No news is bad news

     This is hard to admit, but I miss the News-Guide. I’m not talking about the more recent post-Al Kinsall, post-Rex McBeath, post-Emma Perez Trevino News-Guide that’s pure press releases and ads. The current No-News Guide, as I call it, isn’t worth the effort it takes to carry it out of the store.
     I miss the old watchdog News Guide that every dedicated Eagle Passan read faithfully and loved to hate. As none of the other media in town can be trusted to rake our public officials over the coals for misdeeds big and small, I think our city has lost a vital service that helped voters place the most qualified people in our public positions.
     In thinking through this blog entry, though, I remembered a lot more things I don’t miss about the Guide than things I do miss. The things I don’t miss are easier to pinpoint and quicker to explain, so I’ll just go through them first.
     I don’t miss:
     *The 5,000-word play-by-play accounts of the varsity football games published a week after the fact. When mostly all I wanted to know was how the points were scored, it frustrated the hell out of me to have to wade through lengthy verbiage like this – Garza opened the game with a 5-yard-run up the middle. Ramirez then went around the right for 3 yards before Santos threw incomplete toward Trevino, forcing Hernandez to come in and punt for the Eagles.
     *The 18th century-style design and graphics. While there’s something to be said for tradition, c’mon, most people believe in updates or makeovers now and then.
     *The front page editorials that simple good reporting would have rendered unnecessary.
     *The lame quotes from the old “Eagle Watcher” – the only person ever quoted in the whole damn publication.
     *The ink-stained fingers you would get in the five minutes it took to browse through it.
     *The illogical placement of articles, such as some that would start for example on page 6, be continued on page 4, and continue even more on page 3.
     *The almost weekly letters from a certain high school teacher spouting philosophical drivel, who for a while looked like a wannabe professional columnist.
     *Al’s tired 20-year use of the scud missile metaphor for a long basketball shot. I mean shouldn’t he have been able to find a replacement description from the 3 wars that passed after he originated that idea.
     So, if the old News-Guide so totally sucked, why do I miss it?
     I do miss:
     *The stupid humor the staff members, sometimes directed toward each other, such as the time a headline read something like this: “Another wordy historical account disguised as a news story by Al Kinsall.”
     *Spending 50 cents each Thursday and taking the gamble that it might not be worth it. Sometimes the risk paid off with some worthwhile or at least entertaining information. Sometimes I would have been better off just throwing the 50 cents in the trash.
     *Intelligent letters from people in the know who helped reveal misdeeds that the Guide’s investigative reporter couldn’t uncover because such a reporter didn’t exist.
     *Being aware of the constant shenanigans being pulled by the sheriff and the staff at the Maverick County Jail.
     *The Editor’s rambling but entertaining responses to letters-to-the-editor. All other papers let the readers have the last word unless there’s a factual error that needs to be corrected in a letter-to-the-editor. So, these responses were totally unprofessional, but expected, since nothing else about the paper was ever very professional.
     Every city needs at least one media outlet that’s willing to stick its neck out and criticize the people in charge when they behave corruptly or stupidly. Though it was far from perfect, for a long time the News-Guide did that job better than anyone else around here.
     I wish the little rag had modernized and progressed through the years instead of becoming a dilapidated shell of its former self. The old News-Guide is gone. It probably isn’t ever coming back. And I miss it.