Byline on gamer when writer doesn't go to the game

I've been out of the business for a few years and have noticed a trend, and I'm wondering how common it is/acceptable around the country: Bylines on gamers by writers who didn't attend the game.

Some newspapers are, for example, running stories on road games written by the beat writer who didn't make the trip. The main tipoff to readers that he/she wasn't at the game is the lack of a dateline and quotes. At least in this case, the writer can provide his/her insights on a team he/she regularly covers.

I've also seen this for some college games played locally but not staffed covered in stories that appear to be written off of information provided by sports information. Again, a byline but no dateline or quotes. This seems to be more questionable.

Anybody who has worked on a sports desk has written game stories numerous times on games they didn't attend, and based on information called in by coaches. But we never considered putting our byline on top of that story.

Has this really become acceptable now?

 

As long as the writer isn't pretending to cover the game, I don't have a problem with it as much as I have a problem with the paper not sending the writer to the game. That's the bigger problem.

 

I've always thought byline is OK, dateline is not. But I don't think the average reader knows what that distinction means.

Not sure what the best way of handling it is, short of putting in the story, "Bobby Beat Writer wasn't at this game," which serves no one.

 

Most of my college-newspaper Sundays were spent calling players to ask about weekend road games we didn't attend. Those had bylines -- and quotes.

I've been more thrown off by editors who have added datelines to features written in advance and stories done by phone. I've suggested the dateline be MY COUCH.

 

I think the newspaper industry has gone so far down the road that the ethical things that used to be taboo back in the day, have been replaced by the harsh reality of economics.

 

I sure don’t think it’s acceptable. If I’m not at the game in person and write something about the game it’s called a staff report.

 

Front page wraps? I remember when A1 was sacred ground.

 

My personal rule of thumb (not everyone at my paper follows it):

No dateline. Byline only if I'm able to call someone for comments or write something with a little more info about what the win/loss means in context to the season, etc. If it's just a writeup off a box score or radio/TV/online viewing, then our equivalent of "Staff Report."

I never pretend I'm there and even make sure to say the quotes came from "a phone interview after the game."

 

If you use secondhand quotes you can say the player "told reporters."

 

Definitely no dateline.

 

Does the common reader even understand the purpose of the dateline? I'd argue 95% do not.

A couple of years ago, due to some complaints, we added datelines to everything to make it easier for readers to find out where a game is played at, whether we are there or not. Our dateline indicates the location of the game, not location of where the story was filed from. A game played in Dimville that was called in to our Podunk office for a brief gets the Dimville dateline, whether it's in our coverage area or not.