Friday, January 22, 2010
Media / News Bites Bernie Lincicome Seeks a Role
Posted by Michael Miner on 01.22.10 at 11:28 AM
Bernie Lincicome is back in town, hoping to write something for somebody. I suggest he write for his generation. One voice is missing from new media — the voice of the old sage who thinks new media is ridiculous.
After 16 years as a sports columnist in Chicago, Lincicome and the Tribune parted ways in 2000 and he took his talents to Denver. Lincicome wrote a column for the Rocky Mountain News until that paper folded last February. Then he blogged.
"When I started doing it," he says, "everybody said 'Oh, great, we can still find you.' I asked them, 'Are you going to pay me?' I could never figure out a way to get them to pay for it."
This, in the view of Lincicome — and many another senior journalist put out to pasture — constitutes a serious deficiency in new media. But he pressed on. Writers must write.
"I did what I do," says Lincicome, inviting me to read it all myself, as his fitful blog will linger in the digital firmament forever — like a dead star. "Some of it's pretty good, some of it's not. But it's pretty much what I always did, with the exception that nobody paid me to do it. I twitter. I don't know how many followers I have, more than I expected, a couple hundred. It's whenever I think of something clever I put it in there. Again, who knows if it lands anywhere. It was the same thing with the blog. Maybe 300 to a couple thousand people read it depending on the topic -- but jeez, I used to have half a million and I used to get money for it."
Lincicome has never been more eloquent than when he contemplated writing in a medium he did not believe in. Introducing his blog, he called the blogosphere "a place that exists only in fancy rather than in fact, much the same as Camelot, but without the honor."
But there he was, now part of it.
"I should have a fresh appreciation for bloggers, but I do not yet," he admitted on his blog. "Every word typed is as closely considered as ever, every original thought is as savored, every sentence as well crafted as talent allows.
"Yet, to be self-published still seems to be unnoticed, to imagine notice is to be self-deluded.
"This is not the game. This is just calisthenics."
As time went on, his view of blogging did not change. It struck him as delusional. His last blog post was written in September, and alongside it was his "thought of the day," this:
In the movie "Julie and Julia" the character's food blog did not become legitimate until a story about it appeared in a newspaper. It takes newspapers to authenticate anything, so if newspapers would just ignore blogs, there would be no more blogs, including this one."
Lincicome explains to me why he abandoned his blog. "It was like I was snoring in an empty room. Even I couldn't hear the noise."
This month Lincicome and his wife Jaye moved into a house they've bought in Glencoe. They want to be around to watch their 15-month-old grandson grow up. "The grandson is why we returned to the area," Lincicome says. "Glencoe is because we'd been there 16 years. We know our way around. We know where the Renaissance theater is in Highland Park. Everything that makes your life the way it is we're already familiar with."
Lincicome is old enough to retire, and he says he doesn't need money. But he's told the Sun-Times and Tribune he's available. "I talked to both papers about bringing them wit and insight, and neither one threw me out. Maybe I'm kidding myself, but they didn't tell me to crap in my hat."
He's offering himself in what could be called emeritus status — possibly one column a week and some Internet writing. "I can live with that," says Lincicome. "I'm tired of being irrelevant."
If you ask me, Lincicome's outgrown sports. The day irrelevant Americans find their voice and raise it is the day they start to matter again — if just a little. Could Lincicome be that voice? I'm just sayin'...
Comments (19)
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He put people to sleep in Denver with his column. Never actually, you know, went to a game and always wrote about his old Chicago days. That snoring sound he heard from his blog was heard in many a Denver home when they picked up his column.
Sorry to hate on him, but truth is truth.
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I was regulary inspired and often tickled by Bernie during his Chicago days. Later, I moved to Denver and read him there. I had the impression that many Coloradoans never 'got' Bernie - his approach, his sarcasm, etc - everything we in Chicago loved about him. To me, he is/was a true wordsmith, with an ability to turn an issue into a thought into a phrase into a jab-in-the-gut into a nod or even a laugh. I say let him do his thing here in Chicago. In print. I'll follow.
I have very fond memories of Mr. Lincicome’s high caliber writing for the Chicago Tribune. He was usually right, and always thought-provoking. His departure from the Tribune, coupled with the hiring of an utterly unworthy successor to the late Mike Royko, were early indicators of the paper’s slide into mediocrity. While I have always disagreed with the Tribune’s editorial slant, there was a time when talented writers and coverage of the arts were givens. I cancelled my subscription a few years back, but will be on the lookout for Mr. Lincicome’s keen insights, wherever they may appear.
Ah, but did he have half a million readers in print? Going online is a disheartening experience for many print journalists because it reveals just how few actually read our own work, as opposed to our fond illusion that every subscriber made his or her way to our gem-like prose.
Bernie was -- and is -- the kind of writer who makes you smile, laugh, cry and throw the newspaper (or computer if you prefer) across the room in frustration or anger. In other words, one helluva columnist.
Bernie Lincicome and his stablemate at the former Rocky Mountain News, Dave Krieger, were the best reads in Denver by the length of 1-25: drollery, perspective, irreverence, wordplay; the rarest of quadruple threats, and one of the few reasons to actually subscribe to the Rocky (Penny Parker!).
I repeat, Bernie put readers to sleep in Denver. He mailed it in here. Didn't go to games, didn't talk to players. Never broke a story. Every column had to do with "how does this relate to Michael Jordan?" Now Bernie wants a handout, and for people to feel sorry for him. Sorry Bernie, time to get a real job.
A columnist doesn't HAVE to talk to players. He's not writing game stories. He's not writing sidebars. He's writing an, um, opinion piece. Hence the term columnist. I've read Bernie for a long, long time and he's never mailed it in. Like all writers he's had his good days and bad, but the bad days were never because he didn't care about his craft. Maybe you didn't like him in Denver because you didn't like yourself in Denver.
But Bernie really did write gem-like prose, wrapped around insights just as hard and bright. I used to cut out and save some of his better ones, like this: "Moments that define character come in ambush. Suddenly there they are, and nothing is ever the same again."
"Maybe you didn't like him in Denver because you didn't like yourself in Denver."
The typical sportswriter response.
The Trib (a shadow of the place Lincicome left) could use him in a role like they with Bob Verdi the past couple of years. But that probably makes too much sense.
Strange but true-a fine writer like Lincicome is looking for work, while ESPN throws away millions on that "other" Colorado writer. The one who lost his fastball at SI years ago and now just dribbles out some latter-day Bob Greene drivel once a week.
A columnist who never talks to players is a shallow man with very little insights. Talking to the participants regularly gives a columnist an in-depth knowledge that can't be matched from the dining room table or the couch. Also, if you never show up, you have no credibility among the players, coaches and GMs.
I loved Lincicome when he was here, but he's basically saying, "I used to have a really awesome job, and I don't anymore, so I'm sad." I understand that.
But instead of plugging away at it and looking for other outlets for his work -- AOL? Yahoo? The Reader? The Beachwood Reporter? -- he's shut himself off. He doesn't follow anyone on Twitter, there is no way to contact him from the site. It's a new era, Bernie. You need to adapt and actually interact (gasp!) with the Great Unwashed.
The age of newspapers was great, but it's not viable anymore. Step down from your ivory tower and join the 21st century.
All depends on what you want to read, UFO Rocks. It is a new era, one with many distractions. Cutting off the distractions is vital for people who want to be original writers, observing real life and not its imitation.
in 2010, the internet is very much real life. there's already plenty of grumpy, aging sportswriters waxing poetic about the glories of "simpler times" and another mindless filler... why would anyone want to read another?
In my opinion Bernie was the best Tribune sports columnist. In the old days I liked Gleasons style but Bernie was insightful and strung the words together better than the rest.
All this about his flaws is meaningless.
To me the Tribune is nuts not to have him do an occasional column. The guys they have now are "nice guys" but mediocre writers. BBB bring Bernie back !!
Bernie was the best sports columnist the tribune had over the last 40 years that I've been a reader. I liked Gleasons point of view but Bernie had the talent to string the words.
The tribune should hire him as a weekly or monthly sports writer, it would give me something to look forward to.
The sports guys they have now are "nice guys" but lacking on the prose.
Please Trib give him some work.
"Only the British Open can get away with its annual aesthetic torture, staging the thing in places that have no beauty, no style, no landscaping. Plant a geranium, for cripe's sake". After writing uninformed drivel like that he doesn't deserve another job. And it's The Open Championship, Bernie.
