WKC Press Coverage Lacks Bite
By Amy Fernandez
What is going on with Westminster’s press coverage this year? This year’s press preview, oddly scheduled two weeks in advance, featured cats. Yes, as we all know cats have been a big hit at MTB for many years, and predictably that feline addition has now expanded to the main AKC MTB event. The presence of dogs has been treated like an afterthought in much of the news coverage of this momentous occurrence.
Admittedly, it’s shrunk considerably over the years, but Westminster’s major news coverage has traditionally appeared in the Sunday Sports section of The New York Times. This year, it received half a page, which is not too shabby. Unfortunately, that included three large pictures of cats and a story basically repeating the above paragraph. It didn’t even include the show schedule- and I can assure you that this has always been essential information for local dog lovers planning to attend.
Westminster is our hometown show and NYC coverage, at the very least, generally notes the entry size, big winners in attendance, and new breeds making their debut. Well, last night’s 20-second primetime report on Channel 7 did mention the fact that new breeds were coming. In case you don’t know, they include the Pumi, the Sloughi, and the American Hairless Terrier. Otherwise, their Westminster piece was another round of same old, same old; plenty of fluff about cats vs. dogs and trite reports showing dogs undergoing various grooming procedures with the narrators posing the equally trite backhanded question about the sport’s relevance. Maybe today will bring more insightful news coverage. Westminster hasn’t dropped the ball on this for a century, and we assume it won’t let it go this year.
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