[joebloe888]

Let's see if any of you newspaper guys (i.e. Beau Dure) out there will chime in with your outrage.

The ever-shrinking sports department at the Los Angeles Times, run by the notorious Bill Dwyer, chose to keep its two MLS beat reporters, Grahame Jones (Galaxy) and Paul Gutierrez (Chivas USA), at home and made them cover MLS road games this past Saturday by watching TV.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer...-sports-soccer

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer...-sports-soccer

If you MLS fans in LA haven't switched over to La Opinion yet, then why haven't you?

The LA Times sports section, if it hasn't been the butt of jokes already, has become one.

(Never mind the disgraceful way the LA Times sports section was left in the dust by other media outlets on the D.Lowe-C.Hughes scandal by sitting on the story for weeks and not publish anything until 4 days after the story broke.)

[The Cadaver]

How else would the LAT find pages to write about politically incorrect college mascots. (Seminole = bad, Aztec = good).

What wonderful insight we get from post-game interviews, etc., when the reporter sees the same TV show we did

On the other hand, why haven't I switched to La Opinion? Duh.... You really need to ask that question? BTW: Did La Opinion send a reporter to Denver to cover the last LAG game? Just asking.

[elknco1]

in this day in age, with the internet and all that, who needs the LAT? the AP covers things well enough. i just goto LAT to read things I already know. makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[cosmojado]

Originally Posted by joebloe888

The ever-shrinking sports department at the Los Angeles Times, run by the notorious Bill Dwyer, chose to keep its two MLS beat reporters, Grahame Jones (Galaxy) and Paul Gutierrez (Chivas USA), at home and made them cover MLS road games this past Saturday by watching TV.

you just notice that? many an article ends with Grahme Jones/Paul Gutierrez reported from Los Angeles

[PZ]

Originally Posted by joebloe888

If you MLS fans in LA haven't switched over to La Opinion yet, then why haven't you?

My Spanish is still limited to being able to order another beer while on vaction in Mexico.

This is nothing new...actually it is...until fairly recently, the LA Times would just publish AP wire reports for road games. At least now HRH Jones is now forced to at least watch the match and rewrite the wire report. In case you haven't noticed, he's been doing that for his soccer column for years...it's only recently that he's had much MLS content.

Then again, he'll be in Germany next summer covering England.

[Sandon Mibut]

Well, most of the soccer I watch on TV, the announcers are in a studio and not the game, so this isn't that much different.

I mean, how often is the FSC announcer at the game? Or ESPN2 for the Champions League or GolTV or Univision or ESPN for many of the World Cup games or Setanta for the games not in England (or even in England), etc...

Sometimes it costs them as they make a mistake they wouldn't have made if they were there, but for the most part, it doesn't effect how I watch the game too much. So if it doesn't impact, too greatly, the way the people calling the game do their thing, I can't imagine it impacts how the game is written up too much.

[Che chico!]

[QUOTE=joebloe888]If you MLS fans in LA haven't switched over to La Opinion yet, then why haven't you?[QUOTE]

Can you get it in English?

[The Cadaver]

Originally Posted by Sandon Mibut

Well, most of the soccer I watch on TV, the announcers are in a studio and not the game, so this isn't that much different.

The difference is the medium. A newspaper story is not a substitue for a play-by-play account. A good beat writer develops a relationship with the coach and players, is able to get "backstory" and flesh out the report with insights above and beyond what we hear from the announcer and color man.

None of that can be done from a distance. If there is a post-game press conference, its not carried on the TV and the writer who is just doing a story from the broadcast misses it. The play-by-play from the studio can be done (but even there the announcer misses what is happening away from the ball and off camera) but the news story can't be done at a distance.

[DogmaticFtbolFanatic]

Originally Posted by The Cadaver

The difference is the medium. A newspaper story is not a substitue for a play-by-play account. A good beat writer develops a relationship with the coach and players, is able to get "backstory" and flesh out the report with insights above and beyond what we hear from the announcer and color man.

None of that can be done from a distance. If there is a post-game press conference, its not carried on the TV and the writer who is just doing a story from the broadcast misses it. The play-by-play from the studio can be done (but even there the announcer misses what is happening away from the ball and off camera) but the news story can't be done at a distance.

I agree with The Cadaver on this one but do the LA Times soccer beat writers do this anyway? I stopped reading the LA Times but most of what I read online seems to be very close to the AP account of a match. I never really feel the writer is adding much insight to the article. I am always dissapointed with the articles in terms of describing the overall atmosphere, player thoughts, coaches thoughts, etc. Obviously at this point what little of that insight used to exist will probably go away for away matches. To be honest I'm surprised to hear that they travelled to away matches at all.

[Geneva]

Whining is all very good, and fun, too, but the fact is the Times has cut sports in general back a lot the last few years, but I think this year we've had an increase in the coverage of soccer compared to last year. How many papers (besides the Times) sent their main soccer guy to cover the US at the Gold Cup? There is an article more days than not. For the Colorado game, I seem to remember some quotes I didn't read elsewhere, so he may have done a phone interview. And HRH's bashing of MLS has decreased significantly. I'm generally encouraged.

And it seems to me the Orange County Register is doing more than it used to.