'Where is the journalism?'

In the Phoenix, Mark Jurkowitz takes sports writers and editors to task for not doing more groundbreaking reporting that would unearth stories like the use of steroids in baseball. It's a good read; as usual, kind of left unsaid -- amid the usual talk that sports writers simply aren't interested in serious stories and are more fans than reporters -- is what "journalists trained and skilled in collecting information from numerous sources" would or could have learned about steroid use without the existence of grand jury testimony, as in the Bonds case. Simply noting "quick and massive muscle growth, pimple-strewn backs" isn't going to cut it for publication.

Sports writing has issues -- but assembling investigate teams that are going to go out and break a lot of huge stories isn't as simple as this story makes it sound.