More on sports news on page 1 of The Gazette

I've received a few comments about my Sunday, April 4, Gazette column about sports-related stories that make the newspaper's front page. Not many comments, but a few. Also, I've seen a couple of recent articles that seem to be pertinent to the discussion.

First, the comments, which I anticipated when I blogged on April 2 about the column in advance of it running in The Gazette:

One person left me a voice message saying he thinks all sports-related news should be in the sports section so he then can throw it away. A little harsh.

One person wrote an e-mail that he did not want published as a letter to the editor, but accepted instead as "a gentle criticism" (it was) of our failure to cover a recent event, a March 20 Eastern Iowa Science and Engineering Fair at Lindale Mall. Several hundred high school and middle school students from Eastern Iowa participated.

The writer makes a good point about kids at this event deserving attention for accomplishments but choices get made on any given day about how many things to cover, and for the newspaper's available pages they are based on things in which a larger audience is interested. We sent reporters on March 20 to cover the appearance of the Democratic Party candidates' appearance at the Linn County party convention and Tea Party activitists' efforts to lobby Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, about the federal health care bill. We ran from March 20 a photo of a Girl Scout Daisy attending a Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show and photos of antiwar protesters in Cedar Rapids.

One person sent an e-mail that wondered: "Hmmm... when Accent is inserted as an after-thought in the Sports Section, are you contributing to this perception?" I disagree that news on any page is buried. Also, Accent is not an afterthought, just like Opinion, Nation/World news, obituaries and business coverage are not buried. Every page of the paper has important information.

However, we aim to please large audiences and this e-mailer makes that point when writing next: "Sports drive big business... when coaches receive two or three times the salary of college presidents and arts programs are being cut, what does this say about our culture?"

Exactly. No disagreement about that last statement.

As the column noted, sports is out of whack when it comes to important things people do every day. However, sports is big business that people pay attention to, thus coverage when it creates buzz. I say this as the parent of children who have reached certain accomplishments important to them that I'd have been pleased to tell people know about when the kids were young, but which would generate no buzz. In fact, I don't know anyone who'd care about them other than their family.

Another person wrote on my Facebook page that he liked the column. I noted that I had heard from a few people who had criticisms. "If a bank goes broke it makes the front page, not just the financial section," he replied. In other words, if sports-related news draws a large amount of attention it becomes bigger news than what you'd deliver to just a sports audience.

Here are a couple of articles that are related to this attention sports gets. One is an opinion piece in the Sunday, April 4, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier by University of Northern Iowa econmics professor, Fred Abraham. It is pertinent because it argues that sports is important at a state university like UNI.

Another is this story in the Sunday, April 4, Press-Citizen about success by the University of Iowa debate team.

Which one did you click first?