Hot Type's Truthiness

Michael Miner's "Hot Type" column in this week's Chicago Reader is just full of interesting tidbits. He also weighs in on "truthiness," mentioning the flap over James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, in addition to some other recent examples of the phenomena, but he ends up with a different result. If you can't beat them, join them:

If you think Frey did wrong -- well, that's fine. If not, you might be interested in my latest idea to restore newspapers to public favor -- a regular feature to be known as Mythellanea. Readers will be invited to contribute first-person accounts of dramatic, character-building travails. Documentation won't be necessary so long as contributors can assure readers that the story is truthy -- that is, the redemptive moment is being described the way the writer wants to remember it.

He also stops to note the recent movie Glory Road. While the 1966 Texas Western team was the first team to win the NCAA starting five black players, it's not like the idea of blacks playing basketball was any sort of a novelty at that point. Miner directs us to a column last week by the Sun-Times's Ron Rapoport, which opens:

In 1962, the University of Cincinnati won the NCAA basketball championship with four black starting players. Nobody ever made a movie about it.

In 1963, Loyola won the title with four black starting players. Hollywood took no notice.

By 1966, the four best players in the NBA were Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor, and the top college player was Cazzie Russell. No movies.

Rapoport also notes some other facts stretched to make a better movie, but Miner sums it up: "Glory Road is a truthy classic."

But does Miner stop there? No, he goes on to invoke the failing book publishing industry, which no longer offers enough advertising dollars to keep the Chicago Tribune Sunday book section profitable. The Trib dropped the section down from a broadsheet section to a tabloid one, thus saving on newsprint. More interesting, however, was the fact that only four other newspapers these days have standalone book sections. What are they? The New York Times, obviously, and The LA Times (unless they recently cut it themselves). That leaves just two more. When we were in DC for the holidays, I think I noticed one in The Washington Post, but I'm not sure. My last guess would be The Boston Globe. Does anybody know for sure?