Is this wrong?

I covered a local vball playoff game. It was a 5-gamer with a lot of drama in the first four games before the final one.
But a local reporter showed up to the event midway through the fourth game and the next day, had a bylined story in his paper.
I was furious. He had no idea what happened. He could ask the basic questions, but as far as the flow goes, he had no idea.
I sent an email to the SE - mainly becuase shit like that infuriates me - and his SE was nice about it, wanted to make sure his guy did copy me, but said it was no big deal for his guy showing up late.
Shouldn't it be a bigger deal than that? The SE used examples of people showing up late tot track - a sport which you don't necessarily need to be at on time, IMO - and also said his guys have a history of this covering football games.
Is that effed up, or am I just way too into my journalism ethics?

 

I'm confused. You were covering the game. The competition shows up late and misses important details. Why care?

 

You sent an email to the other paper's SE? What the hell?

 

No shit. Dude, you're not that reporter's babysitter. He wants to show up late, it's between him and his SE. Maybe his wife was sick, or he had car trouble, or he had to watch his kid. Whatever it was, it was none of your damned business.

 

Rhody, I can understand wanting to preserve the sanctity of journalism and all that jazz but showing up late to a meeting or game isn't unethical. At the most it's lazy or irresponsible but, you know what, it's your competition. So better for you.

For now on, unless that guy is stealing your shit, don't bug his fucking editor.

 

Or it could be that he had four other things to do that day.

 

At the least ...

 

He got lucky, but if a match goes five games, what's really that useful outside of why it got to the tiebreker (the last part of the fourth game) and the fifth? I'd be mad too. That I had to sit through two hours of VB, and he didn't.

 

I'm confused.

If the guy ripped off your copy or quotes or whatever, that warrants a call to the SE.

If not, well...

 

Ha, no shit. Hope it wasn't women's v-ball. That would be even worse.

 

Hey.. I hear women's volleyball sells out every match in this state.

 

Not much to do there?