Cubs announce Kendall trade on TV first ...

And I'm saying that he's not owed that. Reporters should have no expectation of being "handed" the news, and they certainly shouldn't complain when it doesn't happen. Instead of bitching about the Cubs releasing it to TV first, he should be asking himself why he didn't have the story before they released it at all.

 

TV was "handed" the news. That's the fucking issue here.

 

Man, I'm glad somebody else sees that...

 

It wasn't like a local sports anchor, on one of the affiliates, was "handed" anything. It was read by the GM on the team's telecast. Big deal.

If the Cubs had released the news to all media at once, the game announcers still would have dispersed it first, right? As in immediately? Beat writers would have had to at least phone their desks or send something for online.

Doubt that getting it first would have convinced Tribune Co. not to do buyouts or run ads on section fronts, anyway.

 

Fair enough ... but the TV handed the news was the local Cubs affiliate, for on-the-air use. To me, it's no different than if the Cubs front office had announced it on the JumboTron. I'd have more of an issue if it was handed to a TV hack for an 11 o'clock exclusive.

I still think complaining on a blog is the wrong way to go about this. I don't agree at all about the bar analogy. It's more like preaching to a hateful congregation.

 

I'm going to have to agree with Cosmo and broadway joe on this one.

 

Okey-dokey. Then when it happens to one of you, I trust the silence will be deafening.

 

The team I cover announces such things on their website all the time.
In this case, the team announced a trade on their TV station.

Not sure I see the difference.

 

Print guys are going to have to get used to the idea that, unless we do original reporting, we're not going to have transactions stuff first anymore, at least most of the time. Teams have Web sites and broadcast outlets, and many don't see a need to "respect" the less-important-than-ever beat writers with such stuff. Nice courtesy if they do, but that is fading. So we have to either break the stories by finding out independently or focus more on the context and meaning and second-day angles of a roster move. Things have changed.