A call for sports journalism reform

October 30, 2007

From the Sept./Oct. 2007 edition of the Columbia Journalism Review, this piece by Robert Weintraub on the changing face of sports journalism in a new technological age. The writer complains about the increasing incidence on the part of leagues, club owners, and players to control what is reported about them.
Remember the movie Eight Men Out? There’s a scene in which Charles Comiskey, owner of the Chicago White Sox, lays out a banquet for “his writers” who fall all over themselves in their praise of his generosity. At the same time, the team, which has just won the American League pennant, is receiving a bonus of flat champagne.
The point is, team’s desires to control the press is nothing new. That’s why they have public relations departments. On the other hand, have an antagonistic press just for the sake of being antagonistic, isn’t the answer either. I have little patience or interest with sports programs that pretend to be bastions of journalistic integrity. (I wish I had a transcript for WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog program, just to illustrate how inane these broadcasters are.)

 

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