Candy-ass reporting

I've thought for a long time that newspapers need to just print the news and quit worrying about who they offend.

The most recent example of this failure to report the news is the Rod Blagojevich story out of Chicago. Several newspapers ran copies of the crime complaint against Blagojevich but edited it to remove what exactly he said. Umm, isn't this a BIG part of the NEWS?

From the Chicago Tribune: "Hold up that [expletive] Cubs [expletive]," she is quoted as saying in the background. "[Expletive] them."

Thanks for giving me the general idea, I guess. However, any savvy news junkie who wants the actual news can depend on the Internet in this case: "During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife can be heard in the background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A 'to hold up that fucking Cubs shit. . . fuck them.'”

I'm not suggesting that reporters freely sprinkle their stories with four-letter words, but sometimes, those four-letter words are part of the news and, as such, should be dutifully reported.

I know some readers will complain. Let them.

Newspapers need to do their jobs and quit worrying about news that's not pretty. Most news isn't. Are we going to tell people what's going on or not? If not, there's not much point in grieving over shrinking news holes.