Is it possible to be a victim of too much media coverage? Ask New York Knicks rookie phenom Jeremy Lin–he’ll say Absolutely.
Over the past month, “Lin-Sanity” has swept the nation, mainly through ESPN’s most-watched program SportsCenter. Deadspin.com reported that any form of “Lin” or even “Super-Lin-Tendo” was dropped around 350 times last week, topping LeBron James, Tiger Woods, and even All-Star teammate Carmelo Anthony.
University of Illinois men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber is under fire. The Illinois coach with a record of 209-96, two Big Ten titles and one trip to the NCAA national championship game, is under intense scrutiny from local and national media concerning the direction his program is headed.
Weber has a losing record in Big Ten play since the 2006 season, the year after former coach Bill Self’s players departed. Fans have criticized him for years and with a new athletic director and a season rapidly spinning out of control, this likely is Weber’s last season as Illinois men’s basketball coach.
The press generally applauded this month when the Senate Judiciary
Committee voted to require the U. S. Supreme Court to televise
proceedings. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was one of the big
proponents.
As a card-carrying member of the press, I have reservations.
At the annual dinner of the United Media Guild, in St. Louis on Jan. 27, a special tribute was given to Robert Douglas, a former respected St. Louis Post-Dispatch newsroom aide who died in December.
When Douglas and other clerks were forced to take early retirement in 2008, they had health insurance provided by the Post. But they lost it when the paper, and its corporate owner, Lee Enterprises, canceled it for Guild retirees.
Late in the 20th century college newspapers seemed to be weathering the newspaper industry’s financial downturn better than most professional dailies. That’s no longer the case.
The latest college paper to make death-rattle headlines is the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois in Champaign where movie critic alum Roger Ebert is helping raise money for the paper where he got his start.