Is there now a trust gap with Peter King?

I think the clear answer is yes:


In the wake of the Ray Rice video release, some top NFL reporters found themselves on the end of conflicting reports. Adam Schefter appeared on television and was furious with the leauge. Chris Mortensen stood by his reporting. Peter King of Sports Illustrated, on the other hand, backtracked.

King’s report from July said that NFL had seen the tape inside the elevator. The league then said publicly they had not. Who was telling the truth? Well, it was King who retreated from the conflict and said his report was based on the assumption of a source. King took some deserved heat for the situation and to his credit, did his part to own up to it. Clearly though, the trust of readers had been breached in a significant way.

And now King is seeing the consequences.

Long seen by critics as a mouthpiece for the league (you can judge for yourself whether that’s an accurate assessment), King wrote a column challenging Roger Goodell for being absent from the public scene. King said it was “past time” for Goodell to answer questions and be held to account.

Fair enough. But it’s the anonymous quote in the lead to the column that has again drawn criticism.

“Roger has determined that he will be a leader in the domestic-violence space.”

Who does this quote come from? King says it’s from “a source with knowledge of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s mindset.”

A source with knowledge of Roger Goodell’s mindset? That could, literally, mean anybody. It could be the guy who parks his car at the league office. It could be the guy at Dunkin Donuts who really gained some valuable insights into Goodell’s mindset when he went with the bearclaw over the cruller. Or yea, maybe it could be one of Goodell’s lackeys or yes-men in the NFL offices. Or, it could just be an assumption that somebody made because Goodell is getting paid $44 million dollars to do something besides build a Lego house in his office, right?

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/now-trust-gap-peter-king.html

 

" ... domestic-violence space ... "

 

MMQB brought to you by Universal Pictures, the producers of 50 Shades of Grey.

 

Caleb Hannan is back on twitter and Roger Goodell is in hiding.

You can't predict this stuff.

 

This is classic NFL-style pr at work. The Narrative™ is being established. Roger is hidden away for a few days while the story line is developed. Then we get a new zero-tolerance policy and an instant in-house domestic violence department. Finally, anonymous sources are placed with key "journalists" and begin to speak to Roger's determination, ability to take the heat and his new resolve to lead on this issue. Women applaud him. Pink wristbands for everyone!

 

I'd be willing to bet $1,000 -- OK not really, because I don't do the gambling thing, but I am that confident -- that King's "source with knowledge of Goodell's mindset" is Roger Goodell himself.

 

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King was always the Wal-Mart of inside information.
I am sorry for the personal losses he's endured of late but the guy has been a joke for a while.

 

He's clearly not as good as Chris Broussard is at pretending to read "insider" text messages on his phone.

 

It's hard to call a guy "a joke" when SI is putting tons of money behind him and turn his incredibly popular column into a spinoff.

What King does is far different than what beat writers and the ESPN crew do. He writes a column that is largely based on opinion, with news sprinkled in there. He's not competing with Schefter, he's not trying to compete with Schefter.

Obviously, the Rice incident is not a high-point of his career and the same can be said with most of the crew at ESPN, with the exception of McManus, who has made a name for herself on this topic.

King's column is not for everyone. He does many things that result in people making fun of him and most of it is completely justified. I consider myself a fan of his and I roll my eyes at least three times in every column.

 

What's the story here?


Awful Announcing @awfulannouncing · 12h

Could Peter King become the NFL’s Chris Broussard? Why trust is the most important element for insiders. http://bit.ly/1r5BZor

 

I'm glad this whole thing is getting some attention (although it's still a small minority of NFL fans who actually know this about King) ... but there has never been a question about his credibility in the last 10 years, because it hasn't existed to anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention.

King worked on Inside the NFL, which was produced via a licensing arrangement with NFL Films. Sports Illustrated/Time Warner has had all sorts of tie-ins with the league, whether it was TNT carrying games or something else. For the last however many years he has been front and center on the highest-rated promotional show the league has. And his reporting has always reflected that -- he tells you what the league wants you to hear. It isn't meaningless, but you have to know the agenda.