Inviting Outside Criticism

This is one of the best ideas I’ve heard for a newspaper in a while. Apparently, the L.A. Times has started a new feature where once a week a member of the public can publish a column criticising the Times’ coverage of some issue. As someone who has a lot of beefs with various newspapers and their coverage of issues, I think it’s a great idea. Furthermore, it’s a great idea in general to allow someone to have a platform in which they can go against the accepted ideology the newspaper has.

It’s a somewhat-limited platform, for sure, and it’s not going to solve the “problem” to give someone one column a year in which to offer an alternate opinion. Nevertheless, it allows the public the chance to get involved with the newspaper, to have a real avenue to respond to what the newspaper is saying (something letters to the editor don’t provide in a satisfactory sense) and it encourages dialogue, which is hardly ever a bad thing.

Of course, I stumbled across this in a column relating to baseball, but it’s still worth the read. I’ll post some highlights, and keep in mind both Plaschke and Simers cover sports for the Times, the former specifically covers the L.A. Dodgers.

As every long-suffering sports fan in this town knows all too well, "the Los Angeles media" is unfortunately synonymous with the Sports section of the paper you are holding. Especially its two loud-mouthed, value-subtracting columnists, Plaschke and T.J. Simers.

The two have had it in for DePodesta since his first day on the job. Plaschke greeted the new GM by calling him a "computer nerd," "webmaster," "General Manager.com," "Bill Gates," a "kid who relies on equations" and "speaks in megabytes" … and that was just in his first column. Simers immediately declared that the "Dodgers Come Up Short on New General Manager," and he has spent the time since vacillating between "Google Boy" and "Computer Boy" for a nickname. (The Times' Sports section, apparently, is still produced via typewriter and carrier pigeon.)

Taunts and strong opinions come with the territory — they're columnists, after all! — but in their zeal to discredit DePodesta and the management philosophy he represents, Plaschke and Co. forgot a fundamental journalistic duty: to have some idea about what they're talking about.

….

Plaschke also snorted: "To fill shoes once worn by Branch Rickey and Al Campanis, should McCourt really have hired a 31-year-old who had never been to Dodger Stadium?"

Rickey became a manager (which back in 1913 meant general manager as well) … at age 31! Brian Cashman, the New York Yankees GM with three World Series rings and eight consecutive playoff appearances, took over the job at age … 30! Theo Epstein, also 31, just stepped down as Boston GM after three consecutive playoff appearances and a World Series victory of his own.

….

The worst part isn't that the columnists' complaints about DePodesta are wrong, it's that they're often right. (Or at least, that I agree with them.) The young GM was painfully lacking in people-management skills and made a bunch of questionable moves. But if Southern Californians want an intelligent discussion of these issues, one where the truth matters more than either clumsy insults about "spreadsheets" or smooching Tommy Lasorda's behind, they know where to go: the Web. Maybe that's why Plaschke hates the Internet so much: People there are doing his job, only better.

If you’re curious, here is a link to a previous column criticising the newspaper’s coverage of public schools and here is one criticising how the Times portrayed the Cindy Sheehan story.

In discussing the article afterwards, Welch said this piece was the most heavily-aimed at particular columnists of the 10 or so columns in the series the Times has published. Welch is a fine writer and one of the smartest Dodger fans on the internet and it’s great to see him deservedly trashing one of the most idiotic writers in the field, Bill Plaschke. I wonder if Plaschke will acknowledge what was written in any of his upcoming columns. I highly doubt it.

However, I do hope other newspapers follow the lead of the Times and institute this as a regular feature. It’s not a solution to the many of the problems with print journalism these days, but it’s a start.