[Dixielandjazz] Trib/Greene fiasco and jazz reportage

[Don Ingle]

Less I bring the thread police down on me, I will have a jazz connection.
But the Bob Greene story brings no surprise. That the Tribune went with this
story without checking (and stating up front) all the facts that should be
in the story first shows a pre-disposition of today's level of journalists,
the post-Watergate "investigative reportage"  syndrome.(Yesterday I wanted
to be a journalist, and today I ARE one!)
So when you read newspaper reviews of jazz, you should not be surprised at
much inaccurate coverage, opinions based on a lack of  background study, and
a host of other errors.
Lazy or biased reporting, and a basic lack of time and attention to
background is a common cause of sloppy music reviews. John Wilson knew his
stuff -- Reich in the Trib tends to shoot his opinions from the hip.
In  my early press days, working under old time copy desk guys, I never
would think of turning in a story without at least two reliable sources,
three if it were contraversial.
Oh, well...not surprised at much today.
I often disagreed with Greene's liberal left take on things, but he wrote an
opinion column, and when he stated something as a fact rather than opinion,
he could back it up with a good reason for it based on what he really
knew...even if his take disagreed with my own opinion. But a writer ---
Oh hell yes!! The Trib's loss, someone else's gain in short order.
   To understand the diffference between opinion and factual reportage is
the key. Too much opinion gets passed off as hard news.
   It goes for jazz reviews as well. If the writer's bias is opinion, accept
it as his and feel free to disagree. But if he ( or she) writes it as fact
and you know very well that the facts are wrong, then give it the value it
deserves...None!
Final connect: What's New(z)?
Don "my press pass is patched with duct tape but then so am I" Ingle
----- Original Message -----
From: "David W. Littlefield" <dwlit@cpcug.org>
To: <Dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Speaking Of Midi


> Bob Ringwald forget to note that John Farrell invites you to download his
> midi files to your hard drive, so you can listen offline. For the less
> computer literate:
>  Right click on the title and "Save". First, make a new directory--I have
> a "Midi" directory, with a "Farrell" subdirectory--and save the file to
> it. When you're done downloading all the files, you can go to that
> directory anytime (in the file manager), double click on a file, and the
> default media player will pop up and play the file.
>
> There are a lot of crappy midi files on the web, but also some
> dandies--good ragtime, Jelly Roll Morton. As I recall, I found my Mortons
> by searching Google under "Jelly Roll Morton midi"...
> --Sheik
>
>
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