Local reporting keeps ethics stuck in a fog

If the past month is an indication, sports ethics and credibility among Southeast Missouri media continues to plummet. Surely, rock-bottom can't be far away. Or maybe we're there already and don't even know it.

Example: Southeast Missouri's biggest newspaper, where much of its credibility was ushered out as part of its 100th birthday celebration a few months back, can't seem to decide whether it wants to play the role of local sports booster or basher. Or maybe both, depending on which department gets the call. Good judgment doesn't appear to stop it from accepting both roles, which isn't a good thing if you're a newspaper.

(Just to be clear, and in the interest of full disclosure, I worked for three of the area's daily newspapers in the past: the Standard-Democrat in Sikeston, the Daily Statesman in Dexter, and the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau. They're part of the Rust Communications chain that consists of more than 40 newspapers.)

Side A: The sports department, where the reporter assigned to cover SEMO sports -- with an inpartial approach, readers assume -- went online last week and chastised fans and readers who criticized or questioned Scott Edgar's debut season with the men's basketball program. Never mind that the team just finished the season with an 11-20 record. It's the kind of statement that doesn't just blur the line between being a fan and being an unbiased reporter, it knocks down the whole wall with a sledgehammer (in Redhawks colors, of course).

Side B: The same newspaper crowed like a rooster with its multi-part expose of Bell City basketball and alleged wrongdoings in the school's athletics program, ultimately parading a sports broadcaster's personal credit history through a Sunday edition with all the grace and civility of a Nuremberg trial. The reporter implied that the broadcaster was evasive and shady with unknown whereabouts, overlooking his contact information readily available on popular message boards -- a fact that the sports department might very well have known.

Of course, both situations cast the reporters far, far from the center. The idea of balance and fairness disappeared not long after the byline. Both instances should leave readers skeptical when the next story assignment comes along that demands objectivity (which, as even novice journalists know, is every story assignment).

Sandwiched curiously between both situations was an incident in February that led to the firing of a news copy editor and news reporter over an ethical violation, along with an editor's note in the newspaper trumpeting the firings and the newspaper's hard line on upholding its standards.

It's frustrating that in a time when online media, cable television and other news outlets continue to steal customers and send newspaper circulation even further down, local reporting can't escape itself. For every step forward, there's always another step back. And for every step back, the cliff gets just a little closer.

Other notes ...

SEMO hasn't formally announced its football schedule yet, peculiar since its opponents were posted here last month. These dates are firm so far: Aug. 30 at Cincinnati, Sept. 15 vs. Indiana State, Sept. 29 vs. Eastern Illinoi, Oct. 13 at Eastern Kentucky, Oct. 27 at Tennessee-Martin, and Nov. 10 at Missouri State. The other dates will be filled by OVC opponents. SEMO was 4-7 last season.

Auto Tire & Parts Racepark, which returns to racing this season for the first time since closing abruptly in June 2004, is scheduled to open April 13. Events will be on Friday nights with new management.