Softies...

Hi everyone.

Before I take over as editor of "Journal of Sports Media" in February, a few things you need to know about me.

I don't like "softies," which are questions that sports media types toss at sports sources just to stay in good favor. Got a tough question? Ask it. You may not get another shot. Just ask Bonnie Bernstein, who did that to Roy Williams after his Kansas squad lost in the NCAA championship basketball game to Syracuse. She jumped all over him, asking if he was leaving for North Carolina, as rumored. He got so sick of it he used nasty words which I won't repeat here but the initials were "bullshit."

Or remember when Jim Gray did the same to Pete Rose after the MLB all-time-team celebration during the World Series? Asked him straight out if he'd finally admit to his gambling. Rose reacted surprised. Hey, what was Gray supposed to do, ask how thrilled "Charley Hustle" was to be there among guys who played the game with no money riding on it. Two nights later, Chad Curtis walked away from Gray after hitting the game-winning homer in game 3 and told Gray the Yankees wouldn't talk to him because of what he did to Rose. Gray was chastised mightily in the media for it. Rose came off a good guy. Yeah, right. Gray subsequently sold himself out for LeBron James' "Announcement," but again, who's counting? And the Miami Heat were 9-7, having lost three of four as I compose this. Nyeh nyeh.

Rose not long thereafter admitted his gambling. It only took him three autobiographies, but who's counting? And Williams shortly thereafter announced he was taking the North Carolina job. Good thing Bernstein bothered him with that "bullshit," huh?

That's what I like, reporters who aren't afraid to ask the tough questions. I tell my students to do it in my Sports Reporting class at Columbia College Chicago. I tell them in all my classes. Don't let the chances slip away, regardless of how hard the source tries to dodge you (see Patriots head coach's remarks to media in immediate wake of "Spygate" scandal).

Most sports organizations and athletes have disdain for the media that doesn't coddle them, that doesn't worship them, that doesn't bow to them. I have disdain for athletes and organizations that use their web sites and Twitter accounts to spread lies, or at least not tell the entire truth.

Being a sports reporter isn't about rubbing shoulders with the elite and getting in free to see great games (or not-so-great games if you're a Detroit Lions fan). Sports Reporters, stop kissing ass and start kicking ass. The media industry is in enough trouble as it is, financially. Don't exacerbate things. And don't use big, overrated words like exacerbate.

Don't blather over sports heroes and don't kick goats of sports performances - they're suffering enough as it is. Tell us what they did, tell us why, go beyond what the viewers saw on TV and tell them how it happened, capture that moment that caused their emotional hiccup and fans' ultra-emotional indigestion. That's your job. Do it well. Find the intangibles. That's what separates you from the TV coverage and what separates you from your competitors covering the event. And keep your opinion out of it. That's what blogs and columns are for. No one cares about your opinion. No one.

Especially the athlete and/or coach you're dissing. Save the "dis" for someone who deserves it, like the fans who misbehave, curse, get personal, run on the fields, set bad examples for their kids, get drunk, start fights, throw sharp objects, etc. But enough about European soccer fans.

I'll give you a JSM you can love if you give me material with which to fill it. Get fired up. Light people up without giving them a hotfoot or being a hothead.

Till then, see you at the ballpark, the arena, the stadium. And send a round my way, will ya'?

Thanks,

Howard Schlossberg
Editor-designate, JSM
Associate Professor, Journalism/Columbia College Chicago
Sports Correspondent, Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, Ill.
(312) 369-8904; hschlossberg@colum.edu

Oddities and Ends

So, now that we know Tiger Woods is human, can be beaten, stared down, caught from behind (by the tail; Tiger by the tail, get it?), are we going to start being more sensible as media in our coverage of him?

Just how much reverence does he deserve? The heretofore current level? Does anyone? We gave it to Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, didn't we? They had a loss of a rear view mirror and English-speaking ability, respectively, in front of a congressional sub-committee. We gave it to Roger Clemens. We all know where that went (to a 15-year-old country singer's diary, apparently, and to a relatively unknown locker room attendant's laundry basket-turned-safe deposit box).

We gave it to Barry Bonds. His trial starts sometime next year. We gave it to Wilt Chamberlain. He, in turn, gave it to 20,000 women, or so he claimed. We gave it to Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks. He got indicted. We gave it Ray Lewis, and still do, despite the past charges against him and his still-overt haughtiness.

We are hero-worshipping assholes who just happen to get the last word, that's all. God knows we need it. Tiger doesn't though, and we need not be apologists for him. He doesn't want us to be anymore than he wants us stalking him like paparazzi. Let's start treating him like what he is. A great golfer, no more, no less, and not the God we make him out to be.

***

I was very impressed to hear that the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA), still the longest-running continuous regular sportscast in history, is adding a new "World Series" event. It will run for two months at the end of each year (sometimes it seems like baseball's World Series runs that long, y'know what I mean).

It will feature the world's best bowlers, with the emphasis on "world's," because the format will make it more accommodating for a global field to compete. It will rotate from city to city, venue to venue, to whet the appetites of fans eager to attend live events. Men, women and senior men will each have their own brackets of competition to maximize the demographics of the viewing audience (and the advertisers advertising). It'll be on ESPN, which means 9 p.m. starts and no venues west of Grand Rapids, but the PBA, which would like to do at least one event in its demographic dreamland of Milwaukee, will live with that anyway for the exposure. It'll feature documentary-style coverage sometimes and up-close-and-personal tidbits.

In fact, it'll debut in greater Detroit, where the fan base is hanging out in bowling alleys already anyway. Mostly at the bar.

I'll be watching - if they have cheerleaders, that is.

***

To listen to ESPN tell it, you'd think any and every Yankees-Red Sox series is the "bomb," the end of the world as we know it and nothing else matters in sports when they play.

Well, that is, unless you live in Chicago right now, where, as the Sox and Cubs do fade routines, the only thing happening according to the local media is the ascension of the Bears on the arm and mind of Jay Cutler.

Which is all big news, unless you live in Cleveland (my apologies) and you'd think the only thing going on in sports is the quarterback battle between Derek what's-his-name and Brady Quinn, whom we are regularly reminded is a Notre Dame product (we dare not insult the Golden Dome or miss a chance to mention it).

The Indians are a non-story as they drift toward AAA-level status and LeBron James might as well have already signed with the Knicks, to listen to ESPN tell it.

Which is all big news, unless you live in Pittsburgh, America's new No. 1 sports town, and thank goodness it is, or else those allegations against the Notorious B.I.G. Ben might not be dismissed as readily by the media because the golden-boy/Super-Bowl MVP could not have done what this lady - uh, girl - accused him of doing, right? Hopefully he called Kobe Bryant for an attorney reference. No wonder Shaq invited Ben on his reality show - he was taking a slap at Kobe, not Ben.

Which is all big news, unless you live in Cincinnati, where - can this be true? - no players have been arrested yet this preseason. Aha, I understand charges are coming down the pike though anytime now against many of them on the roster for impersonating NFL players.

***

Speaking of impersonating NFL players, who's that guy with the single-digit jersey playing for the Eagles being relentlessly followed by reporters? I am disgusted by my fellow media brethren who have defended Michael Vick's right to play in the NFL again.

He is a murderer, self-admittedly, of dogs, that is. Plus, figuratively, two head coaches and one promising NFL season that-was-supposed-to-have-been in Atlanta.

Now, in Philadelphia, he makes his comeback. Good for him. How many of you, HOW MANY OF YOU think you could just walk back in at your old place of employment after being convicted of the charges Vick was and having served the sentence Vick did (and still is) and get your old job back?

Well, how many of you? In the media? In the post office? In the 7-11? In the Albertson's? In the Home Depot? At the U.S. Department of Defense? At the Milwaukee Zoo (bad example, OK). At a collection agency? At a bank? Driving a semi-trailer cross-country?

Yeah, right. Welcome to the cab-driving business, if you're lucky. Unless you play in the NFL, which means, despite the standards imposed by the new commish, a.k.a. the tough new sheriff in town, you're back in, bro. Welcome back, Michael Vick. But isn't it kind of obvious why they didn't want you, say, in Cleveland? Cause of the 'Dawg Pound, dude, woof woof.

***

Howard Schlossberg is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago (http://www.colum.edu/), and is a sports correspondent for The Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/), the only Chicagoland major-metro daily not operating in Chapter 11 right now. He also serves on the founding editorial advisory board of and contributes regularly to the Journal of Sports Media (www.olemiss.edu/department/JSMIndex.html), the first-of-its-kind academically research-oriented publication in the genre.

Letting You Down, Not Softly

We, the media, the sports media, have let you down. You the sports fan, that is.

Our coverage sucks. We've let ourselves be bullied by team and league flacks and we've allowed the athletes and people you want quoted most to bypass us in their "tweets," "fbk messages" and personal web sites. Who needs us, right? Heck, you, the fan, can blog and tweet all you like as well.

Us? We've got to maintain our places "in line" for interviews and/or press conferences with team stars and management, even if their availability is restricted to Wednesday and Saturday mornings (a la Jay Cutler's with the Bears during training camp '09).

Or we've got to leave our communication devices behind (cell phones, PDAs, etc.) while observing practices of the Indianapolis Colts and about a dozen other NFL teams. As one scribe pointed out, fans observing practice can call/tweet/fbk/email from their own portable devices all they want while observing practice on a grassy knoll behind a fence (sound familiar?). But the real reporters have to wait till they get back to the distant media room to file stories, details of which have already been forgotten before any keys were touched on a laptop computer.

Candid, on-the-spot interviews after practice? Fughedaboudid! Save your questions for the formal media time later, however limited that may be. Meanwhile, 'Joe Fan' has 'tweeted/fbk'd/emailed' from his remote after observing something, perhaps critical, in practice, albeit however inaccurately.

What's a sports reporter to do? When I turned to my colleagues in the media and academia, respectively, they had little, if any relief. Complain? To the league? To the team? To the Society of Professional Journalists? To the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication?

Yeah, right, said my fellow scribes. And I fear my fellow academics at the Journal of Sports Media may not be able to salvage this, at the sports media-research convergence point where the last shavings of an independent press live on, at least in athletics.

We already have enough black marks against us before turning to fight this battle. We have to build back the credibility we once had before tweeting "betwayed" us. For instance:

• Maybe we could've reported the real steroid story before/during/immediately thereafter McGwire and Sosa lit up baseball in 1998;
• Maybe we can stop drinking the local 'Cool-Aid," the one that lets us predict our favorite hometown teams will be playoff- or championship-bound before the season begins (see Chicago media reports already putting the Bears in the Super Bowl for 2010);
• Maybe we can stop pretending that Michael Vick should be playing in the National Football League again. As if any of us, or any of you reading this, would get your job back if you had done the same thing he did and suffered the same sentence;
• Maybe we can ask intelligent questions when we get our turn, questions that separate us from the 'Joe Fan' who gets to tweet before we get to compose. You know, sorta' not like the idiot in Detroit who arrogantly challenged (not asked, challenged) soon-to-be-disposed, winless head coach Rod Marinelli about his son-in-law/assistant coach;
• Maybe we shouldn't have let the NFL off the hook when it honored the memory of "War on Terror" hero Pat Tillmon within days of the former defensive back's death overseas without honoring in any similar manner any of the other 5,000-plus who made the ultimate sacrifice as well;
• And maybe we should just stop kissing the asses of the guys with whom we want to spend "quality time." Maybe we should ask insightful questions, get them to make introspective observations and maybe we should produce, in general, entertaining stories someone really wants to read, review, see, listen to, etc. All too precious few of us do that now, what with ratings and circulation, respectively, tied to winning and winning tied to cheerleading and cheerleading tied to fan reading/viewing loyalty.

Don't get me wrong. Plenty of us still writhe over our local/favorite teams' performances, come down hard on players, coaches and managers and deliver punches to which all of the latter have no choice but to respond - on their cell phones, PDAs, laptops, etc.

Is it just me, or do you too hear that growing-ever-louder "Tweet, tweet."

***

Howard Schlossberg is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago (http://www.colum.edu/) and a sports correspondent for The Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/), the only Chicagoland major-metro daily not operating in chapter 11. He also serves on the founding editorial advisory board of and contributes to the Journal of Sports Media (see link above), a first-of-its-kind, academically research-oriented publication on the topic (www.olemiss.edu/departments/JSMIndex.html).

SEX SELLS

Sex sells. We all know that.

But what about sexy? There is a difference. You know sexy, the art of "sexing" up something so it looks like it has sex, appeal that is.

Sports are sexy. Especially sports between the sexes. Take, for instance, July 27th's so-called "Battle of the Sexes" between the women's pro fastpitch-softball Chicago Bandits and the men's MLB-unaffiliated Class A Schaumburg Flyers, both of Chicago's northwest suburbs.

Think it was one-sided? Think it wasn't sexy? Then how come it drew a Flyers' stadium record 8,918 paid. How come it drew more media credential requests than any other event in Flyers' history except their opening night 10-plus years ago?

And how come the Bandits won, 4-2? This despite the Flyers bringing in three men's pro fast-pitch hurlers to "level the playing field." And how come the stands were full of Bandit orange-clad young girls, swaying the crowd clearly in the Bandits' favor?

And you don't suppose the men there were in attendance to watch the Flyers play softball, do you? No, they were there clearly hoping "the face of softball" herself, Jenny Finch, a member of the Bandits' roster, would be pitching. Unfortunately for them, the "poster-girl" and no-doubt "centerfold" of women's softball was on duty with the U.S. national team.

So how to "sex" this up to "sexy" status? The match-up in and of itself was "sexy," a women's team tackling a men's pro team, even if in the women's game on the women's rules and even with, as mentioned, special pitchers brought in for the men.

Why else was I sitting next to a local daily's education-beat reporter covering the game on my right and a talented yet albeit rookie-sports writer wannabe' just out of college on my left, scribing for a local web site newspaper. They were all over the pre-game field, getting quotes from players and fans alike about the prospects for the game, the prospects, that is, of boosting the fortunes of the Bandits, who unfortunately struggle to draw at their nearby home field.

Young girls told one of the reporters they wanted to be like Jenny Finch. I hope they meant the pitcher (wife and Mom), not the centerfold.

Flyers' "dancers" were there to entertain and supervise on-field promotional activities between innings, a popular minor-league staple that helps those teams deliver better value for the buck than many MLB teams do. Let's just say though that the dancers' uniforms did not leave a lot to the imagination and did enable them much, much flexibility when they led the crowd between innings in a rendition of The Village People's "YMCA." Once upon a time I had abs like that. In my dreams.

And then there was "Bat-Girl," (no, really), dressed up like the comic book/cartoon character. OK, not dressed up like her - actually dressed a lot less like her, key word, "less." She flashed around the Flyers' dugout (naturally) all game, picking up stray bats and balls and on deck-circle kinds of materials. I'm sure the adult-male fans and Flyer players didn't mind having her around.

None of this means the game was played to get Playboy to request press credentials. In fact, just the opposite. I really enjoyed it. The longest ball hit by any player was off the bat off Bandits' zippy little lead-off hitter, Stacey May, far over the head of surely surprised Flyers' left fielder Jeff Dunbar. It was followed by a solidly stroked single to right by catcher Rachel Folden, which knocked in the tying and ultimately game-winning runs. "Sexy" was the furthest thing from Folden's mind after the game, after she went 1-for-3 with a walk, 2 runs scored and 2 knocked in.

"That was fun," she asserted later as the teams lined up in a row around the infield to await an onslaught of fans to be allowed on the field for autographs from both squads. She appreciated the size of the crowd and the way the Flyers approached the game.

"I've never in my life seen a crowd this large," she said through a grin wide enough to make the blackout under her eyes actually crack a little. And as to the Flyers, "They didn't treat us like some novelty," she noted, adding that they were gracious and congratulatory in defeat and had put out their best effort, even if in an out-of-kilter game for them.

And as to her own team, "This is going to do big things for our organization," she said, noting it will likely help draw the bigger crowds they need, draw the increased media attention they need and, perhaps most importantly, draw the admiration and respect of the kids who finally saw them play and realized growing up to be like them is a goal to be forever mindful of.

I just wish she had 'Bat-Girl's" phone number or email address.

###

Howard Schlossberg is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago (www.colum.edu) and a sports correspondent at the Chicago suburban-based Daily Herald (www.dailyherald.com) in Arlington Heights, Ill., the only Chicago-area, major-metro daily not operating in Chapter 11. He also serves on the founding editorial board of and as a contributor to the first-of-its-kind, academically research-oriented Journal of Sports Media (www.olemiss.edu/departments/JSMindex.html).

Twitter is Twuseless

Recently, it has come to my attention that I've been Twittering (tweeting, twitting, whatever) more than I've been blogging. Unfortunately, that's twue.

I registered on Twitter strictly to keep up, be part of the flow, see what was posted there and what wasn't, who was posting there, and who wasn't. Many of my students post their every move in life there. So do many former students. And other assorted friends and acquaintances.

The other day, noticing that just four people were followng all four posts I've put up on Twitter in the last six months, I decided to go crazy and show, once and for all, that Twitter is twuly twuseless. And I banged out 200+ tweets (twits, whatever).

Some were sports related. (What's a Twitter account holder's favorite thing to see happen at a baseball game? A twouble-play. Who's a Twitter account holder's favorite player on a football team? The twuarterback.)

Some weren't sports related. (Did you hear about Twitter's new corporate motto? If at first you don't succeed, twy, twy again; What do you call a hooker with a Twitter account? Someone who stwuts her stuff.)

Suddenly, I had close to 90 followers on Twitter in less than 48 hours. It didn't matter how inane my posts were, as above. All the posts included "...a Twitter holder..." so as to make sure Twitter account holders knew I was spoofing them big-time, to let them know I didn't care that they were waiting in line at the car wash, stuck in LA traffic, deciding what zit cream to buy, or whatever they had to tweet (twit, whatever) with the rest of the world.

Something tells me I'm not alone, which is likely in good part why my number of followers on Twitter has increased rapidly.

But this is a sports blog, linked to my Journal of Sports Media blog line (http://www.journalsportsmedia.blogspot.com/), a professional journal for academics and working professionals interested in increasing their knowledge of and criticial-thinking perimeters about the work and world of sports media.

Think about it. There are plenty of sports and general media uses for Twitter, even if only in 140 character-max entries. I met a reporter at the Society of Professional Journalists conference in Atlanta last year who covered an entire murder trial on Twitter, sending his entries constantly to his office for immediate web-site posting and to any and all other followers trying to keep up with the high-profile murder trial instantly and immediately.

And it worked. When he took a break, when the trial took an adjournment, when the court stopped for lunch, he got hundreds of tweets (twits, whatever), inquiring what was going on, why he wasn't posting anymore, what was the delay. He was stunned, shocked, amazed.

This has sports applications too. Imagine updating instantly on Twitter from a sporting event, any sporting event, from the World Series to your local, urchin soccer game. Hundreds, even millions who couldn't be there or keep up in any other way, might appreciate it. OK, well, not millions and not at the local, urchin soccer game.

OK, I'll buy that. But please, tweeters (twitterers, whateverers) everywhere, please, stop telling me you need help deciding what shoes to wear, what sandals to buy and in what order to perform your daily toiletry routine: Twit, shower, shave; Shower, twit, shave; Shave, twit, shower.

OK, I've got to get back on Twitter. My loyal followerers miss me. Hey, someone's got to hold their hands while they twit, shower, shave.

###

Howard Schlossberg is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago (http://www.colum.edu/) and a sports correspondent for Paddock Publications' Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/), Arlington Heights, Ill., the only Chicago-area major-metro daily newspaper not operating in Chapter 11. He also serves on the editorial board of and as a contributor to The Journal of Sports Media (www.olemiss.edu/depts/journalism/JSMindex.html).

Give them my best...

I've got 50 million reasons to write this blog right now.

Most of them are spelled S-T-E-P-H-E-N S-T-R-A-S-B-U-R-G.

That translates to S-C-O-T-T B-O-R-A-S.

Boras is the agent who is going to boldly go where no agent has gone before: He's going to ask for that much money for the recent No. 1 MLB draft pick of the Washington Nationals, who can barely afford to light up all the letters on their stadium logo.

I'm not sure which one of them is on steroids: Strasburg's 95-mph arm or Boras' brain. Strasburg just completed a brilliant pitching career at San Diego State. Boras is, well, just an asshole who manipulates asshole owners into bidding against themselves (hi, Tom Hicks). If I was a Major League Baseball GM, I would never -- repeat never -- negotiate with a Boras client. Which is funny for me, especially since I've always been on the players' side in that the "reserve clause" amounted to slavery and with its demise they deserved all the money the owners were foolish enough to give them.

But Boras is one of those agents trying to make up a seven-run deficit with one swing instead of mounting a long-lasting rally.

Fifty million dollars is more than Barack Obama makes. More than Bill Clinton gets for a speaking appearance. More than Peyton Manning gets per completed pass. More than Dick Cheney's boys at Halliburton get for knocking down and rebuilding Iraq.

Well, maybe not for that last one.

But it's a lot. A lot to play a game. A lot to save the Nationals from themselves. MLB couldn't save them as "absentee" owners, so what makes anyone think they'll do it on their own?

Yo, Scott, Stephen, good luck. But now you know why I don't go to MLB games anymore (haven't since '94). It's not because of the price of the tickets - it's because of the size of the egos that fuel the price of the tickets.

***

I'm loving Dave Winfield as an analyst on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight." Hey Dave, ran into Luke Witte. He said to say hi and to shove a size 13 down your throat. Not sure of which you're more proud - the moment your Minnesota team stomped on him and his Ohio State teammates or when you knocked down a bird with a baseball.

With you aboard for baseball and Matt Millen for football, ESPN is sitting pretty, huh? ESPN always has the next Rush Limbaugh, Michael Irvin and/or Harold Reynolds ready to come on board, it seems. Real examples of a moral compass. Irvin, or course, has wasted no time blasting ESPN while promoting his new show on Spike, declaring that the all-sports network crowns whatever team signs Brett Favre out of retirement will be Super Bowl-bound.

Yeah, right, if they can all get tickets.

***

Anyone else impressed that Sammy Sosa announced he would soon announce formally that he was announcing his retirement from baseball and awaiting the official announcement of his admission into the Hall of Fame?

Yeah, me neither.

Sammy, don't wait in the green room at the announcement ceremony, unless you're with Rafael Palmiero, Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez, A-Rod, Roger Clemens and whoever else pops up on the steroid radar. Proven or not, it's perception that counts, and the perception of the media guys who vote for hall enshrinement is that you're as guilty as Ty Cobb was a racist, as Babe Ruth was an over-eater, as Mickey Mantle was deserving of that new kidney he got just before he died anyway and as hockey deserves a national TV contract.

And, oh yeah, Greg, you gonna' sue me, or what?

###

Howard Schlossberg is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago (http://www.colum.edu/) and a sports correspondent for The Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/) Arlington Heights, Ill.), the only Chicago-area metro daily not in Chapter 11. He also serves on the editorial advisory board of and contributes to The Journal of Sports Media (www.olemiss.edu/depts/journalism/JSMindex.html).

Why Teach (Sports) Journalism?

Why Teach Sports Journalism, or Journalism, for that matter?

Someone asked me recently how I justify to my students that they should go into journalism when the industry is being hit so hard by newspaper closures and industry-wide layoffs. What do I tell them?

Simply, that they have a chance to atone for the mistakes made by my generation of journalists. We did a lot of good stuff, yeah, but we screwed up for the most part and celebrated our sinners (Stephen Glass, Jason Blair) in sports and elsewhere. For instance…

Steroids: We let athletes get away with it and praised them and waited in line to interview them instead of getting the real story, from MLB to the Olympics.

Facilities: We praised our beauties of architecture, their sightlines, their creature comforts, their amenities, the jobs they supposedly created and the tax revenue they supposedly generated. Meanwhile, we forgot to check out the cost overruns until it was too late and the taxpayers got stuck with the bill. And when it comes to aesthetics, Soldier Field here in my Chicago resembles nothing else near it along the Windy City’s gorgeous lakefront, destroying an otherwise beautiful and consistent look there.

Meanwhile, financially, check out what Vancouver and London are experiencing now in terms of their budgets as they prep for their Olympics. Who do you think is gonna' pay the bill when Chicago gets the bid and the costs are way under-estimated? That has not yet been written about extensively enough and certainly wasn’t when the whistles should’ve been blown. Mayor Daley in Chicago is blowing smoke on this one.

Politics: Where were we while politicians were committing crimes? They're falling like flies now and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is going to take down as many with him as he can. He is going to taint President Obama. You watch. Believable or not, you watch. Where are the warnings? Where were the warnings? That's our job!

News priorities: Remember when you taught the six (yes, 6) ‘Dubyas’ and an H? Yet, Madonna, Shawn Johnson (Dancing With the Stars), American Idol, Survivor, et. al., continue to lead the newscasts. Wake up, America. We're in a war we aren't winning, we have a budget deficit that thousands of dollars per citizen couldn't erase and yet, Britney Spears was the leading name searched on Yahoo last year. Britney Spears!

So, all that in mind, I tell my students they have a lot of work to do in straightening out what's important in America, to America, while there is still an America we recognize.

I hope my rambling answered my friend/colleague’s question. But think about it, if you were an alien and you just landed in America from outer space and looked about, what would you think is most important around here?

In any event, see you at the Britney Spears concert. How about Britney and Paris in 2012...quite a ticket, huh? Can you see their campaign? Concerts and ‘A-list’ parties! Sign me up to cover that. At least they pay their taxes (don't they?). That's more than we can say for many in Obama's inner circle. No wonder so many of them are millionaires. Oops – we forgot to report that in a timely manner too, didn't we?

###

Howard Schlossberg is an associate professor of journalism at Columbia College Chicago (http://www.colum.edu/) and a sports correspondent for The Daily Herald (http://www.dailyherald.com/, Arlington Heights, Ill.), the only Chicago-area metro daily not in Chapter 11. He also serves on the editorial advisory board of and contributes to The Journal of Sports Media (http://muse/jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_sports_media/jsm.3.1.html).