It's still ten feet

I love Hoosiers. I love TV news. Combine the two, and that's something after my heart.

One of my favorite new blogs is TV News Grapevine. It's written by a veteran in the news business who offers a new piece of advice/wisdom each day. As someone now entering his second year in the bid'ness (thank you, Dan Garrity), it has been wonderful to get some perspective about what we go through in this industry.

Today, he takes one of Hoosiers' most iconic scenes and applies it to the TV news industry.

It's still ten feet.

I could not agree more.

It's a strange thing about being in a small, beginner market. The news may seem different than what you will find in a larger city, and certainly it can seem like there's less of it. But TV stations in small markets are sometimes caught in this strange space - they either want to accept the small town aspect and say nothing important ever happens in that city, or go the exact opposite and push back against the small town image, trying to make every story the most important story ever. One week you will do the cat fashion show story, the next week you will be told a school fundraiser isn't "hard news" enough.

The trouble is that you cannot get stuck on one end of the spectrum or the other. It's a delicate balancing act. The end result, however, should be to believe in everything you cover. Have a reason to cover it, then treat it with the respect it deserves.

In the smaller markets, not everything is going to be hard news. But being in a smaller market shouldn't prevent you from taking a serious approach to hard news. The rules for good reporting are the same everywhere.

It's still ten feet.

A few years ago when I wrote for my college newspaper, I spoke to our newspaper staff, and gave a fairly scathing critique of the way the paper covered a more serious University story. Basically, the layout treated it as a joke, practically making it into a cartoon on the front page. I said if we didn't take the story seriously, our readers wouldn't take it seriously.

The editor who designed the layout shot back with "We aren't the New York Times."

"Yes," a fellow editor and I said back. "But that doesn't mean we can't strive to be."

In the years since, as I've watched "small-market" TV news from across the country and read news stories online, I've sensed a feeling from some people working at news outlets - some of their employees think they cannot be the New York Times, simply because of where they are geographically. Not everyone subscribes to that line of thinking, but an attitude like that from just a few people can make a big difference on the whole. I've met people who have shared the thought of "there are six people watching, what does it matter?"

Then let's have some great coverage for those six viewers.

If a small-time mentality takes hold, whether it's a college newspaper or a professional TV station, it can be hard to get out of. But it's still ten feet, no matter where the newsroom is located.

Throw away the key

The NBA is officially locked out.

Look around on NBA.com, and you won't find evidence that the players even exist. Every image has been scrubbed from the Web site. In the place of the usual promotional materials, there are articles adorned with the words "standoff," "issues," and "uncertainty."

Until the owners and players learn to act nice, we're not getting any basketball anytime soon.

Good. Lock them out.

It will spare Blazer fans of another gradual step down before the team had even made it to the top.

It's hard to believe that a team with so much promise during the past four season only peaked with consecutive first-round exits. But here we are, during a time when the team would normally be preparing for the next season, and the team looks no better than when it was struggling to contain Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks in the 2009 playoffs.

Management has imploded, and the team still has no idea what direction to go in. All of the recent wheeling and dealing has just been sound and fury, signifying nothing. When the dust finally settled, the team had taken one giant step ... to the side.

Another year of the Brandon Roy Farewell Tour. He'll have a couple games where we catch glimpses of the amazing player he once was, but then force us to watch as he limps up and down the court, desperately trying to recapture something that isn't there.

Another year of Marcus Camby being a little bit older, a little bit slower.

Another year of relying on third-tier players to help win games, like Wesley Matthews and Raymond Felton.

Another season of backup point guard from Jarrett Jack, er... Steve Blake, uh... Sergio Rodriguez, uh...Jerryd Bayless, er...Patty Mills, er... Armon Johnson, er...Nolan Smith.

And of course, another year without Greg Oden.

The excitement has dimmed, and the lockout will save fans another season in which the team slips down another rung on the ladder.

Compare this to the last lockout in 1998-99, when Blazer fans were itching see the team take the court. The Blazers were ready for a full season with Damon Stoudamire, who at that time was still one of the most exciting young point guards in the league. They had Brian Grant on the boards and Rasheed Wallace starting to come into his own. Things were on an upswing after several mediocre years of watching Kenny Anderson and Gary Trent try to lead a middling team to the playoffs (two notable point guards of the era: John Crotty and Rick Brunson). Steps were finally being taken forward.

Who knows? Without a lockout, maybe this Blazer team would've been something. Maybe LaMarcus Aldridge would've elevated his game to an even higher level this season. Maybe Gerald Wallace would suddenly turn into a winner. Maybe Nicolas Batum will decide another year of erratic playing time is the catalyst to turn him into a superstar.

But is this team worth a fifth straight season of "maybe?"