Haven’t knocked one of these out in a while…
You know, where I read and critique the daily newspaper of record. When the idea first came to me I thought. “Hey, why not do it every day?” It didn’t take long to realize the folly of that.
I mean, how many days in a row do people want to read that the biggest news block in the Kansas City Star was its paid obituary ads section? And frankly, there’s not always a ton of electrifying news and journalism to sort through.
That said, when you double the deal and look at both the Kansas City and Lawrence newspapers, there are some interesting observations to be made. Take yesterday’s front pages.
In Kansas City the Star is still laboring under the delusion that a big part of its mission is to report national news in a big way. Even when it doesn’t even do any of the reporting.
So the big story atop the front page was a Los Angeles Times story about the unarmed dude in New York that was wrongfully choked to death by a NYC cop. Think about it.
A California newspaper supplying day-old information about a New York news story for readers in Kansas City who in all likelihood already got their fill of the story on national television and/or online the day before.
Who’s the Star trying to tell this story to? Shut-ins with no other connection to the outside world beyond their driveways?
The flip side of that journalistic coin:
If you live in Lawrence and rely on the Journal World for your news, the big story of the day there was about KU affixing a plaque to the outside of Memorial Stadium where the lowly Jayhawk football team dwells to honor five geezers for their “many years of volunteer service working the sidelines moving chairs and down markers.”
The bottom line:
The Star at least looks like a big city newspaper even though it’s a head scratcher as to exactly how they view their news mission. Unless of course the painfully obvious truth is that they have their readership pegged as really old, out-of-touch people who otherwise wouldn’t have a clue about what’s going on in the world.
So while that’s more than a little scary, looking ahead to the day when those oldsters are no longer around to prop up the pitiful economics at 18th and Grand, it does at least help explain all those hearing aid and erectile dysfunction ads.
Anyone who travels knows that KC has one the worst groups of local tv and radio news in the USA. Many small town have better coverage.
Geezers, oldsters, out-of-touch. Could you be more contemptuous of this area’s elderly population?
My 85-year-old mother subscribes to the Star, not for “electrifying news and journalism” – she has cable and watches CNN – but for the Sports page and the crossword puzzle. In your fantasy world, she and everyone else in her demographic should be euthanized solely to jump-start the economics at 18th & Grand.
Go ahead and dump on the paper. I’d join you if I read it, but do it without the snotty condescension. Only reveals your own fear of growing old.