Now
some have tried to make much of the fact that when the New York Times bought
the Boston Globe, they paid $1.1 billion. Or the fact that the Washington Post on Monday was sold for $250 million. The sale price is significantly less.
ALTHOUGH
THAT ANGLE doesn’t intrigue me as much as the idea of just who actually bought
the paper. Professional sports and news coverage have always been intertwined,
and not just in Boston.
Here
in Chicago, we had the ultimate combination of the two entities for the nearly
three decades that Tribune Co. included among its assets the Chicago Cubs.
We
had many decades worth of conspiracy theories about how the Chicago Tribune
tailored its news coverage to bolster the Cubbie-blue image, thereby making it
more attractive as a broadcast property carried over Tribune-owned television
and radio stations.
A
true combination of interests that was appalling to anyone who cared less about
the Cubs!
IT’S
NOT UNIQUE. Let’s not forget how Ted Turner turned his local Atlanta television
station into a cable television powerhouse by carrying Atlanta Braves baseball –
making it possible for people who didn’t live near any major league market to
be able to watch Major League Baseball games on a regular basis.
And
let’s not forget how Rupert Murdoch tried to bolster Fox broadcasting interests
with a stint owning the Los Angeles Dodgers.
So
the Globe and the Red Sox being business partners? This one is a little
different. Because in this case, the ball club is going to be the dominant partner.
Instead
of a case where a media property is hoping to bolster itself and its
programming options by operating a baseball club, this is a case where a
baseball club is going to have say over the coverage that it gets.
IS
THE BOSTON Globe about to become a butt-kissing rag for the Red Sox that lives
up to the worst conspiracy theories that Chicago White Sox fans have always
held about the Chicago Tribune?
 |
| The new HQ of the Boston Globe? |
I’d
hate to think so. Because that is a situation where nobody would benefit. It
can only be hoped that the new Globe owners view themselves as Boston people
wanting to benefit their community to the point where they see their two
business properties as being separate entities.
Because
a news reporting property has more to it than a sports section, and it would be
pathetic if people wanting to know more about Boston would have to turn to the
Boston Herald for a more honest view of what happened in the world –
considering that the Herald has its own ideological hang-ups it wishes to live
up to.
I
have always suspected that the decline of the newspaper medium was going to
have consequences that would not be appreciated until it was too late to do
anything about it. Many people just don’t comprehend how much the newspaper
medium is the one that picks up on stories and does research that gets picked
up by news programs on so many broadcast and Internet mediums.
AND
WHILE I comprehend that a new generation exists that wants information
presented to them on their assorted gadgets rather than the printed page, there
are still assets of a newspaper that can be converted over to other
information-based mediums.
 |
| Globe has headaches no longer at Tribune |
Watching the Chicago media scene all these years, I am convinced that many Tribune people tried to avoid conflicts during that period when the paper was a business partner with the Cubs. But there were many moments when conflicts just couldn’t be avoided, and the paper came off looking ridiculous.
The
Red Sox owners haven’t said what they plan to do with the Globe. Let’s hope
they don’t bring ridiculous moments upon themselves on purpose.
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