The Tale of Two Jims

Jim Moore is back even though he never really left. Now you can read him if you are a Husky fan with the grim satisfaction of knowing that he probably gets paid about as much as John Berkowitz does from writing.

That means the Moore family can look forward to eating government cheese three times per day and for their sake they better hope the government also has a macaroni program in the works.

Jim's first effort as a free lance Husky baiter has to rank as an all time low related to that genre. I saw where he was going with it but it just wasn't funny to me. Sometimes you cross the line with sarcasm and it just ends up being mean. My well learned advice is don't hit publish until after you sober up.

As usual the emails flowed into Jim and whoever he for now works for at probably an all time record pace. His follow-up column today shares some of our fellow eloquent Husky fans feelings on the subject.

There was one line though in his column today that made me laugh out loud while I was by myself. Usually you snicker on the inside but rarely do you just start laughing when nobody is around unless you are ready for a visit from the guys in white coats.

But as a Coug fan, I'm amused. The Go 2 Guy looks at Coach Sark and sees a purple pinata.

Even though I found the line funny even a pinata deserves a fair fight. That is why they blind fold the kids before they start swinging. Earth to Jim...beer goggles don't count as blindfolds!

The Tale of Two Jim's

This is a photo of the old Jim when he was a print journalist. We will call this happy energetic Jim. This Jim is totally one with the world. This Jim is completely armed with the knowledge that he is the luckiest man on Earth to be getting paid for writing sports stories hung over in his jammies. This Jim is coming off a number of ten plus win seasons and a trip to Pasadena.

This Jim has plenty of hair remaining which actually contain pigment. The eyes sparkle as he merrily creates havoc with his sports columns and forms a life-long bond with his idol Rick Neuheisel.

 
This is a photo of the new Jim as a freelance Internet journalist. We will call this WTF happened to me Jim? The smile is gone, the hair is grey, notice a lot more forehead exposed, and the eyes are now worldly and sad. If you look closely you can still see the tire treads from where life ran him over while not looking both ways in the crosswalk.

This Jim isn't going to see Pasadena as a Coug or play at Augusta again. Even Rick Neuheisel isn't returning his calls and any chance of him and Nick Holt sharing a beer are now limited to Nick dumping one on his head before he slaps him across the teeth with one of his gold chains.

Seriously

I have been writing about the demise of the print PI ever since the end was announced earlier this year. I was selfishly happy to learn that Jim Moore and Art Thiel were going to continue writing columns twice a week.

I am even more selfishly happy to learn that in the near future since the PI has continued to lower its standards that I too have been invited to participate each day as a free-lance Internet journalist for an organization that has been around since the end of the Civil War.

Like Jim I have taken a solemn oath to continue to write hung over in my jammies much to my wife Kate's disdain. As my good friend Jack from Tenino will tell you all I am one lucky guy to be married to Kate.

Unlike Jim I do have a day job and god bless Kate because she continues to make some good coin too! I will still be having fun and unlike the Moore family we won't be praying the government includes macaroni with our monthly cheese allotment.

The blog here at SBN will continue but it will be syndicated to the Seattle PI as soon as the contract and details are worked out.

The Seattle Post-Globe

Journalists and newspaper people are liberal socialists as a rule because they have traditionally been loyal labor union members. When you collectively bargain it makes you tend to collectively think.

One goal of the laid off Seattle PI staff has been to preserve investigative journalism and their jobs in the Pacific Northwest. They looked at many models but being liberals and socialists they were unable to come up with an online model that actually would be self supporting or even make an attempt in that direction.

The Post-Globe will be a collaboration between KCTS TV (Channel 9) and the former PI staffers. We all have enjoyed Public TV and now we are about to witness the birth of National Public Newspaper.

Rather than depending on advertising the non-profit newspaper model with survive on grants, pledge drives, and government handouts. The message they are presenting is that is what it takes to preserve the third ward, local journalism, and democracy in general.

I think it is an interesting experiment as long as philanthropic's such as the Bullitt Foundation are interested in supporting it. I also think that the Seattle PI with its skeleton staff that will exponentially grow in the future is a much more sound business model.

The piece of the code that both business models currently lack is profitability. How do you make newspapers in print or online profitable enough to support the type of journalism we have enjoyed or loathed since the invention of the printing press?

A lot of smart people are working on that and we will see how it evolves. I do know one thing and that is in a free market economy those that make money stay around those that don't perish.

Public TV has done a great job presenting programming that is a cut above intellectually. It has also done a great job of offending conservatives since it has a decidedly liberal slant. I guess that is why conservatives invented FOX NEWS so they could have their own place to spread their own brand of disinformation.

Anyway I think it is great that local journalists have a place to hang their hats for awhile and experiment with saving the tradition of local journalism.