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Published on 12/04/1995 All articles from this issue

Longtime columnist tells Los Altos group what's wrong with newspapers

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

Former Peninsula Times Tribune editor emeritus Leonard Koppett has written sports and op-ed pieces for more than 50 years. And it shows. A conversation with the longtime journalist can range from baseball to the ballet. The man exudes information.

Perhaps that's why the Los Altos Senior Coordinating Council invites Koppett to speak every year. He appeared again at the council's Nov. 28 meeting to talk about how bad journalism has become in the last 30 years.

Before you can judge journalism, Koppett said, you have to know what good journalism is.

According to Koppett, good journalism selects what is significant.

"It does its best to report the story factually and in the proper context. Then it stays with a follow-up story," he said. "The intent is to inform and you have to avoid putting garbage in the story because 'garbage in - garbage out.' "

Koppett, who currently writes a sports column for the Oakland Tribune, claims television has broken down journalism because of the law of drama. "To have drama you must present conflict. Then you withhold the resolution of the conflict till the end of the story," he said. "Since pictures are more impressive than words, the best way to hold my interest is a visceral response rather than an emotional response. The trouble with hitting at my emotions as a device is my emotions become mum.

"The reporter must be unobtrusive," Koppett said. "But, print journalism has given away to television because the editor comes to work and tries to repeat television drama. The other reason is marketers are in control."

Koppett said an editor thinks in terms of what he should cover and how he should present it to the reader. On the other hand, Koppett said the marketer says "This is what I can sell and what can I do to sell it. "

"Years ago, the idea was to make something and you had to concentrate to make it good before you could take a profit," Koppett recalled. "But the publisher says I want to maximize my income no matter how I do it. My publication will survive in order to make a profit and I will do what I can to make a profit."

The best source of accurate information today is specialty publications like the Wall Street Journal and weekly and monthly magazines, Koppett said. "I consider the New York Times a specialty publication that covers news in the old-fashioned sense.

"On a local level, the San Francisco Chronicle over the years has shown bad judgment on what they are. Their columnists are teriffic and no one can duplicate Herb Caen. But, for news they show nothing. The Examiner does a much better news coverage but then, who cares?" Koppett said.

"As for San Jose Mercury, it has damaged itself by refusing to admit it is in San Jose," he said. "It has hurt itself by trying to be everything and do everything."

Afternoon papers in metropolitan areas are dead, according to Koppett. "It's not possible to put out an afternoon paper because of traffic. You can't get the paper to the newsstands on time anymore and now newsstands are no longer on street corners but inside buildings," Koppett said. "And as for the old Times Tribune, it only takes a news service to cover the world, but you need help to cover local news and the Times Tribune tried to have 84 to 100 pages of local news a week, and couldn't do it."