Fight! Do you report it?

I remember several years ago when Bob Knight was at Indiana, he was on an absolute tirade in the locker room after a game. A reporter who was within earshot -- and tape recorder shot -- started recording it (not sure if the locker room door was open or what exactly the circumstance was).

The recording was posted on the internet for everyone to hear (it was hilarious....and quite scary). I'm not sure if the reporter who taped and posted it was ever discovered. I believe it was done so anonymously.

Posting something that's said in a press conference or an on-the-record interview? No problems whatsoever. But discreetly hitting the record button when the coach is alone with his players and posting that? I think that crosses the line.

 

A coach yelling at his players? Stop the presses on that one.

 

You are OK ethically if you report it, but like somebody said, be prepared for limited access in the future or a boycott of you personally by the coach and team IF the coach didn't want it out. It'd be better to report it but confront the coach about it as well and get his reaction. Coach should have been warned by the people in his entourage that media were close by the locker room.

 

agreed. i once walked into the locker room before a game and the coach--OK, it was Pitino--was screaming at a player. happens all the time. we just don't usually see or hear it. i never mentioned it. just didn't think it was relevant and it wasn't worth pissing off the coach. the player was a fringe guy, anyway.

 

The guy who writes for the Calgary Flames Official Team Newsletter calls someone unethical for writing something he disapproves of about the Calgary Flames?

 

Issues to consider:
a) Picking your battles with the team you cover
b) Do you have enough information to accurate portray the context of the situation to your readers?
c) It's not always a big deal when a coach yells at player(s)

Totally, wholly irrelevant:
a) The coach didn't intend for you to hear it.

I agree that you're not doing your job if you don't ask the coach, et al., about it.

 

If the coach is in the locker room with the players and you just happen to be standing outside and the door is cracked open .... the coach assumes/thinks he is alone with his players. Is anything he says then assumed to be off the record?

In other words, is it like a "guilty until proven innocent" scenario like he is always on the record unless he says he is speaking off the record?

 

Good Lord, yes, he's always on the record unless YOU agree that it's off the record. What the hell kind of journalism have you been practicing?

 

No need to fly off the handle. Just a question, that's all.

 

There is no such thing as off the record. If a coach tells you something, you can use it.

Should you? Probably not.

It all depends on what the information is. If a coach tells you (while your mic is on) that Player A is "not having the best of seasons, probably because...is this off the record? OK, well, it's because I've been shooting him up with steroids and he's having a bad reaction to them after getting in a fist fight with his girlfriend and murdering a man in South Carolina." then, yeah, you should probably investigate.

 

OK, fair enough. Sorry. That issue is a sore spot for me.

 

No worries. In my short career, I've never been put in such a situation so that's why I was asking.