"State of Play" hits a home run for me

Just went and saw the movie “State of Play.” It has Russell Crowe and only one mention of sports, but it really hit home with me.

It’s a must-see murder/mystery/thriller with a backdrop of a fictional modern-day newspaper. It reveals the real-life financial problems and priorities of ownership and the frustrations editors and reporters face in this day and age of investigative media journalism where flash supercedes the facts. It used to be that newspapers brought you hard news, depth and insight from the locker room and the meeting rooms but now good journalism is too often seen through speculative, opinion-driven bloggers who don’t have or need access or named sources and people who have cell phone cameras and happen to be the right place at the right time.

And here I am now, blogging my own website and feeling a little hypocritical. But this forum, I’m told, is the way to go these days. I look at it as an outlet to express my passion and educated opinion of sports without, hopefully, demeaning or totally humiliating anyone.

As “State of Play” exposes, newspapers now put a premium on how the news is packaged, presented and pushed onto a website as soon as humanly possible and not enough on the care and commitment that goes into content, which seems to be sacrificed because of downsizing and dwindling space.

I’m OK with that. These are tough times that requires necessary changes and tough decisions. But I’m reminded in “State of Play” that there is value in print journalism and there are some people who still care to feel, smell, read and see it that way. So, if you need a break from watching the Giants and A’s lose more games than they win, make a play for “State of Play.” It hits a home run.