I love the Smell of Headlines in the Morning

For some reason, the Rocky Mountain News has decided to feature a soft-focus personality piece on the cover of every Sports section. Why, I wonder? Do they feel the segment of the public that reads Sports first wants less news, more View? It's a baffler, I tells ya.

Today's feature was on George Karl and his son, Coby. Both of them have contracted and beaten cancer recently, Sunday is Father's Day--and the Rocky doesn't have a Sunday edition, so it had to run today--and it's got a nice hook. So, OK. I get it. I even understand why it's front page, though George's goblin-esque visage cracked the door on the microwave.

What I don't understand is why, during the Nuggets-Spurs series, the Rocky's sports editors did the same thing--but that time, it was a puffer on some high school swimmer. I have no issue with high school swimmers, swimmers, high schools, or high swim schoolers. But tell me that more people on the Rocky's distribution list care more about the watery goings-on of a suburban teenager than the Nuggets.

It's all part and parcel of the fall of print media. The desire to involve the public at every level; from increasing the number of personality profiles and raising their placement in the book to letting them write their own stories and post their own photos. It cheapens the craft of Journalism to so blatantly court the public's self-absorption.

My .02. Anyhow, 0-0 Cubs/Pads in the 3d. I've never liked the Padres. My aunt's family lived in San Diego for decades. My uncle and cousins were all big fans and I saw Goose Gossage get the save in my first major league game at the old Jack Murphy stadium (only one named after a journalist!), but I'll never forgive them for beating the Cubs in '84. Sun-baked bastards.