Joe Poz on Schilling, the media, and "the truth"

If you haven't moseyed on over to joeposnanski.com yet, you might not know that the best columnist in America also has ... one of the best BLOGS! in America.

And today's BLOG! entry, which you can <a href="http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/02/09/being-curt/">read here</a>, is about some conflicting reports out of Boston on the injured right shoulder of Curt Schilling. Conflicting, because what AP reported and what the Red Sox "reported" and what Schilling "reported" don't seem to come to the same conclusions.

Along the way, Joe Poz makes some interesting observations about the way the story has been handled by the various parties and why it's still important for objective media to continue fleshing out "the truth".

An excerpt:

Thought it might make for an interesting discussion here.

 

He's dead-on, of course. And it's something that fanboys and organizations (and, on news side, the government) doesn't understand - why you have to feel like you must dig further instead of just accepting the company line. Every time I catch someone in a lie or half-truth, I'm accused of, "trying to make a name for yourself."

I really hope this country isn't heading to a point where people trust corporate versions of the truth, and especially government versions, without skepticism. I'm by no means a black helicopter guy - those people are equally as annoying - but to do this job right, you have to take everything with a huge grain of salt.

 

was just about to post this

amen joe, amen

 

[quote author=poz's blog=topic=52710.msg1648376#msg1648376 date=1202567744]I just hope that the mainstream media has not turned people off so much that they haven't given up hope that we can give them something real.
[/quote]

i fear that because of the massive cuts all over the place our ability to give readers "something real" has been drastically sacrificed and in some cases eliminated.

if you're not covering road games anymore to save money and you're not longer getting informal time at the hotel bar with your team's scouts and assistant coaches? or you have to take a couple days a week off your beat to paginate because two of your paginators took buyouts and you're short staffed on the desk? or your editor tells you to just take quotes off the team's web site instead of spending the day tracking down the GM because you have to also cover a HS game?

this is no way to do your job

 

He won me over with the skyline chili mention.

It's a fantastic BLOG!, one that I've been spending a lot more time with lately.

And he makes some fantastic points.

 

I check the BLOG! at least once a day. Great stuff.

 

The leagues, at least at the pro level, are largely responsible for this in the sports where informal access used to be possible (i.e., not the NFL, where road games are quick in-and-out affairs). Between charter flights, pricier hotels than the media can afford and restricted locker room periods, many of us hardly see players or coaches away from the stadium or arena.

Then, thanks to deadlines and blogging and early notes and multiple versions of game stories, we're providing quantity more often than quality from the road. So the expense of the road -- at least in tangible ways -- sometimes outweighs the benefits of it. I know all about the intangibles, like being seen as more legit by the players when you're a traveling beat person, but if it doesn't show up in the paper every single day, bosses will feel more justified in skipping occasional trips. And then a few more. And then many. And so on.

At which point you are not giving the readers "something real" or much of anything else that they cannot get elsewhere.

I've been a sports guy my whole career, but if I were overseeing the newsroom, I would give serious thought to selectively skipping certain road games for certain teams. The risk of offending-and-losing some readers over the stringers or wire copy we would run for those games would be no greater, I believe, than abandoning enterprise ambition or a few possible hard-news or general feature trips.

 

MLB.com and similar resources have a place, but it's incumbent on the major media to report the news as it is (or as close to that as possible) rather than the news someone wants or that is simpler to find.

 

Back when he was posting everyday, A_F would trumpet the athlete's blog as one of factors that will kill newspapers. The readers won't go to the newspaper when the can go to the horse's mouth, he reasoned. And there might be a segment of the population that falls in line with that thinking.

But what about the majority that wants to read a reasoned story, one that has information from the athlete (or their representative) and the athlete's employer?

That was always my argument and A_F never answered it.

 

Newspapers are dying for many, many reasons. Athletes BLOGGING!!!! is about 90,210th on the list of reasons why.

First, most athletes wonder where their soda is when they hit tab. Those who can navigate a keyboard probably don't want to interact with crazy face-painting fan guy. the Schillings are few and far between.

Lastly. the fans who are going to accept their athletes' BLOG!!! as the gospel are already the ones who spend their days and nights ranting about how the media is out to get their heroes. He's not converting anyone witih the BLOG!!!! He's preaching to the choir.

 

Some of the commenters on there are really sad. Quoting scripture and prophets. Some of those biblical characters invoked are talking about loss of life, loss of fortune and being covered with boils from head to toe, but by God Curt might not pitch again for the Boston Red Sox.