Sandra Guy of the Chicago Sun-Times contacted the folks in the office of Baseline earlier this week about theMcDonald's case study Larry Barrett and I wrote (see my earlier entry on the story). Yesterday, the story was mentioned in her “Zine Scene” column.
She apparently didn't have time to read the whole thing, or grasp that it was a piece of reporting and not an opinion piece. In fact, she didn't seem to grasp anything more than that the story was critical of McDonald's technology efforts.
At least, she didn't sound like she did, in the space she had left after spending most of her energy dealing with a column by my old boss, InformationWeek's Bob Evans decrying McDonald's use of a federal apprenticeship program to fund training of its IT workers.
But why should that come as any surprise? Daily newspaper journalists (outside of a small minority are at their worst when covering technology, or when covering other print media. When they do both, they routinely fall flat on their faces.
Why? Because regional papers have cut staff, and have given column status to the reporters who've managed to survive repeated layoffs based on seniority and politics, vice an actual level of skill. But more importantly, they think their readers are stupid–most newspaper copy is written at below 5th grade reading level.
It also is worth noting that McDonald's is a Chicago-area company, and the Sun-Times seems loathe to cover McDonald's negatively itself.
But Guy's column is especially bad, on a regular basis. She covers what's being covered elsewhere, a sort of “meta-coverage” with no real analysis or even any kind of opinion. I mean, you'd expect opinion in a column. But her pieces are totally devoid of life. And they seem rushed and incomplete, too. She didn't even give a URL for a weblog she wrote about in July.
What anybody is doing writing a column about what's in magazines at the Sun-Times is a mystery in the first place. Most people grab it for the sports section, which is generally better than that of the staid Trib; its news reporting is another matter entirely. And–oh, yeah–they have Roger Ebert.
The Sun-Times is to the Trib as the Daily News is to the New York Times. Or maybe they think they're the Post. If so, Guy should look at the work of Keith J. Kelly, perhaps.
Sean M. Gallagher 