At what point should you as a reporter point out the wrong call was made?

mjp, "appeared to" is the key there and sounds like a good way to write it. It isn't the 100 percent declaration that others were suggesting.

 

That's what it was. Are you all arguing that he was wrong?

 

Our style at my first job was always "disputed call" I got used to that and used it the rest of my career.

 

He was actually doing that "anyone can call in an infraction" thing that is very common to golf, which I personally hate but which is accepted in the sport. And in truth, all he did was tip off the rules chief that something may have happened; only after interviewing Wie did the rules chief issue a ruling. But yes, to answer your question, I think he was acting out of his boundaries as a reporter. There was a pretty big Poynter-style ethics debate about it at the time.

It's quite a bit different from most or all of the examples cited on this thread, though.

 

I haven't seen a prep sporting event remotely important enough yet where my or any other reporter's intervention was required.

 

On all of those examples. I stated what happened, no hedging with "appeared." In all cases, everyone in attendance knew what actually happened. Again, that's why I said it had to be "egregious."

The worst of those examples - and they were all bad - was the basketball not going through the net. The official that blew the call was indignant and would not consult his partner when the coach challenged him. Coach got tossed, two free throws and the ball, turning point in the game.

Under no circumstances can something like that not be reported.

 

And if that was a high school game, what would you do?

Your example happens once every 5,000 games or so at the major league level.

 

Anyone who has been around sports for any length of time knows there's also a karma that goes with these situations. This call went against Team A, but more than likely they'll benefit from a similar call somewhere down the line. Might not be in that match or game, but it'll happen.
In the long run, bad calls tend to even out.

 

If you really think the ball was in and the player was cheating, then write a story and quote the opposing player. Ask about the call and if he wants to call the guy out, print it.

Otherwise, you could get into a real mess calling a kid a liar -- either to tournament officials or in print. And what proof do you have?

 

That reminds me of a moment in college. While working for the school newspaper, I asked our adviser how I should handle a situation that I personally witnessed. It's better to quote someone. His exaggerated example was if someone walked into the office right then and shot (our coworker) in the head, instead of him writing "Holy shit!" he'd quote me saying "Holy shit!"

 

He said the ball was "more than clearly in." And besides being a reporter, he is the only person in the history of humanity who has never just flat-out seen something wrong. What more proof does he need?

Seriously, just as a psychology experiment, people should go out to a youth event (up to HS level) and see how many people are absolutely sure that a call should have gone the other way. Even if you have a room full of guys watching an NFL game, you'll often have a dispute after seeing multiple replays of whether a player was in bounds.