My new and revamped Sports Illustrated arrived in the mail yesterday, and the magazine's transition to the People magazine of sports continues. SI used to be a magazine with great reporting and great writing and incredible photos. Hopefully, the photos will remain. Because the dumbing down of the magazine to People level is just about complete. SI has even included a section called "The Vault," where they reprint something from 10, 15, 20 years ago. Call me cynical, but this sure seems like an easy way to fill space created by layoffs. It also seems lazy. The rest is charts and inane poppycock/drivel — like what athletes think will happen to Lindsay Lohan. Who cares? This silliness comes from the same people who brought great reporting on steroid use, who broke the Alex Rodriguez story, who pioneered some of the investigative elements of sports journalism. SI has some excellent reporters and writers (Peter King, Ian Thomsen and others). But turning the publication into trivia and ridiculous graphics is pretty silly. Folks say the internet is killing journalism, but that's wrong. It's just changing the way people read. I submit that with the internet people might actually be reading more than ever — because more is available. I don't know the answer for print publications and magazines, but dumbing them down like this sure doesn't seem like a solution.
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ESPN has become the same way.
My dad, who is also an avid reader of yours, is quite vocal about how much he hates that these sports networks, and in this case magazines, have become like this. We were watching something about the draft and they were asking for their top five movie football character draft picks… REALLY?!
It's hard for me to hate them though, because the sad fact is that they're pandering. Apparently the majority of the sports fan base, or at least the ones who spend money, WANT this. I'm 23 and that makes me EMBARRASSED to be a part of this MySpace generation.