So this week I see what? Well it's high school sports. Lake a hamster running in a treadmill, the community press continues churning out coverage that allows sports to bask in attention. Is this because the ink-stained people really believe sports is that important? Or, is it because this route is easier than trying to fill the space with other stuff?
The latter question is perhaps rhetorical. What "other stuff" might there be? Nothing scintillating to be sure. The well-remembered Earl Wilson had a syndicated column that was known to be used in newspapers as "filler." Paper people aren't inclined to admit it, but often their biggest priority is to just "fill space." We have blank pages staring at us, at the start of the layout process. The bottom line is to just fill it - yes, a rather cynical explanation but a true one. It's done with one eye on the clock.
Jim Morrison says he has had a dream where the pages mistakenly get sent to the printing plant without headlines, and that it always ends up being my fault! If all else fails, fill the space.
It might be an innocuous situation or problem.
Looking at it closer, we must realize that falling back on sports does send a message, a message about sports that is out of proportion. Does this then lead to kids perhaps getting their focus too much on sports? Considering the well-reported decline of newspapers, due of course to the electronic alternatives, maybe we overestimate the impact. But the paper is still "out there."
Morris people generally find it significant we have new owners of the local product. I could postulate that it's the older segment of the population that talks about this.
We will continue to see lots of youth sports coverage. So the high school football team is going to state? Oh, it's the Hancock football team, not Morris. And their team photo appears in monstrous size to dominate "above the fold" on page 1. News of earthshaking importance, I guess. Anyone whose mind is truly sharp would question if we should even encourage boys to play football any more. Do you want to argue with me on that? Oh but you just love the "sugar rush" that comes with cheering for your team with all the other community members in "state."
And for what end? I just hope none of the boys gets hurt. I remember when Morrison felt he had to respond to a spate of criticism about how the paper had too much sports. He said sports got into its advantaged position partly because it was so structured. He noted that school activities that were less structured presented more of a challenge for how it might be packaged in the paper.
Sports has schedules, game scores, stats, standings, the whole nine yards. A football game has all sorts of information categories that can be reported after every game. Compare that to music and theater, activities that are actually safer and more valuable for the young people.
Sports calls on kids to be born with a certain amount of physical prowess. We see a star wrestler occasionally with boffo career won-lost stats, whose stats get inflated because so often the opposition forfeits to him. The kid was born to dominate physically. Is that such a virtuous thing? Is it virtuous at all?
I would guess that many of these "star" wrestlers end up not very thrilled about what they did anyway. They'd prefer moving on to a more mature phase in life, one that doesn't involve slamming down a physically inferior kid and "showing him the lights." Kids only do this because adults have shown them the programs by which they might garner all that "glory." The press buys in because the coverage, at least on the surface, seems to be so positive. We're giving attention to the local youth. What could be better?
But let's peel below the surface and see what if any innate positive value lies in these activities. A basketball team with maybe 6-7 players getting appreciable playing time puts on exhibitions all winter that serve to bring crowds of "fans." It's healthy in the sense that no one is really getting into trouble. Indeed, the foundation for youth sports getting established long ago, I would suggest, was as a way to keep kids out of trouble, as trouble often fills a boredom void.
Thing is, I don't think that void would present itself today. Kids can find constructive ways to develop themselves and enjoy themselves minus all these organized sports. The local newspaper gets dragged along with our legacy values that have sports up on such a pedestal.
It isn't enough to have Hancock football dominate "above the fold" on page 1. We of course see the paper "pour it on" in the sports section too. This includes a team photo from when Hancock last made state. That photo includes the coach who ended up spending time in prison. He is identified by name in the caption. Not fun to be reminded of that. His misconduct involved girls not boys. He coached a Hancock girls basketball program that could fill the UMM P.E. Center to the rafters in March. I was there and I witnessed it.
What lifelong benefits did those female student athletes get from the experience? Even if they got some value, is it that much more than in other organized activities that would be performed without 2,000 screaming fans and a pep band blaring away, making you feel you're some sort of celebrity or superhuman?
When a kid graduates, the status of being a special "celebrity" athlete is gone. A former superstar wrestler becomes just a normal young adult male, and nobody is going to give a rip about his stupendous high school won-lost record inflated with forfeit wins. I could write many negative things about the sport of wrestling. Even more about football, supported by no end of data now readily available to be appreciated from the world wide web. The non-brain injuries are concerning enough.
I don't even have to worry about it because I never played football. Nor did I wrestle. And, I feel no sense of inferiority for never having bathed in such activities, to receive the glow of attention from the local paper which as a bottom line has "space to fill."
Addendum: Is it true that the new ownership of the Morris paper does not offer health insurance to employees? Is this the reason the editor left? If true it's a reminder of how private business can struggle to keep employees vs. government jobs because government jobs have such great benefits. I have spoken to local people who have strong concerns about this. It's a clarion call for how we must listen more closely to Democratic Party spokespeople who feel we need a uniform foundation for government-ensured health care. The Morris paper faces a far more steep climb, in terms of financial soundness, than what many local people think. A friend of mine who publishes a newspaper in Central Minnesota commented as follows:
As you do, too, I wish the Anfinsons all the best - I just don't
see how they can "pay the bills" and eke out even the smallest profit in
Morris. That is such an upside-down operation even without Sue (Dieter's) huge,
wasteful salary around the owners' necks. Their circulation figures have
to grow. You either grow or die. If you can't make your newspaper
grow by making it very worthwhile (subscribing to and reading it), then
one has to make the hard decision to move on. I've said it before, the
sea change is coming. I doubt even half of current newspapers will
survive in the next 10 years.
The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper has announced it's going non-profit.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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