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Legion coach suspended for fake box score

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Jul 6, 2012.

  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    The Times-Tribune doesn't appreciate being mentioned in David Carr's NY Times article (separate thread):

    Lawrence K. Beaupre -- ‏@LarryBeaupre

    Hey, @carr2n, still wondering why you took a swipe at @timestribune w/o bothering to understand story. @nytimes http://ow.ly/c5YmY

    Hey, @carr2n, here's the original @timestribune story you took a swipe at. What exactly did WE do wrong? http://ow.ly/c6E0J

    Hey, @Carr2n, why is this an example of a "crack" in journalism? Here are the facts: http://ow.ly/c6Eem @nytimes @sportstt

    I'm not sure what he doesn't understand.

    They printed something fake. They turned over a portion of their paper to someone they allegedly "cover", but did nothing to verify the information.

    It's a recipe for getting burned. Take the risk if you want to, but you shouldn't be surprised when you get burned.
     
  2. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    Kids get their names in the paper. Nobody is hurt. What is the big deal? Maybe start charging to put in customized box scores and roundups.
     
  3. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    A recipe for getting burned that has been the recipe newspapers have used since the beginning of Legion baseball and other HS sports. Newspapers have avoided getting burned by this formula for decades.
     
  4. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Yeah … I think we'll continue taking call-ins.
     
  5. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    They avoided it? Really? How?

    Maybe they didn't get burned -- or maybe they did, but didn't know it -- but they didn't "avoid" it.

    Don't the obits even require something from the funeral home now?

    It's just silly. If American Legion ball is important enough to receive coverage, then send someone. If it's not, don't. But don't run a boxscore & a gamer without any evidence the game even took place.

    But, hey, defend it if you want. It's what makes the ports section the toy department.

    Otherwise, I'll eagerly await the article on the new restaurant that opened, written by the restaurant's owner. Or, the movie review, written by the director.

    Maybe you can run an article about a city council meeting penned by one of the council members -- who cares if they decided to cancel that night's meeting.

    I find it hysterical that papers continue to publish "news" that they didn't gather, or acquire through a trusted partner, like the AP. Yet, "news aggregators" continue to get slammed.

    How's the view from your glass house?
     
  6. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    It's probably my view, too.

    Which is that your take on this is so ridiculous, I'm actually embarrassed for you.

    You have two local Legion leagues with 12 teams in each, and you're only going to report on games that you can send a writer to? You're on some alternative universe with that one.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    You are currently only "reporting" on the games you send a reporter to.
     
  8. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I suppose a paper should send a reporter to every funeral and look in the casket to make sure that there actually is a dead person in there, right YF?

    What happened here is the equivalent of a funeral home calling in a fake obit because they didn't want to embarrass anyone when they find out the person is actually alive.
     
  9. lcjjdnh

    lcjjdnh Well-Known Member

    Should reporters audit every financial statement when companies release their earnings? Should science reporters re-run experiments to verify they are correct? Refuse to print NFL stats because they haven't personally seen the gametape and tallied them up?

    Journalists can only do so much to verify the information they print in the paper is true. At some point, you simply have to make a decision weighing factors such as the reliability of the source, the benefit to the public, the harm if untrue, etc. The benefit to the public of disseminating information of high school and legion sports seems to far outweigh the chances someone mistakenly submits or falsifies info--since games are played in public for many eyes to see--the real harm when a mistake gets through, and the cost it would otherwise cost to cover all these games.
     
  10. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Um, the coach is a trusted partner. Like every other newspaper ever, this newspaper talks to that coach regularly and receives updates on the team. The coach was able to burn them because he is a trusted source, not because of the newspaper's system of gathering information.
     
  11. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Hey, are you guys lining up the 47 reporters yet who can cover your area's 47 high school football teams on opening week?
     
  12. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Thanks for emailing this info on your camp coach, but I'm going to have to verify this independently.
     
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