is that news?

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