Here are some of the stories about Spring Training that I have read about, first or better in sources other than the Chronicle,
Nolan Ryan going to the Rangers
Darin Erstad hired to mentor Hunter Pence
The first reliable reports on Pence's accident
Dewey Robinson's focus on the changeup for all the Astros pitchers
The details of the trade for Tejada
The Astros catching rotation.
Mclane's statements about Clemens in camp.
I don't want to ask the players anything. I want reliable reports on what they are doing. The game on the field is what I'm interested in and I don't think it unreasonable to expect the Houston paper to be a reliable witness to that. It's especially important to me when I can't watch the games. For instance, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a baseball reporter to know whether a pitcher is "struggling" as opposed to working on a new pitch.
Another thing that has happened to newspapers (online or print) is the advent of much more media exposure nowadays. Reliance of one source is not necessary any more for the end-user/fan/customer. Of course, newspapers by their very name are supposed to be "news" outlets, as in "fact, information, et. al." The explosion of cable single source niche broadcasters, such as music, entertainment, sports, etc. has dual implications: customers have choice (in some ways better, in many ways worse), and media outlets such as newspapers have tried to change to adapt when perhaps it wasn't in their best interest to do so.
For example, why would the sports department at the Chronicle want to compete with ESPN? Well, they wouldn't, because ESPN serves a national interest, or better still an Northeastern bias and all the rest of us can suck it. So I need someone to tell me about the local nine, or the local football, basketball, overall sports. But you know what, I hear more complaining about the lack of coverage for (insert local team name here) in ESPN than I do for anything else. That tells me that the ESPN coverage is much more coveted by the fans and thus they rarely care about holding the local rags and media outlets accountable. You get what you pay for, IOW. The other thing, some media outlets that were not available before have cropped up: Local Sports Team (and/or League Sponsored) websites and of course, the dreaded fansite, blogs, opinion sites and one-offs for local teams. These two relatively new media outlets (ugh, I hate calling what we do as media, but for now, let's go with it) have yet another impact on how the local news outlets (both print, radio and television) have reacted to what is their niche. The Astros.com of the world have much better access and coverage for the local team, work just as hard, and focus on the keener aspects of nuance for the team. An example would be an analysis of the Astros farm system would probably come out much more in-depth from Astros. com than what you'll get from the Chron. Is it the chronicle's fault?
Not entirely, IMHO.
But to carry this thought through, is that the newness of the media outlet explosion both in the cable/national realm and now seeped to the local realm have caused what we once considered the "single source of news" for us as less than what it used to be. Is it supposed to be where we go to get our news simply because they were first? I fear that the advancement of entertainment into the news reporting (ESPN, I'm looking right at you) has had it's ripple effect keenly down to the local "news reporting". If we bitch about lack of coverage by the Entertainment/Sports outlet that is ESPN, then we can easily accept the locals reporting on the Houston nine in much the same trite fashion... no? Furthermore, a concerted effort is now being made to merge into the media outlets and sort of string them together as some sort of whack tapestry of information. Example, ESPN will employ Richard Justice for his views because quite frankly, it's cheaper to do this for local flavor on local and even national events that come out of this area, than to employ national reporters to go investigate. Same with local radio making radio stars out of newspaper guys, television shows making tv stars out of radio guys, and on and on and on.
What's next? Radio reaching out to fansites is happening now, see ClutchFans.net as the best example of a simple yet effective method to gather news from sources that may or may not be credible, but certainly it is cost effective and there is no reinvention of the wheel.
So all in all, this is the bottomline for me: Get the news wherever you want to get it from but you'll be hard pressed to make a case for a single source that is right all the time, perfect all the time and entertaining all the time. Except here of course. Now, who out there in the media world wants to sign me up to do a full hour show about barrio queso? Anyone... Bueller... Bueller... anyone?
