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in-game interviews

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by golfnut8924, Nov 29, 2009.

  1. golfnut8924

    golfnut8924 Guest

    So this is something that has kind of peeved me for quite some time and I wanted to get your take .....

    During baseball games, the TV crew interviews the manager during the game. Usually it is between innings, but it is still while the game is going on.

    In hockey, they interview the coach while the game is going on. The interview usually starts during a stoppage of play but often extends after the faceoff so they are still talking to him while play is actually going on.

    I feel this is over the line. There is plenty of time to talk to them before, after and between games. There is no reason to be bothering them while they are out there doing their job. The guy is in the middle of coaching/managing his team and you're interrupting him for an interview? I know it's all for broadcast purposes (NBC is the worst with this) but I feel that there is a line there you don't cross. As a print journalist, you wouldn't approach a coach on the bench for an interview during the game. Why do the TV people feel they have that right?

    Your thoughts SJ??
     
  2. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    In-game interviews usually suck. I think the NCAA, or maybe it's just some of the leagues, has banned in-game interviews except at halftime in football. But where they have them, they're pre-arranged and probably in the TV contract for MLB, maybe others.
     
  3. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    Coaches should just say no.

    The 'interview' typically is worthless. I know Podunk U's defense sucked in the first half and they have to play harder. I don't need a coach - who is working! - to tell me that. Insipid, idiotic worthless crap because of television.

    Whenever the interviewer wraps with "Good luck, Coach!" it furthers the fans' mindset that "the media" is a bunch of suckups.
     
  4. golfnut8924

    golfnut8924 Guest

    I don't mind so much when it's at halftime as the coach is trotting off the field (although they are pointless because the coach never says anything insighful at all) but it's a different story when the game is actually going on. Leave the guy alone and let him coach. The media should not be interfering with a game and that's exactly what's happening. Yes, it's only a couple of pitches or a few seconds of a hockey game, but it's the principle of it.
     
  5. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    I agree, but if that's what's needed to put the ink on a $15 billion TV deal they're damn sure not gonna stop doing them.
     
  6. golfnut8924

    golfnut8924 Guest

    You're probably right on that. And if the coaches/managers had an option to decline these interviews, I'm sure all of them would. Which leads me to believe that MLB/NHL has told them they do not have that option.
     
  7. Cape_Fear

    Cape_Fear Active Member

    I don't think Charlie Manuel did any of them during the NLCS and the World Series. It was either the Phils' pitching or hitting coach doing them.
     
  8. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    I'm recalling the incident a few years ago in a Boston-Oakland ALCS, when Roger Clemens was thrown out after giving the umpire grief. The TV folks got their Clemens interview while the game was still in progress, but a half-dozen or so print guys who wanted the same story were told they had to wait untilSo tell me who really calls the shots ...
     
  9. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    When newspapers are paying a crap-ton of money for the games, I'll want to interview mid-game too.
     
  10. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    Didn't Phil Jackson raise a fuss about it, and was then informed by the league that he was obligated to do the interviews?
     
  11. golfnut8924

    golfnut8924 Guest

    Wouldn't surprise me. Although, again, the halftime ones don't bother me because the action is not going on. The ones that get me are when play is actually going on.

    It hasn't creeped into the NFL or NBA yet (at least as far as I know -- it's been years since I watched a fucking NBA game). But I bet it won't be long.
     
  12. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    Jackson, IIRC, was complaining about the ones recorded right at the beginning of TV timeouts during the quarter and then played when they got back sometimes going into the next sequence of action.
     
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