Also! Post Reporter Complains About Fellow Employee's Pay!!

Sorry about that headline. But I noticed the following in Mike Klis' Broncos mailbag, as part of a fairly boring question and a pretty patronizing answer. I'm posting the whole question for background:

Mike - Do local sports journalists, who cover professional sports for a city paper, choose sides? It appears to me that some writers are pro-Broncos and others are anti-Broncos. One would think that Denver writers would benefit from people garnering an interest in the team, no?
-- Steve O'Reilly, Naples, Fla.

Steve - I appreciate your perspective. By working in Denver, all local sports journalists essentially "choose" to cover the Broncos. We neither root for them, nor wish them defeat. Only the Broncos win. Only the Broncos lose. Not us. All we do is cover the result.

If they win, we explain why. The game's hero will receive lavish praise. If they lose, we explain why. The game's goat will be criticized. I haven't met a human being yet who wasn't touchy to criticism. Most pro athletes think media coverage is 90 percent negative. I think it's 80 to 90 percent positive, but the 10 to 20 percent negative is 100 percent what they remember.

Win or lose, success or failure, the journalist's primary mission is to present the truth. The truth is always harsher in defeat. Some journalists are thicker skinned than others and are allowed greater latitude to express their opinions. They tend to be more skilled writers and emphatic with the truth. We call them columnists. In Woody Paige and Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post has the best sports-columnist duo in the country.

Other journalists are ordered by editors to write a straight story - present the facts and let the readers decide. These people are called reporters who complain about not making nearly as much money as Woody.

Especially considering the bit about Kiszla and Paige being the finest such pair in the nation, it's probable that he's joking. But it's fair to say there's some tension in that newsroom. Especially since it's not clear that Woody Paige is still actually working.

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