Joe Paterno on the state of journalism…
It’s always fun to see a public figure step out from his realm of expertise and offer opinions elsewhere. On Tuesday, Joe Paterno, the 82 year-old head coach of Penn State football, responded to a press conference question and rambled his way into a couple of poignant thoughts on print journalism and media consolidation:
You’re influenced by what people are after you to say something because you’re competing. It’s like I don’t even turn on the television set anymore, because one television station is anti-Obama. You like somebody [to] have an impartial view of some things because they studied it and they know about it. And they’re not being influenced by the guy that owns the paper or the guy that owns the radio station so it’s a different world and it’s not the kind of world that I’m comfortable with.
On internet’s effect on journalism:
I read the newspapers. I feel bad about the way things have gone with the newspaper business, with the guys, with the whatever they call it, computers, getting all that stuff on. Because it’s taking away some of the guys…who set a standard for writing. People don’t realize guys, they were all sports writers first. Grant Rice and those guys, and I don’t know, it’s a different world. And I’m not part of that world. I’m really not. I love to read the newspapers. I’d love to read the sports page, but to be very frank with you, I don’t because so much of it you guys base on what you are getting in an e-mail.
With exception to that last part about e-mail not being a reliable source of information, JoePa makes some insightful commentary and it isn’t far off from what other, more tech-savvy media commentators have echoed.
