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Breaking into sports journalism--YouTube

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Canuck Pappy, Jul 13, 2007.

  1. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    sing it, sing it, sing it ...
     
  2. Jesus, that's an adult portion of arrogance right there.
    And the moderator is the senior editor of ESPN The Magazine?
    Cheerleader for the blight.
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    That's a pretty good point. I am not sure who this event was aimed at, but of the people on the panel I could make out, it didn't seem like a beat writer or newspaper columnist with a focus on the day-to-day of a team or all of a city's teams was included. It had more of an internet / magazine / book bent. Alison Overholt, the moderator, is an editor at ESPN, Will Leitch does Deadspin, a blog, Steve Friedman writes books, essays and freelances for magazines, Sam Walker does features for the WSJ and writes books and Seth Wickersham writes magazine stories for ESPN the magazine. All of those people have probably been critical of athletes in print, and I am sure they are all stand-up about it, but their perspective is going to be way different than the beat writer who has to find something interesting and informative to write for hungry fans every day over a 162-game season or the columnist who has to write something critical and then be back there a few days later and look people in the face. I'm not saying one of those jobs--newspaper or magazine--is more valuable or more difficult, just that they're different. The way you work your way through a locker room (and some of the people on that panel either rarely go into locker rooms or get their best stuff for stories outside of locker rooms) is going to differ based on the job, how often you have to be there, the audience you are writing for, etc. Maybe all of that was pointed out and the clip didn't include those parts.

    It's also a little funny that it was Sam Walker who was making fun of the "how to do feel" questions and blasting the TV reporters. He wrote a book about running a fantasy baseball team in some elite geeky roto league, and he spent a year walking around major league clubhouses talking to players about fantasy baseball and asking the players on his fantasy team for inside info about what was going on with their seasons to try to give himself an "edge" in his fantasy baseball league. There HAD to have been instances in which there was a beat writer listening to that and rolling his or her eyes. Again, I am not saying what Walker was doing wasn't legitimate. He wrote an entertaining book that I think did pretty well. It's just that what he was doing was DIFFERENT from what the person next to him with a recorder was doing and they were each probably each going about it in a way that worked for them.
     
  4. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    This is what I learned from that clip:

    1. Dick Schapp, while he was alive, liked vagina. He liked vagina sooooo much! Ha, ha, ha! Isn't that funny? Non-practicing gynechologist ... get it? Free pap smears at the Schapp house, huh? Who wants one, ladies? Oh man, that's a gut buster. Tip your waiters and enjoy the baked Alaska, people.

    2. Steve Friedman may be far more succesful that I am, but he obviously doesn't have a woman in his life, or doesn't feel comfortable with letting his gay friends dress him, because that shirt he's wearing is hideous. And not in a campy kind of way, like Leitch's frumpy brown blazer/t-shirt combo.

    3. Sam Walker may be right about some things, but he's still a tool.

    4. Seth Wickersham sits like a girl.
     
  5. Ya think?
    Tool Time.
     
  6. Norrin Radd

    Norrin Radd New Member

    There's so much disingenuousness in panels like this, with people at the top of the profession, in unique situations where they spend a lot of time building narrative pieces and writing well and doing interviews. They never have a beat jockey up there, someone whose mandate is to break news daily, to build relationships with people including those within sports organizations and yes, competing journalists, and to whom "vacation" only means a time away from the office that can be interrupted by something happening on their beat. A beat jockey who deals with the same people day in and day out, and who must be held accountable for what is printed.

    No, it's better to trot out a group of all East Coast dwellers who are at the biggest outlets on the East Coast, and have them say pretty things about what makes a dumb question. I note the regional aspect because it speaks to the diversity of the panel as far as experiences and challenges related to journalism.

    Much of what they said will never apply to most journalists, who will never sniff that big job in a big market. Ever try to ask the average high schooler a deep question? Some can hang, some can't. But all can answer "how does it feel?" pretty easily.

    For the most part, these panels are an opportunity for journalists to pat themselves on the back for how smart they are, fellate each other, and act as if their job is as important as curing cancer. This one didn't disappoint.
     
  7. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    It was his job. The book was about rotisserie baseball in general (he wove in history and a lot about the "culture" of different leagues) and had a side premise of, "Can I do out-manage a bunch of rotisserie baseball experts (there is a geeky expert's league) as a novice if I have access to the players and can talk to them." Walker took the premise of managing a fantasy team to an extreme--hiring experts to help him, attending spring training, working locker rooms, grilling real GMs and players with technical questions, etc. The idea was to see if the access he has as a sportswriter would give him a leg up in the most competitive fantasy baseball league. That is a fairly interesting premise--judging by the success I believe the book had, readers were intrigued--and what he was doing was a legitimate reporting enterprise. It's not like Walker was some knucklehead trolling locker rooms asking about fantasy sports without it being related to what he was working on.

    It's just that to me, what he was doing was no different than someone asking a "How did it feel" question because they want to capture the emotion of winning something for readers. The way I disagree with your reaction of, "This dork doesn't belong in the locker room asking those 'unprofessional' questions," I don't agree when he sits there judging the TV guy looking for a sound bite or the person asking a "How do you feel?" question. Not that there aren't lots of idiots in locker rooms asking moronic questions, but maybe sometimes the person you think is a joke is someone doing a legitimate job with a purpose?
     
  8. jlee

    jlee Well-Known Member

    As a recent college grad, I was disappointed that something titled "Breaking into Sports Journalism" had little more than sports writers ripping their peers. I wouldn't watch the entire session if it were free, much less pay for it.
     
  9. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    By the way, Dick Young -- not Jerome Holtzman, great as "The Dean" was/is -- generally is credited with being the baseball writer who made it routine to head to the clubhouse after games. Sam Walker, who needs to be careful throwing around that "lazy" charge, doesn't seem to know much about beat writing past OR present.
     
  10. Norrin Radd

    Norrin Radd New Member

    I never said it was a question of professionalism. I noted that specifically.

    My point was that someone who had done that job shouldn't be ripping on questions others ask. Everyone goes about their business differently. And everyone's business is different.

    EDIT: I obviously realized my words were harsher than I had intended, since he was researching a book. That's why I deleted the original post as you quoted it.
     
  11. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    Oh, lighten up, Kid...
    We rip eachother all the time. Poke around here for five minutes.
     
  12. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    you fucking hack. STF.
     
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