It was the great sports columnist Red Smith who noted the Green Bay Packers’ 1958 record of 1-10-1 and wrote, “The Packers overwhelmed one opponent, underwhelmed 10, and whelmed one.”
After reading the brand new Baltimore Banner as it uttered its first full cries of life last week, I know the sensation.
I felt whelmed.
It’s a victory just getting a new media outlet off the ground these days, and a nice touch that they opened on what would have been Ted Venetoulis’ 88th birthday. It was the former Baltimore County executive whose efforts over the past decade laid the groundwork for The Banner.
This ain’t some collection of movie amateurs trying to save the town, crying, “I know! Let’s put on a show!” They’ve got serious professionals, many with Bawlamer roots, in The Banner’s newsroom, and they’ve got money to spend — at least for the next several years during which they’ve got to find sufficient numbers of readers and advertisers.
In the site’s opening week, they had some compelling stories, though some of them weren’t precisely the work of The Banner’s people. They opened with some new, paid-for polling about how Baltimoreans feel about their hometown (troubled, but laced with optimism) and how they feel about some of our leaders (troubled, but unlaced with optimism.)
The polling was intended to establish some Baltimore bona fides and to get people talking. But I’ve heard some disappointment that The Banner didn’t come out of the gate with some original investigative blockbusters.
OK, they’re a work in progress, and one week’s far too early to pass judgment. There’s a lot of hope here and a lot of good intentions, and a lot of newsroom talent.
One puzzling aspect: The Banner boasts they’ve got a newsroom nearly as big as The Sun’s. So why were there fewer than 10 new stories on the site each day? What are all those other folks doing down in the dugout?
I don’t mean to sound churlish, but there’s a lot riding on The Banner’s success. We’re a community in need of a new voice. The Sun’s still around, and they’ve done remarkably well in the face of heartless management cutbacks in their newsroom.
But Baltimore’s sense of itself as a functioning, big-time American city is slipping away. Where does that sense of self come from? From life as it’s actually lived, and life as it’s reported.
We are a community that is more than the sum of our homicides, and we need media outlets that reflect this, that tell us the broader picture of life across the metropolitan area.
Local TV news has long since abdicated its role as serious news, except for the nightly crime stories that reinforce our image as a place to keep your car doors locked as you drive through.
And, no secret, the last daily newspaper left standing is only a shadow of its former self. Hopefully, as The Banner makes itself heard, it’ll inspire The Sun to retrench. Competition breeds inspiration.
What The Banner needs most of all right now is for people to realize its very existence, and to turn to it every day for a reflection of life here. We’re a tough town, but a place worth loving, as well. We need to hear both those stories.
Michael Olesker’s newest book, “Boogie: Life on A Merry-Go-Round,” was recently published by Apprentice House. It’s the life story of Baltimore legend Leonard “Boogie” Weinglass, an original “Diner” guy who grew up to create the Merry-Go-Round clothing chain and contribute millions to charity.
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