I really ought to turn in my cub reporter press pass. Last week I heard from no fewer than three reputable sources that R.E. Graswich was to be among those people taking the buyout offer at Fort McClatchy. But I never got around to posting about it.
Bob himself beat me to it, reporting the news at the end of his column yesterday.
He goes a long way back in this town’s inky history, starting at the Rancho Cordova Grapevine (where he got some notice as a teenager for covering tough news stories). At the Bee, he covered prep sports, ran the prep sports coverage, covered the Kings for a few years and finally ended up turning his bar-cruising and Hawaiian shirt-wearing ways into a career as the short item talk-of-the-town writer.
Not being much of a night person, I can’t say that I’ve thrown back many with R.E., and the couple times I did it was in the old Simon’s and Torch Club days, about the time when I was just celebrating being able to walk into such places legally. (Translation: A long time ago.)  But I always liked his stuff and his style, and his voice will be missed.
Who else is on the way to voluntary separation? With his new book riding high enough that even the New Yorker mag noticed it and his ESPN gig going great, Mark Kreidler is a good bet. Have to wait-and-see on the rest, but of course those ranks will include many people without bylines, the hard-working editors who pull it all together every day for Sacramento. A much less visible but just as notable a recent departure was SacBee.com boss Ralph Frattura, whose talent was behind most new sections and trends at The Bee for nearly 30 years.
Trashing the local paper is an All-American tradition I enjoy as much as the next person, but in its day The Bee was about the best regional paper you could find in the country. Sad to see it falling to pieces like a sports team owned by Wayne Huizenga.
Of course, the problems are industry-wide, not strictly a local phenom. The people who are left behind at The Bee and other newspapers will be working too hard to think much about the possibility that they’re riding a dinosaur into the sunset, I suppose.
The Sac Rag 
three words. vi-de-o.
paying every tom, dick and harry to shoot news on their video camera phones/dv cameras so you get coverage nobody else can and putting it on your web product is about the only way these news organizations have a fighting chance.
but they’d better start now before this gets a strong enough foothold that it decides to localize.
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…or that’s my crazy idea, at least.
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That’s great if all the news you need is “bleed and lead” TV-style stuff: Car wrecks and crime scenes.
But we also need people who will cover public meetings, review budgets of public agencies, etc., etc. That does take reporting, not just a hand on the camcorder.
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Ditto, FP, not to mention the ritual some of us still enjoy of having an actual paper on our doorstep every morning
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Unfortunately, the readers just aren’t there anymore, and while I agree that sensationalism and entertainment news aren’t helping journalism stay classy, they certainly are helping keep it stay.
It’s not right, it’s not pretty, it’s not encouraging, but it’s good business.
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Kit, you’re right that “the readers just aren’t there anymore” since it seems that many people get their news from US magazine and wouldn’t know the difference between Obama and Osama.
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Did you hear he’s running for President? I guess the cave hideout must have a fax machine or something, seems like a lame place to run a campaign…
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The problem with “reporting,” such as the Bee, is that they aren’t unbiased anymore. It’s just their viewpoint/opinion of a story/situation, and very much inaccurate. As a public/government employee, I see these stories in The Bee, and the way they “report” it, is just absurd, and no where near the truth. With our society’s addiction to instant information, our reporters have unfortunately gone to wanting to be the first to have the scoop, without taking the time to get thorough/correct information. It’s easier to publish a tiny retraction hidden 10 pages back the next day. And at least with video, handycams and all, seeing is believing…..depending upon how much editing has been done to doctor it up…or leaving out pieces and parts, to make the story appear the way the presenter wants it to appear!!
I sure hope that whomever replaces Graswich, they spend more time on reporting pleasant, or even the unusual, but factual news, instead of using their column to “stir the pot” when there’s nothing in the pot to stir, except ruining people’s reputations and sometimes even careers.
And my apologies for any grammar errors! I am definitely not a writer by trade! : )
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video is a completely bias-free medium, just ask Leni Reifenstahl. just kidding CMS, thanks for visiting!
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Our only hope is that there is a consumer reaction to infotainment news. I cross my fingers that one day years from now, with the idea of real journalism a distant and radical idea, people will get excited about an unbiased story being told and true journalism will have a resurgence.
Cultural tastes are cyclical, so I hope honesty and integrity when it comes to reporting the news will come back one day as the next big thing.
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I will miss his column. I like getting a newspaper on my doorstep every morning and I enjoy sending and receiving snail-mail. I even enjoy a nice phone conversation and [egads!] I enjoy meeting people in person..and talking..in..complete..paragraphs.
Ever notice that someone who spends all their time online seems to have a difficult time in social situations?
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>Ever notice that someone who spends all their time >online seems to have a difficult time in social >situations?
That’s why I have a non de Internet and never leave the house except to go to Fry’s.
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