WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Gilbert Cranberg: THE SUPER BOWLER WHO WASN'T THERE

Bona fide celebrities do not often play professional football, let alone in the Super Bowl. But that’s what happened Sunday when Michael Oher took the field as a lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. His job: to open holes for the running back and protect Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco when Flacco went back to pass, as he did often. Oher’s number, 74, was hard to miss, but the talking heads covering the game never seemed to notice Oher, the player who wasn’t there as far as they were concerned.

I saw the film “Blind Side,” which was all about how a big inarticulate black kid had been adopted by a well-to-do white family and how he had made it big in football. The very good book by Michael Lewis on which the film was based was widely reviewed and read, but the folks who put together the Super Bowl telecast seemed to be clueless about the book, the film and Oher. So I spent a frustrating Sunday peering at the TV screen trying to spot Oher and trying to figure how well he was doing in very fast company. I learned that television shows next to nothing about the players who protect quarterbacks, even when they are celebrities in their own right.

Talk about real-life drama! It was playing out Sunday right in front of a worldwide audience. Too bad the powers that be in television chose not to tell anybody about it.

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