When the Devil Mounts the Pulpit...
We should probably go easy on Rick Morrissey. He's had a rough year. Among other things, he predicted the last-place Cubs would win their division. Having to show his face in that little box on the Tribune sports page should be punishment enough. And today's column was a throwaway anyway, the kind of grab-bag columnists toss together when they can't think of anything to write. Unfortunately, it's so rife with hypocrisy we just can't ignore it.
Today Morrissey goes after the Sun-Times for printing a Bears helmet and a palm tree on the paper's masthead. "If you don't get the message, it's that the paper is rooting for the boys in blue and orange to get to the Super Bowl in Miami." Fair enough, but Morrissey has the gall to raise the specter of "journalism":
"Pandering to the emotions of fans is not our job in journalism," says Morrissey, "although the other message the editors are sending with their banner-waving is that covering sports isn't journalism."
I wonder what Morrissey thinks of the Aug. 8 story by his Tribune colleague Paul Sullivan entitled, "2o Reasons to Keep Watching the Cubs." I suppose that when the Tribune roots for its Cubs, that's just plain fun. But when the Sun-Times roots for the Bears, that's a violation of journalistic integrity.
As Exhibit Two, we offer Morrissey's own fateful prediction that the Cubs would win their division in 2006. At best, picking a last-place team to win its division makes Morrissey an incompetent sports writer. At worst, it makes him a Cubs promoter, hawking the fortunes of the home team while tickets are still on sale. Neither has much to do with "journalism."
And let's not forget that the Tribune masthead also sports an image that represents a very different organization. By his own logic, Morrissey would have us remove that American flag from the Tribune masthead. Which home teams can we root for and which ones can't we root for, Rick? If pandering to the emotions of fans is bad, is it also bad to pander to the emotions of patriots? Aren't fandom and patriotism kind of similar? Doesn't one help us prepare for the other? We may root passionately for the Bears or the Packers or the Lions or the Vikings in harmless contests of football, but we all come together to root passionately for America. The emotions are similar, the stakes are different. When does it become pandering?
After impugning the Sun-Times' integrity, Morrissey says this to the rival paper: "Maybe they'd like to talk with the two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who are facing jail time for their reporting on star athletes' alleged use of steroids."
A lot of us in Chicago would really like to talk to two Chicago Tribune reporters, or even just one, willing to report on a certain star athlete's alleged use of steroids. Except that no one at the Tribune seems willing to investigate former fellow Tribune employee Sammy Sosa. If it's too journalismish for the sports dept., maybe someone in news? No? Maybe someone at Redeye? No? Everyone still too busy? Maybe Chicago Magazine? Oh, they only do positive Cubs stories?
The Tribune is in no position to preach to anyone about journalism. So its message to the Sun-Times comes down to this: if you're going to root for a team, make some cheap attempts to cover up your bias, like we do at the Tribune.
The Sun-Times offers to the Tribune a much more valuable lesson on integrity: if you're going to root for a team, do it openly: declare your bias on your masthead. Imagine what the Tribune's masthead would look like if the paper turned honest.
Today Morrissey goes after the Sun-Times for printing a Bears helmet and a palm tree on the paper's masthead. "If you don't get the message, it's that the paper is rooting for the boys in blue and orange to get to the Super Bowl in Miami." Fair enough, but Morrissey has the gall to raise the specter of "journalism":
"Pandering to the emotions of fans is not our job in journalism," says Morrissey, "although the other message the editors are sending with their banner-waving is that covering sports isn't journalism."
I wonder what Morrissey thinks of the Aug. 8 story by his Tribune colleague Paul Sullivan entitled, "2o Reasons to Keep Watching the Cubs." I suppose that when the Tribune roots for its Cubs, that's just plain fun. But when the Sun-Times roots for the Bears, that's a violation of journalistic integrity.
As Exhibit Two, we offer Morrissey's own fateful prediction that the Cubs would win their division in 2006. At best, picking a last-place team to win its division makes Morrissey an incompetent sports writer. At worst, it makes him a Cubs promoter, hawking the fortunes of the home team while tickets are still on sale. Neither has much to do with "journalism."
And let's not forget that the Tribune masthead also sports an image that represents a very different organization. By his own logic, Morrissey would have us remove that American flag from the Tribune masthead. Which home teams can we root for and which ones can't we root for, Rick? If pandering to the emotions of fans is bad, is it also bad to pander to the emotions of patriots? Aren't fandom and patriotism kind of similar? Doesn't one help us prepare for the other? We may root passionately for the Bears or the Packers or the Lions or the Vikings in harmless contests of football, but we all come together to root passionately for America. The emotions are similar, the stakes are different. When does it become pandering?
After impugning the Sun-Times' integrity, Morrissey says this to the rival paper: "Maybe they'd like to talk with the two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who are facing jail time for their reporting on star athletes' alleged use of steroids."
A lot of us in Chicago would really like to talk to two Chicago Tribune reporters, or even just one, willing to report on a certain star athlete's alleged use of steroids. Except that no one at the Tribune seems willing to investigate former fellow Tribune employee Sammy Sosa. If it's too journalismish for the sports dept., maybe someone in news? No? Maybe someone at Redeye? No? Everyone still too busy? Maybe Chicago Magazine? Oh, they only do positive Cubs stories?
The Tribune is in no position to preach to anyone about journalism. So its message to the Sun-Times comes down to this: if you're going to root for a team, make some cheap attempts to cover up your bias, like we do at the Tribune.
The Sun-Times offers to the Tribune a much more valuable lesson on integrity: if you're going to root for a team, do it openly: declare your bias on your masthead. Imagine what the Tribune's masthead would look like if the paper turned honest.
posted by Chicago Cubune Watch permalink
