You get my point- I want a lot for Miggy.

I like my neck warm in the winter.

Let me tell you my background briefly so you know where I’m coming from. I spent nearly a third of my life around newspapers. I won first place in sports columns for the middle-sized newspapers in the state of Michigan. It’s what I know and what I love.

That said, the misconceptions people on the Internet have about newspapers really is a splinter in my butt.

It starts with the simple things like thinking the author of a story writes the headline — they most certainly do not, that comes from a copy editor or higher at big papers, a page designer at smaller ones. And if you read the actual print copy, you’ll notice the headlines for stories don’t always match the Internet; that’s because some newspapers have separate Internet editors who write a first version of the headline.

And it just gets worse from there. Do sports writers say things to sell newspapers? No. That would be silly. Conversation you’ll never hear:

“Did you read what Mitch Albom said today?”
“No, I better go buy a copy of the paper.”

Do they write things they don’t believe in order to make a name for themselves? Probably not. How would you like to put an opinion out there for 10,000, 100,000, a million people, you didn’t believe in?

Do they make up stuff? Sure, a couple like Stephen Glass. But on the whole, no, no, no, no, no. If someone is reporting a trade rumor, that is something they have actually been told. Reports do not sit around saying, “I think I’ll make something up today!” That one ticks me off the most.

So when I start reading stuff like “Lynn Henning was just sitting around, so he decided to sell some newspapers by making up a trade rumor,” it strikes me as so totally off base it’s not even funny.

Writers protect their reputation. Editors protect the reputation of the paper. There is just way too much at stake to be making stuff up.

Like any columnist, Henning writes his analysis of a situation based on his own take and things he hears from inside. So when a bunch of local writers all come up with the idea the team will cut back on its payroll, they’ve probably heard it from people around the team. When they hear a player is available, that probably came from the front office. When he writes Curtis Granderson might want to concentrate on baseball and every Tigres fan gets bothered, he probably heard it from the team. And in fact, the manager said the exact same thing a day later. And when he writes about prospects, it’s probably guys the organization is excited about.

It’s a two-way street of course. I don’t want to make reporters look like they are simply on the receiving end of information. You have to know what to ask, who to talk to. You develop your own ideas when you think the sources are painting the picture they want to paint and it’s not accurate. It’s the team’s job to get out every bit of rosy information possible; the reporter should tell both sides of the story.

Fans almost always want only good news, though. That’s why writers who go against their views end up known as being negative. It’s being honest. And that’s the way I run my blog to this day.

But is Henning wrong sometimes? Sure. No one who shares opinions in public is going to go without being wrong sometimes. Posters here won’t. Columnists won’t. Talking heads on TV won’t. I know I’m not always right either.

Henning is not perfect. I disagree with him. Sometimes I question his style. Often I think he’s a bit too excited over prospects and his trade ideas aren’t always realistic. I’ve pointed out a factual mistake, and he’s thanked me for it.

But you know what? I’ve been reading him a long time and still find him worth reading.

And as far as character goes, he is a good guy. He’s into the Internet. He gave me way more of his time than I expected for my blog. A few years back when a popular poster at MotownSports was killed in the Virginia Tech shootings, he reached out and did a story on it.

The Tigers beat without Henning would have a big hole in it.

The more people talking about the Tigers — on the internet, on tv, on the radio, in newspapers — the better in my book.