America's Team

I'm one of the dwindling number of Americans who read a daily hard copy newspaper. My morning ritual is to lay on the floor with a cup of coffee and read the paper. When I lived in Washington my morning paper was the Seattle P-I. In Fort Worth it is the Star-Telegram. To be blunt and to the point, Washington has a much higher high school graduation rate, much higher number of college graduates, Seattle leads the nation in number of book readers and I'll just say that the quality of the P-I reflects the quality of its readers. And so does the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram has recently had a big makeover they touted as an improvement. It wasn't. Basically they are losing subscribers and revenue and had to cut back. So, a lot of columnists were fired and features reduced. Like on Sunday the Weekly Review is now 4 pages long. I think it used to be 8. It used to take me a half hour or so to read the Sunday paper. Now I'm lucky if it takes longer than 15 minutes. Here is one good example of how dumb this newspaper is. Up til the BIG CHANGE Tuesday's were what they called Family Day. When I guess families were supposedly supposed to sit around and read the paper. So, on Family Day, on many an occasion, a Dear Abby column would be altered to say something like "Today's Dear Abby was not considered suitable for Family Day and will run tomorrow." Every time I saw that I'd think to myself have they no consideration for those families who read the paper every day? Shouldn't they be totally protected from the evil Dear Abby letter?

If you want another good example of how bad a newspaper can be, go here and be appalled and amused.

And that brings us to today's Star-Telegram. On the front page of this sad excuse for a major city newspaper, under the headline at the top of the page "Everyone's a Winner" with a sub-heading in large letters saying "The Cowboys are at the top of their game. And that's good for everybody. Their success is felt far and wide and measured in dollars and happiness." And then the rest of the article in normal sized print saying, "Are you feeling good about the Dallas Cowboys this season? You're not alone. The team's success has a real effect on how we go about our lives. The Cowboys can stir emotions and spirits in such a way that individuals, and in many cases businesses, are more productive. And it's not just a local thing, either. When you're 13-3 and in the NFL playoffs and are America's Team, the impact can be far-reaching. Call it success by association."

That was on the front page. The sports page was worse. With a long article under the headline "Cowboys' success makes the world a better place". You may read more of that article and other good stuff about America's Team by going here. Or read the entire Star-Telegram article in all its goofy glory in its online version.