“In the spirit of good taste we thought we’d take it down,” Joe Horrigan, vice president of communication and exhibits for the hall, told the newspaper.
The image that drew the objections is one that shows the ex-NFL star high stepping into the end zone in a game in which the Patriots played against the Green Bay Packers in 2010. That year, the image was the winning entry for the annual Hall of Fame’s photo contest.
This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.
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Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.
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