Another Twitter/journalist car crash

After the Florida/Wisconsin thriller, a journalist from a South Carolina newspaper tweeted his disdain for an after-midnight question from a SI Kids child reporter.



He got pummeled for it.

He was also, repeatedly, misunderstood.

Earlier in the night, a SI Kids child reporter had asked Frank Martin a question about his defense. Martin praised the kid's question - it was fine, not extraordinary, but it gave Martin, a contrarian and public grump, a chance to exercise those qualities in front of rest of the press - and it made some traffic on the Web.

So lots of people on Twitter, including Bryan Curtis - who oughta know better - presumed the SC beat writer was referring to that question, and not the one that came after midnight, after the Florida-Wisconsin game, when reporters needed to ask about the game-winning shot.



The question after midnight was about some kid's mom being in the stands. Which is a question that could very reasonably be asked away from the podium.

So, to recap:

One reporter complains on Twitter. People flip.

A prominent media reporter doesn't do enough homework to figure out what the original comment's about. People flip some more.

Lesson: Tweet less.

Now, do I think it's a valid complaint? Sure. SI Kids can find its own time, not at friggin midnight, to ask some dude about his mom. Like, tomorrow at the press availability. I do not feel "sorry" for the giant, access-blessed Sports Illustrated. That person, whoever was in charge of the kid, can do better than that.

That said: Tweet less.

Everyone just tweet less.

 

So you didn't tweet about this?

 

What does a kid reporter do after a 1 am press conference in New York City? File a brite to the web and then do the notebook after sleeping a little? Split a cab with the columnist and shut down the bars?

 

Some people don't need to sober-tweet either.

 

I blew this, too, because the question to Frank Martin went viral, and I just assumed that's the one the guy was talking about. (Who knew that SIKids were so well staffed with... um, well, kids, I guess.) However:

1. You're never going to win grousing about kids.

2. We have all sat through plenty of dumb, meandering, and off-topic questions from the adults in the room.

3. We're not all after the same thing at a press conference. The question that you think is bullshit might be the one that gets the more interesting quote for a feature. The feature writer probably doesn't give a shit about the standard post-game deadline stuff, and so on. I'm sure I've pissed off other reporters with my questions, but I'm a credentialed member of the media, as this kid was, and I'll goddamn ask whatever question I want at the press conference, because that might be my one chance to get the thing I need.

Do I have empathy for the deadline guy who just needs his nuts-and-bolts stuff so he can file? Sure. In a locker-room scrum I'll wait for the first few game questions to be asked before I ask my weird shit. But I have every right to ask my weird shit if I think it's going to help my story.

I'll give you an example of where this happens and it's ridiculous: Karen Crouse at golf tournaments. For me, she asks the best, most interesting questions, and she almost always elicits the most illuminating answer of the session. But you'll invariably hear some dickhead complaining about her questions after, because they deviate from expected norms.

You want something interesting to happen at a press conference? Deviate from the expected norm. Force the subject to do the same. And anyone who gives you shit for that has lost whatever curiosity they once had and needs to get bent.

4. He's a kid, for Christ's sake. Leave him alone.

 

Wait until the exces figure out kids will work for an allowance and a star pop. This may be the way of the future.

 

Here's how Twitter can lead to some really interesting things.

This Washington Post blogger, a former print writer, just flat out doesn't believe the SC reporter's contention that it was about the second press conference.

Little kid asks good question at NCAA tournament press conference, reporter gets upset

 

Well, what game was Caraviello covering and was that press conference at 1 am? That would tell you.

 

You're never going to win *tweeting* about kids, no. Guy walked into a Twitter buzzsaw. There are a lot of folks - journalists, sometimes - who don't realize that there's a whole market of online traffic built on morality porn - scolding someone for having some opinion that might be 6% offensive when taken out of context. Which is why you don't do it. Not when it's something as innocuous as that. Even if the underlying sentiment is understandable.

I'll push back on this: Enough with the "adults ask shitty questions, too." Of course they do. They're human. And though I hate "talk about" and avoided it like the plague in my day, I got why reporters did it: Coaches and players often suck as quotes when you ask them direct questions because they're tired, insecure, and often perceiving of motives.

"Why did you decide to hold for the last-second 3 instead of getting quick 2?"

is better than

"Hey, coach, talk about that last possession and what went into it."

but I've seen - too many times to count - the second question (which isn't even a question!) get a more complete response because it's not a question, but an invitation for the coach to share his perspective on the last possession without having to shoulder the actual responsibility the first question rightly applies.

"Talk about" is perceived as lazy, and sometimes it is, and other times - and, again, I refused to do as a matter of principle - other times, it was just more efficient as a means to an end.

And, yes, beat writing can and is sometimes getting the coach to tell you what the readers gotta know as a means to an end. Beat writers don't have 3 weeks. They have, sometimes, 13 minutes.

One more thing: It's true that, sometimes, when an athlete or coach hears a question from the New York Times or some magazine reporter, boy, they light up and act like the clouds parted and man, what insight. And then everybody sits around and nods about how daring that all was, and What A Lesson To Learn for The Future.

But rare is the coach or player who treats the person who comes around every day the same as the national reporter in for a couple days or a week. The beat writer is in a kind of marriage - you can't "define the relationship" at every week's presser without burning out the coach/players and, inevitably, yourself.

 

He covered both press conferences:

Spur of the Moment: Gators expect 'battle' with SEC foe Gamecocks in NCAA East region final

I think it's pretty screwed up of a blogger to say, nah, he's full of it.

 

Oh David.

David, David, David.