Hunting for answers in today’s N&R

Amy Mannix of Morganton writes in to the News and Record:

The number of hunters in this country has shrunk to less than 5 percent because most people no longer find it acceptable to kill animals for fun. Thousands of men who as kids were taught hunting is the manly thing to do have traded in this misguided “tradition” for wholesome family activities like hiking, biking and rock climbing.

Society now knows that the relatively few die-hards clinging to their weapons like babies to their blankies are over-compensating, personifying the statement of psychiatrist Maurice Linden that “these men become over-attached to these guns, which become the external embodiment of the vigor and masculine aggressiveness they lack in themselves.”

Today, more and more newspapers are realizing that it’s socially senseless and fiscally foolish to devote lengthy column space to a dying blood sport. It’s time that Ed Hardin stumbled out of the woods to join mainstream America. If Ed Hardin won’t ditch hunting, his publishers should ditch him.

Hunters are a dying breed. So why continue to throw good column space after bad?

*****Is it time to Kill Hunting in the Sports Section? Should Ed Hardin be hunting for a new job?*****

+++++I have always said keep the hunting, but keep it over in the Outdoors Section on Page C8 or C10. Ed Hardin should keep his job but I wish they would send him to more Carolina Panthers’ home games and and let him hunt and fish out some big stories at the Bank of America Stadium along with your favorite fishing spots and the local deer-stands.+++++

12 thoughts on “Hunting for answers in today’s N&R

  1. BAH

    I don’t even hunt. Never owned a gun. But I have no problem with hunters. Many do what they do because their fathers, grandfathers, uncles, etc. did and taught them the joy of it when they were kids. For every hunter that does it just for the “blood sport”, there are probably nine others that do it to feed their families, do it because they love to be outdoors, because they enjoy the challenge and because they believe they are helping the wildlife by keeping over population from being a problem.

    And I certainly have no beef with the paper devoting a page once a week to hunting/fishing. And if Ed Hardin wants to write a human interest column on hunters once in a blue moon for the front page why should anyone really care?

  2. I don’t mind the stories on small game(rabbits, quail, squirrel, etc.) but the paper needs to send someone to cover the big games like the Carolina Panthers vs. the Indianapolis Colts. Get Hardin on the field to cover the game.

  3. Ed will most likely be at the Panthers-Colts game next week. He has been at all of their home games this season (and last), and he’s usually at the midweek pressers. Don’t worry – Ed’s all over the Panthers.

  4. John, thanks for the response and should we look for a direct article on the game or will Ed approach it as a columnist? Now that you mention it I do remember Ed doing several pieces on the Panthers this season within the context of a column. Didn’t Ed Hardin live in Charlotte a few years back and cover the Panthers full-time.

    John, thanks for the input and keep us on your list and we will do the same here at GREENSBOROSports.com. The News and Record sportswriters put out the kind of work that draws conversion and conversation.

  5. why would amy in morganton care if we go hunting in greensboro? sounds like her ex-husband may be a hunter-maybe she has never had a deer run into her car at 70mph

  6. Andy: Ed’s going to continue to write columns off the game and the mid-week availabilities, which he has been doing for the past several years. We haven’t had a Panthers beat writer in several years – Mike Cranston writes for AP, not for us.

    You’re right about Ed’s background – he was our first Panthers (and Hornets) beat writer back in the day and was based in Charlotte. Previously, he had been the N&R’s NASCAR writer (before Bob Zeller and Dustin Long). He moved back here when he got the columnist’s gig.

  7. Dustin Long must be doing well, I heard him on the Pit Reporters Show last night with Brett McMillian out of Charlotte. I still remember when Dustin came to the N&R and started out doing the High School beat. Very sorry to hear about the death of Ray Cooper I believe it was, who used to be the N&R NASCAR man and he passed away last weekend at the age of just 53.

  8. Amy, needs to come to Caswell County and watch the deer die from lack of food and water.I do not hunt. However I wish there was more hunters. Hunters murders? I bet Stephaine is a supporter of womens right to kill babies.

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