How social media makes for lazy journalism

A few weeks back I was texting back and forth with my oldest son, Grant, who’s a grown man with a family of his own.  He’s also a diehard baseball fan, just like his old man. 

During a National League playoff game we were watching together, several hundred miles apart, we began sending text messages to each other. 

The Chicago Cubs were playing the Washington Nationals, as I recall.

In one text I sent I said “I don’t like (Cubs manager) Joe Maddon.” 

Grant asked why.

Real journalism: Still on life support

Editor's note: The following is a Facebook post I wrote in November of 2015, after seeing then-University of Missouri Communications Dept. assistant professor Melissa Click take part in threatening a student journalist attempting to cover a campus protest. 
My sentiments haven't changed a bit, so I definitely feel like it's worth re-posting on this blog. 


I won't say journalism is dead, but in many ways the journalism I fell in love with as a kid is all but gone. Those who cared to notice saw the signs of decay worsen over the past few years, but the sickening video of a journalist attempting to cover University of Missouri protests earlier this week encapsulates exactly what's wrong. 

C'mon, man! Newton needs to know better than to use sexist remark

ESPN has a segment on its popular show “Monday Night Countdown” in which analysts choose something strange, funny or unbelievable that occurred during the previous week’s football-related events and have a good laugh about it. 

The segment is called, “C’mon, man.” 

Not everything ESPN does appeals to me personally, but for the most part “C’mon man” is fresh and fairly clever. 

In the wake of tragedy, how about we wait a few days before ramping up the rhetoric?

"What a terribly senseless tragedy,” we say, slowing down for a pious second or two before lunging for the virtual soapbox. 

By “terribly senseless tragedy” I mean what went on in Las Vegas over the weekend; or any other frighteningly violent event in which innocent people are shot, stabbed, bombed or run over.