Bill Simmons isn’t a newsworthy source. His sports commentary is most certainly funny, on occasion even slightly insightful, but in terms of respectable news journalism, one can think of over a hundred other people they can turn to.
Recently, Simmons touched upon a true issue that has seen little light: the Boston’s media blown coverage that Kevin Garnett was going to miss most of the playoffs, rather than just a few weeks of the regular season.
Everyone knows the newspaper industry is in trouble right now. The New York Times is considering getting rid of The Boston Globe, The Rocky Mountain News shut down and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased its distribution outfit. This is all news everyone knows, but why is this news?
It is not as simple as the newspaper is where your mom and dad got their news, and you now just have CNN a click away. To bring the Garnett story full circle, all the Boston media completely missed breaking an important story. When the Celtics announced that he would be out for 2 to 3 weeks no one questioned it. When he went past that time frame, still, no one questioned it.
It was announced later Garnett would not play in the playoffs. Simmons cited this example as the lack of access that current reports are allowing to happen, stating that the Bob Ryan, who was on the Celtics beat for the Globe in the 70s and 80s, would have sniffed out the smokescreen the Celtics put forth.
The problem is those reporters who would be normally cutting their teeth covering a beat for a local paper are being scooped up by the internet news companies. Editors see this too. Simmons notes that the last two sports editors of the Globe’s glory years now work for ESPN.
This situation can be played out for any section of the newspaper. Without experienced journalists, who else will be able to snuff out smokescreens put forth by local government and other various forms of corruption? What if Bernstein and Woodward came into the work place now? The Post wouldn’t be able to afford them and they would just be writing columns for AOL or Yahoo. It is not the death of the actual newspaper; it is the death of true shoe-leather journalism we must worry about.
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