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Nashville media: sickening

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Eric P., Oct 1, 2006.

  1. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    At this point the reporters present either need to walk out, speak up and say they are not agreeing to go off the record or not report it. By staying and keeping their mouths shut, I believe they are agreeing to Fisher's request to go off the record.

    And if you are willing to just say, "Fuck it, I'm printing that anyway," after agreeing to go off the record, perhaps it is your journalistic ethics that should be in question.
     
  2. scrapdog004

    scrapdog004 Member

    One thing nobody seems to have mentioned is that NFL teams are required to provide accurate depth charts. If Young was not listed as the No. 1, the media has every right to report that, agreement or not.

    And by the sound of it, it wasn't so much an agreement as Fisher trying to impose his will.

    If the Nashville writers agreed not to report anything they saw in practice, then that's their stupid decision in the first place. It's one thing to leave trick plays out; but not reporting a change in the depth chart, which the team is required to put out, is crap.
     
  3. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    coughlin's practices are closed, so everything is fair game. in essence, teams with open practices do so knowing it offers them an air of being media-friendly but also do so knowing it comes with the power to control the news cycle. really, the only solution i see is closed practices. it's taken me a long time to come to this realization --23 years of covering the nfl, to be exact.

    but in today's espn-internet climate, closed practices are the only way to make sure reporters are not faced with situations such as these. a reporter finds out young's been getting the first-team snaps and runs with it. in the titans-young situation, reporters knew ONLY BECAUSE THE TITANS LET THEM KNOW with their open practice policy. brilliant, when you think about it. nothing the reporters could do to pull an end around.

    this could lead to a first: the MEDIA requesting that practices be closed to them to make anything they discover fair game. there's nothing more frustrating that telling folks, "i knew it, but couldn't write it."

    sometimes it's better to not know. this was one of those times. just no way the reporters could've handled it differently, given the set-up. that's all i'm saying.

    aside to scrapdog: teams are NOT required to give an accurate depth chart, just a depth chart. coaches have always asked/told reporters, "you saw in practice that joe blow is starting this week. don't write it." you write something you're told not to, bam, practice is immediately closed and/or you're the reporter not to be trusted.

    you make the call on whether the embargoed info is worth the price you might have to pay. my opinion: when you take a deep breath, get some perspective, reporting that vince young is finally making his first nfl start sunday wouldn't be blockbuster enough to merit the crap you'd take for running with news you were HANDED becuase of the team's open-practice policy. they let you watch practice, they get to dictate what's useable and what's not.

    that's too big a price to pay for open practices? i agree totally. but you can't change the rules after the fact.
     
  4. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    The more interesting question is did the bookies in Vegas know that Young was going to play? I suspect they did, which says plenty of how important gambling is to the NFL when compared to the media.
     
  5. Rockbottom

    Rockbottom Well-Known Member

    shockey has pretty much summed up my feelings on this issue ... and anyone who has an opinion that the nashville guys should have broken their agreement with the titans/jeff fisher has never covered a big-time, highly competitive beat.

    rb
     
  6. joe king

    joe king Active Member

    Great topic.

    Rock, I have covered big-time competitive beats, and I don't think they should have agreed to that in the first place. Just having open practice does not mean there is an implied agreement. If they want to keep you from reporting something, they'd better spell it out so you can agree or disagree. When Fisher told them to keep this quiet or he'd close practice, they probably shouldn't have made that deal. What would Fisher have done then? Close practice? So be it. But you can't sit on a big story, and this was a big story.
     
  7. jay_christley

    jay_christley Member

    I just can't believe I didn't get an update about VYoung starting on my espn mobile last wednesday from Mort.
    What's the point of having this damn phone?!?!?






    ;D
     
  8. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    coughlin's practices are closed, so everything is fair game. in essence, teams with open practices do so knowing it offers them an air of being media-friendly but also do so knowing it comes with the power to control the news cycle. really, the only solution i see is closed practices. it's taken me a long time to come to this realization --23 years of covering the nfl, to be exact.

    but in today's espn-internet climate, closed practices are the only way to make sure reporters are not faced with situations such as these. a reporter finds out young's been getting the first-team snaps and runs with it. in the titans-young situation, reporters knew ONLY BECAUSE THE TITANS LET THEM KNOW with their open practice policy. brilliant, when you think about it. nothing the reporters could do to pull an end around.

    this could lead to a first: the MEDIA requesting that practices be closed to them to make anything they discover fair game. there's nothing more frustrating that telling folks, "i knew it, but couldn't write it."

    sometimes it's better to not know. this was one of those times. just no way the reporters could've handled it differently, given the set-up. that's all i'm saying.

    regardless of how you land on this issue, clearly the level of discussion proves the title of this thread was a tab overblown. the (in)actions of the nashville media were not "sickening."
     
  9. So what if a reader calls you up and asks if Vince Young is starting? I'm guessing the reply would be along the lines of "I don't know" or "I can't say." In both cases, this is misleading your readers.

    I can see both sides of this, but there's something that makes me uncomfortable about a coach controlling information to this extent. You could easily make the argument that you could get more news in the paper by being shut out of practice.
     
  10. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    at least you'd have a clear conscience. open practices aren't really all that useful. they really help the weak, lazy reporters more than the good ones.
     
  11. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Since football is so often compared to war, I'll make this analogy. Open practices are like being an embedded reporter. Just like you wouldn't give out operational information, such a troop location or attack plans, you wouldn't give out strategic football info like trick plays or new formations.

    However, if the general in command of the unit you're with is replaced because he's incompetent and has made bad battlefield decisions that cost lives, that's news that you would report.

    Like someone else said, if Fisher closed the doors and said, "Young is starting, don't tell anyone," you as a reporter have to stand up and say that you won't agree to that deal. If you stand there silently while he tells you that, then you have, in effect, agreed to his terms and should not report it.

    But after watching Young taking first team reps in practice, you likely have an idea that he's going to start. So when Fisher closes that door and says, "I'm going to tell you something, but you can't report it," you have to let him know right then that you do not agree.

    It's a tough spot to be in. But I do think Young taking over is probably the biggest news that's going to come out of Nashville this season. It needed to be reported. As someone else said, having that knowledge and not reporting it changed the coverage of the team for four days and made the stories written in that time a sham.
     
  12. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Deportes, the implication that there are no big-time, accomplished professional reporters working for networks and websites like ESPN perhaps MIGHT have been true -- in about 1996. Time to move forward to 2006.
     
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