The sad state of Tampa Bay print journalism

A family member visiting Atlanta brought us a copy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC). It was a Sunday edition with 18 pages of sports (as compared to 10 locally), a larger national section and a slightly larger and more comprehensive local section. This despite the fact AJC’s circulation is a bit less (about 9000) than our local daily. For what it’s worth, the usual Sunday puff pieces were about the same. The real difference was the balance of the news reporting in the Atlanta paper. A whole lot more facts with a whole lot less opinion on the news pages. When you go to the op/ed pages, you see perhaps a slight lean to the left, but not a lot. All in all just a great example of what a newspaper should be – much in the vein of what used to be The Tampa Tribune in its heyday. Seeing the AJC makes us lament just how far print journalism has fallen in the bay area.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff

1. Addendum to our lead article: if you think what passes here as journalism is the same all over the country, go on line and sample a few other metro papers – perhaps starting in San Diego and working eastward, along with a few national publications like the Wall Street Journal.

2. Our two favorite local political commercials - first, the Crist ad where our chief executive describes three-party Charlie as “a public servant who has always put the people first”. And Mr. Obama can still look himself in the mirror? The other is the Democratic Congressional Committee’s really bad photo shop job appearing to make David Jolly look like he’s shaking hands with Donald Trump. And we’re expected to trust these folks?

3. There is a great deal of angst over Amendment One. Anti-forces tell us it is a total sellout to utility companies despite its positive wording. That is a bit of a stretch, but the amendment sure won’t be harmful to our powerful utility companies and probably deserves a “no” vote.

4. Was anybody surprised by the recent finding that I-4 is the most dangerous interstate highway in the country?

5. Forty years ago this month, Pinellas County Administrator Merritt Stierheim resigned to take a similar position with Dade County. He had previously served as Clearwater’s City Manager. He’s still in government in south Florida.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. As the election cycle runs down, the media is getting a bit thin skinned about justifiable complaints regarding their attacks on office seekers. Apparently it is okay for them, to criticize but not themselves to be criticized. The ultimate piece of nonsense was a column penned by a Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times who claimed the media feels threatened. Give us a break!

7. In their coverage of Amendment Two, Bay News Nine simply did a rundown of why John Morgan thinks widespread medical pot is a good idea – no mention of the implications of putting something like that in our state constitution. We’re quite sure the coverage’s slant had nothing to do with the fact that Morgan spends thousands of dollars each month in ads with the news outlet.

8. His real name was Robert Veline. As Bobby Vee, he rode the King-Goffin Take Good Care of My Baby to the top of the charts in 1961 – just one of his half dozen top ten hits. Bobby Vee passed away last week at age 73.

9. Idle observation: during the final week of the baseball season, in a commercial break of a Blue Jays – Red Sox game, there were back to back promos for shows entitled Real Housewives of Southern California and Dance Moms. First, why run these during what is a heavy male – oriented event and, more importantly, do people really watch those two shows?

10. Speaking of commercials this factoid: Mike Rowe, the ruggedly handsome guy you see on the Wagner brake commercials as well as numerous Ford spots, has a background as an opera singer.

Terry Francona – one of the best

The last two or three postseasons have opened the eyes of the causal baseball fan to a couple of managers who are incredibly underrated. The reason could be their teams play in relatively small markets. But those small market teams consistently overachieve. The teams (and managers) are Kansas City’s Ned Yost and Cleveland’s Terry Francona. Yost’s record speaks for itself – one World Championship and a couple bad hops or bad calls away from a second over the past three years. Francona has taken a patchwork pitching staff all the way to the World Series with brilliant strategy and bullpen management. We saw what he could do in Boston but that team was loaded with Schilling, Martinez, Ortiz, Pedroia and Ramirez. Name five players on the Indians unless you are a diehard fan of the Tribe. We might achieve eight names, but we sure know the manager’s name and he has done a heck of a job in 2016.