Give and Take: Letters to the sports editor

Ads ruin basketball

March Madness has been overtaken by way too many advertisements. The victim is on-the-spot analysis of penalties and determinate plays, and any momentum teams may be creating due to the long and frequent breaks.  Time to do what the Masters officials have done in golf coverage, and limit the advertisements!

James Rice

Spokane 

GU women undercovered

The Spokesman-Review has made it clear that Title IX does not apply to journalism.

Despite advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA basketball tournament (same as the men’s team) the women’s team gets a fraction of the coverage. I added up the photo coverage of the two teams for the last few days and found that the men’s team gets 6.5 times more photo space on the front page and the first page of the sports section than the women’s team.

The front page of the paper for March 23 is typical – a large photo of the men’s team above the fold, with a much smaller photo of the women’s team below the fold.

C’mon Spokesman-Review, give the women’s team the coverage they deserve – they just made it to the Sweet 16 with a brand new coach.

Nancy Williams

Liberty Lake

Enough Gonzaga already

Now that basketball season is over here, maybe the “Gonzaga Gazette” will practice some responsible journalism.

Your total lack of coverage for anything not related to Gonzaga is an insult to all the athletes in the area who practice and play hard at the sport of their choice.

Recently a pitcher at one of the local high schools threw a no-hitter. Quite an accomplishment. But since the school the athlete attends doesn’t have a “Z” in the spelling of its name,  not a word was printed about it in the paper. Pathetic!

Vince Beck

Colbert

Sexism? Get real

First let’s be clear, I am no cheerleader for this or any newspaper or digital publication.

However, I do understand a few things that have obviously slipped (letter writers Suzanne) Fleming and (John) Miller’s minds last week.

This or any responsible public media producer are bound by two things: Journalistic integrity (accuracy and honesty) and readership (profitability).  The latter has everything to do with subject matter.

Believe me when I say the editor could care less what the sport or gender is. The editor only cares about what the vast majority of people want to read, which keeps the circulation up and thereby the advertisers happy.

In other words, if sword-swallowing and ax-throwing competitions were popular, this paper would research it, report it, and print the box scores no matter what the gender. Again it’s what’s most popular, period! Sexism? What a joke. Get a clue!   

Tom Richardson

Spokane

NCAA had hand in Zags’ loss

Having been a basketball referee for 10 years, with all due respect for the entire Gonzaga team, you showed the NCAA how to beat UCLA and Iowa and scared the hell out of the NCAA board. They had a hand in making sure the two players that could help the team beat Duke were in foul trouble. The NCAA did not want Gonzaga in the Final Four due to TV money.

You guys did an extraordinary job playing in today’s college competition. You have great talent and a great coach and staff. Don’t give up, just continue to be exceptional and they can’t continue to deny the best.

Duane Leinbach

Touchet