Fake Reporter Calling Female HS Athletes

We have a guy in our area who has his own website that he tries to pass off as an alternative to our newspaper.

The joke in our department is how he runs nothing but photos of high school girls. He'll go shoot the local high school football team's games, but will always run photos of cheerleaders, or girls in the stands watching the game. He had an especially creepy infatuation this season with running photos of one cheerleader, who I think was either 14 or 15.

I was covering a softball game a couple of years ago, and this guy was there, shooting from the press box next to where I was sitting. One of the girls on the team, who was one of his favorite photo subjects, was out in front of the dugout before the game joking around. She started dancing to the music playing before the game, and all of the sudden this guy just starts snapping photos. I thought the motor on the camera was going to overheat, it was going so fast.

Someone else in the press box goes, "Jesus Christ, you could be a little more subtle about it, couldn't you?" The guy put his head down and walked out. Of course, none of those photos appeared on his "news" website.

 

I'm super picky about this stuff. I just don't need the hassle of getting the wrong reputation or a false accuastion. I talk to underage athletes, male or female, in public at the events and practices related to their sport. If I need anything more than that, I go through their parents.

 

I never interview a HS kid (again, either gender) without an adult "authority figure" somewhere in the vicinity.

They don't have to be sitting there OK'ing every word but I'm not going behind closed doors with anybody.

Again, nothing good can come of it.

 

I could have sworn that Grantland had a big piece a few months ago on some guy who did this in multiple states. When he was found out in one place, he'd move on to another and start the same thing.

 

It does sound like, in some cases, there is a bit of a double standard here. I recall one place I worked someone complained about a photo of a female gymnast we ran. Our editor's reply was "hey, that's what they compete in". We'd get the same comments about wrestling photos.

So if you are going to play a sport where people actually come and watch, you sort of have to expect that. You can't play in public and have some expectation of privacy. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

 

I've taken -- and run -- a lot of wrestling, and gymnastics, and swimming photos that showed a LOT.

If the shots are of the competition itself, yeah, it is part of the game. (I don't think I've ever had a parent complain about a legit competition shot.)

But there's a difference with guys following kids around with the whole objective to take the cheesecake shots.

As well as arranging the "up-close-and-personal" interviews. That's REAL different.

 

Yeah, he had a weird thing where he could jump on the backs of people / ask for piggyback rides. The piece is here: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8154931/on-trail-piggyback-bandit

 

I have always, always, always worked through parents. Even if I talk with an AD or coach, I ask them to put me in touch with the parents first. As has been said, it's just safer that way. Usually the parents are totally cool with it - no, always, the parents are totally cool with it - withing about 15 seconds. A lot less of a hassle to do that than that one time where you don't and someone says something.

 

That sounds like paranoia ... until you remember the stuff that's going on (like this story here).

Many years ago, I interviewed a kid for a feature. The story got held and was slotted for the next week. The mom assumed, incorrectly, that I was a pedo trying to get to her son. She called the cops. She called other papers where reporters with a similar name to mine worked, and screamed at them. My name was in the cops log ... fun times.

Related to the topic, I've crossed paths with some guys who enjoy covering high school volleyball and gymnastics too much.

 

One of the local television reporters where I grew up got busted for this (and other pedo crimes) in the 1990s. He was actually a "big name' news guy in the market, so it was a shock. He had scores of fake press passes and tons of creepy pictures in his desk. For some reason, his television station decided to show the cops raiding his desk live....and that is how a box of dildos showed up on the local ABC affiliate.

 

If you don't have them friended or follow them on Twitter, you are trailing big time in the adjustment to social media.

When I did this I used to hate running wrestling photos just because of the suggestive and seemingly embarrassing positions they'd be in. At one paper, the universal desk ran a shot of a fastpitch softball girl spread eagle on a delivery that pushed a crotch shot to the very edge of no return. It was far too much and the pagination editor thought it was funny. Pissed me off, so I sent a couple of complaints we got to his voicemail and made sure they knew who he was.

 

Female editor axed the classic soccer photo of the wall, with 5 or 6 guys protecting their balls.