1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

New York Times on ESPN landing Janay Rice interview

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by boundforboston, Dec 2, 2014.

  1. boundforboston

    boundforboston Well-Known Member

    The New York Times had a story on how ESPN received the Janay Rice interview. The process seemed a little journalistically unsound, but I wanted to see what your guys' thoughts were.

    http://nyti.ms/1CBH4NX
     
  2. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    I understand that sometimes concessions need to be made in order to get a big or exclusive story.

    ESPN made concessions and basically got nothing in return.
     
  3. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    I laughed at this quote:

    Asked by Mr. Lauer what she thought of her husband when she saw him in an earlier video of the incident that showed him dragging her out of the elevator, Ms. Rice laughed
    and said "I realized that I needed to get my big ass into the gym and start eating more salads."
     
  4. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    Lauer should have said, "You got that right." :D
     
  5. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Bizarre quote.
     
  6. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    ESPN, the NFL and the Rices deserve one another. Lie down with big-ass dogs, get up with big-ass fleas.
     
  7. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    I take Janay out of that equation. I fail to see where she wronged anybody in this whole mess.
     
  8. Dan Feldman

    Dan Feldman Member

    What was "journalistically unsound"?
     
  9. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Yeah ESPN is in a different world entirely. They're part journo, part non-journo, whatever. Getting Janay Rice was a big piece of the whole, but not the whole.

    However, when your efforts make Matt Lauer look like the hardcore probing interviewer, you've done it wrong.
     
  10. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    Well-said.

    What I think was so funny about it was they trotted Jemele out on SportsCenter like this was some big get, which I think people initially thought it was, and then you find out what they got out of it, and you want to say, "OK, so you gave her complete control over what was written, she wouldn't go on camera, you couldn't use audio, you got no new news out of it and all of the things they wouldn't let you do, they're letting NBC do a few days later?"

    They should have told her to fuck off.
     
  11. accguy

    accguy Member

    Exclusives -- or in this case, near exclusives -- are interesting things. And they don't happen by accident.

    If you as a reporter are offered a big exclusive of some sort, the team/company/individual probably thought about who they should give the story to.

    It might be because of the size and reach of your outlet, your outlet might be a rightsholder of some sort, they might think you will treat them fairly, they might think you will treat a sensitive story gently, it might be because you have built a good relationship.

    Sometimes, however, there are conditions on an exclusive. There could be things that are off limits. There could be restrictions on timing of publication.

    It is the reality of the landscape. I get that there are people here who say, "I would never....." but unless you haven't, you don't really know what you would do. Because if the story is big enough, there are times when a reporter or an outlet has to decide if they are willing to play ball with the source or if they are willing to get beat on the story.

    It's really easy to lob bombs at ESPN or Jemele on this one, but I think people should consider the entire picture before doing so.
     
  12. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    Your points are valid. You want a story like this, you're probably going to have to agree to a few conditions.

    I'm sure the story got a ton of clicks, but there was nothing of note in that story.

    To have that, and bill it as a huge exclusive, and then have NBC have everything three days later made ESPN look idiotic. I wonder if they knew about the NBC interview. I'm guessing they did since the NBC interview was taped way in advance.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page