Quick Read

Writing is not science… Most of us who write, simply wanted to see something interesting everyday and write a story about it… The trick is to inject enough of someone else’s world into the story, so the readers feel a part of that world. The Dispatch’s staff never learned that lesson…

A perfect example was today’s Dallas Lauderdale profile (sports page)… Evidently, Lauderdale’s mother has multiple sclerosis and Dallas had to sacrifice a lot while maturing… The concept looked as though a box of Kleenex would be required… The actual reading, required Red Bull to get me through it… The story was bland, laced with feeble quotes, and more about basketball than sacrifice… If this kid had it tough, make us believe he had it tough…

Equally frustrating was the story concerning Steve Mason’s All-Star snub, which was buried on page five and the story about city officials rescheduling or quickening activities on game days, which was buried on the metro’s page three… Mason’s story showcases why this is not and never will be good for professional sports… Here is one of the best young goalies in the league and his own paper doesn’t think he’s front page material, because they might have to bury a Buckeyes story… The story on city officials was well written and entertaining… Unfortunately, it was page one material and three days late… (They should have run it and not that cheesy, O-H-I-O story on Sunday)…

The weekender special section did have an excellent profile on OSU’s “Thurber Dogs” project… (It was charming) and the metro section’s story on Derrick Foster pleading guilty (metro front), gave me more information than any of the networks… but still, this was a day where the journalists forgot their job was journalism…