Sports journalism
Posted October 15th, 2007 by Ron
This is a well-done piece on the state of sports journalism.
An Ohio.com Community Blog.
Posted October 15th, 2007 by Ron
This is a well-done piece on the state of sports journalism.
Ron Ledgard's Balanced Ledger is proudly powered by
WordPress
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
October 16th, 2007 at 1:20 am
I read the piece … If the Beacon Journal's sports editors held their own writers to those same standards, would the Beacon Journal even have a sports section? Not singling him out, but if Windhorst's writing had octupus legs, one leg would be devoted to facts, seven legs would be devoted to baseless and unsubstantiated rumor-mongering.
People seem to forget that the 'E' in ESPN stands for "Entertainment." So while they may indeed go overboard, there is a legitimate entertainment factor. On the other hand, if the Beacon Journal's sports editors and sportswriters yearn to take the same tact, then I'd suggest that the Beacon Journal's new owner promptly remove the word "news" from "newspaper."
October 16th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
There probably isn't much "fact" in sports outside of statistics, action on the field and direct quotes from sources (the fact being that the subject said "so and so," not necessarily that "so and so" is true).
Most of the problems I see come from the use of unnamed sources–"league sources," etc.–who may or may not exist. That particular phrase is aggravating of course because it could include the Cavs/Indians/Browns front office without the reader being aware of it.
"League sources say the Cavs are burning up the phone lines trying to land Kevin Garnett" could simply be Ferry telling Windhorst he's made a few calls. Dubious.
The unnamed source thing relates to the case of the crybaby qb in Oklahoma as well. The writer of that piece was implying that coaches and other players thought the kid was immature, etc., but she didn't have any direct quotes from them to prove it. She did see the player in question getting fed by his mother, I guess.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
larry, I just looked on Windhorst's blog comments, and then linked to the New York Post. Evidently, despite all the imaginary "league sources" at the Beacon Journal's and other local papers' sportswriters' disposal, somehow the very guys that cover the team were scooped about Ferry's visit to South America to talk to Varejao.
How in the world does this possibly happen? Maybe the deputy editor of the Akron Beacon Journal will kindly answer. As credibility goes, this is an unmitigated disaster. Will New York readers be turning to the Canton Repository to learn that Brian Cashman visited Alex Rodriguez?
I don't know about the state of sports journalism in total, but in Akron, Cleveland and surrounding areas, it truly stinks.