Sam Smith

I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
going to be? Can the new guy come up with as many crazy trades
as Sam?

On Mar 25, 6:29 pm, Frank Sereno <fserenonos...@nospamsbcglobal.net>
wrote:
> I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
> on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
> Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
> to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
> going to be?

If the trend in the newspaper business holds true, it'll be either
K.C. Johnson covering both jobs or joined by a blogger.

Marc Heiden wrote:
> On Mar 25, 6:29 pm, Frank Sereno <fserenonos...@nospamsbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>> I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
>> on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
>> Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
>> to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
>> going to be?
>
> If the trend in the newspaper business holds true, it'll be either
> K.C. Johnson covering both jobs or joined by a blogger.

I think the Trib has one other guy that writes the occasional
Bulls story, but I can't remember his name at the moment. Maybe
they'll go after a Usenet guy and sign up TD?

"Marc Heiden" <m.heiden@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7ede68a6-282c-4f1f-82ea-9ada3d270678@e60g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 25, 6:29 pm, Frank Sereno <fserenonos...@nospamsbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>> I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
>> on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
>> Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
>> to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
>> going to be?
>
> If the trend in the newspaper business holds true, it'll be either
> K.C. Johnson covering both jobs or joined by a blogger.


Anything will be better than Smith, surely. Has anyone seen the episode of
South Park in which they poke fun of the Family Guy writing? Kyle (I think)
gets the chance to meet the "infamously reclusive" Family Guy writing staff
and discovers, in fact, an aquarium full of manatees who push "idea balls"
randomly into "story baskets"; voila, a new storyline. I have my suspicions
that Smith may have been employing the services of those very same manatees
with some of the crap he's come up with.

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:20:02 -0500, Brad wrote
(in article <47ea4e14$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au>):

> "Marc Heiden" <m.heiden@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:7ede68a6-282c-4f1f-82ea-9ada3d270678@e60g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>> On Mar 25, 6:29 pm, Frank Sereno <fserenonos...@nospamsbcglobal.net>
>> wrote:
>>> I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
>>> on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
>>> Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
>>> to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
>>> going to be?
>>
>> If the trend in the newspaper business holds true, it'll be either
>> K.C. Johnson covering both jobs or joined by a blogger.
>
>
> Anything will be better than Smith, surely. Has anyone seen the episode of
> South Park in which they poke fun of the Family Guy writing? Kyle (I think)
> gets the chance to meet the "infamously reclusive" Family Guy writing staff
> and discovers, in fact, an aquarium full of manatees who push "idea balls"
> randomly into "story baskets"; voila, a new storyline. I have my suspicions
> that Smith may have been employing the services of those very same manatees
> with some of the crap he's come up with.
>
>

I do disagree: IMO, Smith was one of the better columnists in a city that
has very few good ones - and far too many terrible ones.

I always liked his fantasy trades.

Plus, he seemed to be a voice of moderation when all else was voicing
extremes - including me and us here, but also those in the media, print and
talk radio.

A good writer who's columns I will miss.

"David" <davidis1@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:0001HW.C410709B000347EDF0182648@newsgroups.co mcast.net...
> On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:20:02 -0500, Brad wrote
> (in article <47ea4e14$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au>):
>
>> "Marc Heiden" <m.heiden@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:7ede68a6-282c-4f1f-82ea-9ada3d270678@e60g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>>> On Mar 25, 6:29 pm, Frank Sereno <fserenonos...@nospamsbcglobal.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>> I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
>>>> on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
>>>> Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
>>>> to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
>>>> going to be?
>>>
>>> If the trend in the newspaper business holds true, it'll be either
>>> K.C. Johnson covering both jobs or joined by a blogger.
>>
>>
>> Anything will be better than Smith, surely. Has anyone seen the episode
>> of
>> South Park in which they poke fun of the Family Guy writing? Kyle (I
>> think)
>> gets the chance to meet the "infamously reclusive" Family Guy writing
>> staff
>> and discovers, in fact, an aquarium full of manatees who push "idea
>> balls"
>> randomly into "story baskets"; voila, a new storyline. I have my
>> suspicions
>> that Smith may have been employing the services of those very same
>> manatees
>> with some of the crap he's come up with.
>>
>>
>
> I do disagree: IMO, Smith was one of the better columnists in a city that
> has very few good ones - and far too many terrible ones.
>
> I always liked his fantasy trades.
>
> Plus, he seemed to be a voice of moderation when all else was voicing
> extremes - including me and us here, but also those in the media, print
> and
> talk radio.
>
> A good writer who's columns I will miss.


It wasn't so much his writing that I disliked - he was certainly lucid
enough - but the fact that every second column seemed to be an incredibly
far-fetched "what if" scenario. It doesn't strike me as good journalism.

Brad wrote:
> "David" <davidis1@attbi.com> wrote in message
> news:0001HW.C410709B000347EDF0182648@newsgroups.co mcast.net...
>> On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:20:02 -0500, Brad wrote
>> (in article <47ea4e14$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au>):
>>
>>> "Marc Heiden" <m.heiden@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:7ede68a6-282c-4f1f-82ea-9ada3d270678@e60g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>>>> On Mar 25, 6:29 pm, Frank Sereno <fserenonos...@nospamsbcglobal.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> I don't know if this has been mentioned in the Trib, but tonight
>>>>> on Comcast Dave Kaplan mentioned that Sam Smith was leaving the
>>>>> Tribune but that he would be appearing on Comcast once per week
>>>>> to talk about the NBA. I wonder who the new NBA beat guy is
>>>>> going to be?
>>>> If the trend in the newspaper business holds true, it'll be either
>>>> K.C. Johnson covering both jobs or joined by a blogger.
>>>
>>> Anything will be better than Smith, surely. Has anyone seen the episode
>>> of
>>> South Park in which they poke fun of the Family Guy writing? Kyle (I
>>> think)
>>> gets the chance to meet the "infamously reclusive" Family Guy writing
>>> staff
>>> and discovers, in fact, an aquarium full of manatees who push "idea
>>> balls"
>>> randomly into "story baskets"; voila, a new storyline. I have my
>>> suspicions
>>> that Smith may have been employing the services of those very same
>>> manatees
>>> with some of the crap he's come up with.
>>>
>>>
>> I do disagree: IMO, Smith was one of the better columnists in a city that
>> has very few good ones - and far too many terrible ones.
>>
>> I always liked his fantasy trades.
>>
>> Plus, he seemed to be a voice of moderation when all else was voicing
>> extremes - including me and us here, but also those in the media, print
>> and
>> talk radio.
>>
>> A good writer who's columns I will miss.
>
>
> It wasn't so much his writing that I disliked - he was certainly lucid
> enough - but the fact that every second column seemed to be an incredibly
> far-fetched "what if" scenario. It doesn't strike me as good journalism.
>

I was going to trim some of this and then I became afraid I'd
trim out the wrong attributions so I left it as it is. I'll make
this comment regarding Sam Smith. He really wasn't a journalist,
but a columnist. A journalist's job is to present the news in an
unbiased manner. A columnist's job is to sell newspapers.

One wouldn't think that being a columnist would preclude being a
good journalist and in many cases it doesn't, but you don't have
to look far to find the hacks who make a living out writing stuff
that stirs people up.