Fight! Do you report it?

Coach yells 'you're selfish' at one of the star players. It's loud enough to be heard outside the dressing-room. Do you report it? Or is it something that just happens all the time? Or is there really a code that says you don't write about such things?\

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/293541-nhl-blog-ethics-101-colorado-avalanche-writer-dishes-on-calgary-flames

Did Adrian Dater breach the ethics of journalism?

 

I have no problem reporting what you hear in a locker room or outside a locker room as long as you aren't off the record.

Now, the problem is if you hear yelling and you feel like reporting it or tweeting it, you need to be 100 percent certain of the context and who it is aimed at.

That, to me, is a big reason these kind of things are rarely reported.

The "code" is bull.

 

Does the coach know there's a reporter in earshot? Because while there's no defense for a major league sports coach to blow up in the vicinity of a reporter and then expect it to not be reported, if he's in a room with a closed door, isn't there an expectation that you don't have to announce to anyone to a roomfull of hockey players that you're going off the record, just in case the walls are too thin or your voice is too loud?

And am I not reading this correctly, or is this mostly second-hand reporting from the Avs reporter? This story isn't particularly well structured.

And "you're selfish!" isn't exactly the tweet of the year.

 

The "code" is that if you report it then you're going to piss someone off and risk ever being allowed that close to the locker room again. So, it better be damn worth it if you're going to report it. Otherwise, you risk burning yourself for some momentary titilation that doesn't amount to anything in the long run.

 

Yes, the "code" isn't that these utterances or blowup are sacred.

The question is if reporting them is worth the hassle -- to verify it, provide proper context and take the heat for writing it.

 

Kinda what I thought. If the team doesn't dirty laundry aired, they should take care to ensure it isn't heard, right?

 

The coach knows where the door is. I'll be it wasn't an accident.

 

I refuse to read anything on Bleacher Report. That's all.

 

Who's being selfish? If you don't have the guts to ask the coach that question, you shouldn't have the privilege of reporting it. Details, attribution, responsibility. Those factors have to be considered. Find out and report the complete story.

 

One of the first games in Texas I covered was actually not a game but a preseason scrimmage. The host coach marched his team straight to the locker room and proceeded to chew ass.

I asked him what he said (kinda knowing already) and he answered a bit sheepishly, "Was I that loud?"

 

Bingo. How many closed door meetings occur in sports? Quite a few, especially in baseball. Whatever commotion makes its way outside of the locker room serves only as scenery, because the real work is done when a good reporter goes in and asks about the atmosphere during the meeting, what was said, who spoke up, etc.

Sometimes the information is mediocre - "That's between me and the boys," coach Woody Blowme explained. "We just have to skate harder and get some pucks to bounce our way."

But sometimes veteran players, indeed the very guys who probably spoke up, will reiterate what was said as reinforcement. They don't care that the reporters serve the public; they know that their teammates will likely read the comments (even though they'll deny it) and a public reminder of what was said in the meeting will go a long way to reinforcing the comments.

No matter the ethics of tweeting a shouting match in a closed door meeting in a locker room, not following up on it should be just as criminal.

 

I'm just stunned that someone could write 2,562 words on that.