Less hype, better coverage

I agree with the recent letter “Missing the big stories” by Karen Dorn Steele. Spokane is a city of significant size, and includes people having many different athletic team loyalties. Yet the published sports coverage in the Spokesman-Review is overwhelmingly lopsided for Gonzaga teams. Even now, a week after Gonzaga University’s exit from the 2019 NCAA Basketball Tournament, the sports page continues to dwell on Gonzaga men’s team members, and even former Gonzaga Prep players.

Sadly, for the past six months even the local television stations have also been afflicted with “Gonzaga Hype Syndrome.” It has even been difficult to watch a weather segment on the evening news before being bombarded with Gonzaga basketball. I am a basketball fan and do follow Gonzaga. But like thousands of other residents of the greater Spokane area, I am interested in other sports, and other teams, besides Gonzaga. So far this year, it has been difficult to impossible to find out much about anything else, in Spokane.

During the same period, the local media collectively under-reported two stories at least as important as Gonzaga’s successful but less-than-predicted Elite Eight season. That EWU made it to the 2018 FCS Championship Game was under-appreciated and quickly forgotten by the media. The over-achieving UW men’s basketball team, which won the PAC-12 regular season championship and even a game in the NCAA tournament, was also under-reported. For the future, please reduce the Gonzaga Hype and give us the breadth and quality of sports coverage Spokane deserves.

Bruce Hurley

Nine Mile Falls