Sports news cutbacks

Just reading Street & Smith's lengthy report last week on the cutbacks in sports news coverage at daily papers.

It saddens me, as do cutbacks in journalism everywhere. But you're going to have to pardon me if I don't tear up. If it's a choice between sending yet another reporter on the road to the All-Star game or the Superbowl, or even, as the report notes, along with a team on a road trip ... and preserving a position that will ferret out wrongdoing at City Hall, I've gotta go with City Hall.

I know sports is NOT "just" about games. And I don't want to see sports coverage end. But I find myself these days reading pretty much just the analytical stuff. The rest I've gotten online or on TV.

Yes, traveling with the team can help analytical reporting. But there are a lot of political reporters who don't always travel with the candidates or office-holders and still do a pretty good job of it. Besides, looked closely at the type and amount of advertising in many sports sections these days? It was shrinking even before the bottom fell out of the industry.