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Peter King's latest tirade

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Tweener, Feb 14, 2017.

  1. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    I knew I had posted this before -- I just didn't realize it was in 2006 (holy shit, I feel old now).

    Not exactly the same thing, but...

    I once wrote a big piece that prominently featured an important previously unreported fact regarding a major sports story in our area. A couple weeks later, the nearby big city paper reported the same fact under the headline: "Now It Can Be Told."

    When I was covering an NFL team for a suburban paper, I wrote a huge, four-story package saying the nearby big city was going to make a bid for its first Super Bowl. It ran in a double truck complete with charts, graphs, a rundown on how the Super Bowl bid process works -- the whole nine yards. Three days later, big city paper ran a story saying the city is going to bid for the Super Bowl. That evening, AP sends out a story: "Big city will make a bid for Super Bowl (INSERT ROMAN NUMERAL HERE), the Big City Daily reported."
     
  2. stix

    stix Well-Known Member

    Yeah, in agreement with everyone here. Personally, even if it seems like the most minute detail, I ALWAYS credit other sources if I use their info for a story. I had one former colleague just recently tell me not to bother crediting him with a little nugget that he dug up that I briefly mentioned in a column. I told him I'd not hear of it. I always credit. It's the right thing to do, but people are so clueless about it.

    This fall one of the three big high schools in our city opened up a sparkling new football stadium. Had a big dedication before the first game there. There are two current NFL players (drafted the same year, no less) who played at this school. I direct tweeted one of them to see if I could get some comments for a story I was writing about the new stadium opening. Sure enough, he responded with a pretty lengthy comment, and I put it in the paper.

    So, the next night, as the school principal is giving a big dedication speech at midfield, he reads verbatim the tweet from the player, and the crowd erupted. Of course I had no problem with the tweet being read, but the principal basically made it sound like the player tweeted the school directly and unprompted, and the principal acted like such a big shot about it. Never thought to mention it was tweeted to the local paper because the sports reporter (me) spent the time to reach out. Had I not done so, there would've been no comment from the player at all. Was it a huge deal? No. But it irritated me to the point where I called the principal the next day just to tell him what I thought and that in the future he should cite the media outlet that did the actual work.

    Of course, he didn't really understand. He just said, "Well, someone shared it on Facebook," as if information just grows out of thin air on social media. Obviously, this is a problem we can all relate to.
     
    I Should Coco and CD Boogie like this.
  3. Tweener

    Tweener Well-Known Member

    Same thing happened here.

    In one instance I mentioned earlier, the nearby big paper pilfered my breaking news story without accreditation, and the national media, likely not knowing any better, cited the big paper for the scoop.

    At first I thought it was a coincidence that the big paper stumbled on the story after ours ran, then I read it. The author, a well respected national beat writer, used the exact same anecdotal lede. That takes some balls.
     
  4. JimmyHoward33

    JimmyHoward33 Well-Known Member

    Kings right, and he's big enough to bring attention to it. Smaller pubs might not get their points across when it happens to them but should still point it out when they can.
     
  5. stix

    stix Well-Known Member

    Equally annoying to me was the Deadspin piece about the whole issue basically calling King a baby and saying he overreacted. BS.

    There are things to poke at Peter King about if you want, but not this. I don't give a shit if he was credited within the story, he should've been credited in the tweet and in any use of any quote that he procured in whatever medium it's used.

    Alarming how idiots in that battle were saying things like, "So nobody can use a quote from your stories but you?" Clueless.
     
  6. Elliotte Friedman

    Elliotte Friedman Moderator Staff Member

    I have a lot of trouble in my job with this. There are reporters who do nothing but listen to our radio interviews, transcribing them for their own websites. I hate it. Not only is is stealing, it also mangles context.

    I'm currently negotiating with my employer about stopping all radio interviews because it's more trouble than it's worth.

    But a pox on BR for making me side with King on anything, that fuck.
     
    BurnsWhenIPee likes this.
  7. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    What's up with that Deadspin piece? I mean, except that they hate Peter King and I guess their writers are contractually required to side against him. Otherwise, that situation is pretty cut and dry: You credit exclusive quotes, and if someone doesn't, you call them out for it. That's about as non-controversial a stance as you can take in this business. Not shocked that Deadspin, which block quotes the fuck out of stories and then puts a h/t at the end, would be dumb here, but... Okay, I guess I answered my own question.
     
  8. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    The transcription never takes into account the tone or the context the comment was made. I've listened to an interview youhad then read Chris Nichols transcription and I can see why you would want to stop the radio interviews.

    Are you contractually obligated or do you get paid extra from the station?
     
  9. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    That's an interesting situation. You tweeted at the player, so it's in the public domain. Like if you had asked him a question at a presser and others reported his response. Would they have to cite your question? That never happens.

    Now, if you've sent him a DM, that's different. Like you shouldn't print DM's or emails to people bc that's uh...a different thread.
     
  10. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Deadspin is a such a shitty, nihilist organization.
     
  11. Deskgrunt50

    Deskgrunt50 Well-Known Member

    Nobody in the biz likes it when their work is stolen. It bush league and happpens all the time. King was right to call foul. But the damage is done.

    It's a problem without a great solution. Once exclusive material is posted, it's a scramble for every outlet to re-write it.

    But you must credit the material. Don't be assholes. You want credit? Do the work and get material everyone wants to read.
     
  12. stix

    stix Well-Known Member

    Why not? I was clear with the source that I was going to use the comment in the paper. How's that any different than getting a quote via text or, say, FB message? That's not my preferred method of procuring a quote, but sometimes it's the only option. Can't really pick up your phone and dial NFL players too much these days. And younger players respond to social media inquiries much more quickly than other avenues these days. Sometimes it's the best way to contact them. I fail to see the issue, so long as the source was aware that I was DMing him for a quote to run in the paper. Which he was. I always make that clear. I would never ambush a source like that.

    As for the rest of the situation, I get what you're saying. Twitter is public domain. But since it was a DM sent by ME and replied to back to ME, then that's a quote I procured the same as if I would've done a phone or face-to-face interview.

    It was nothing to go apeshit about, but I wasn't a fan of the principal grandstanding about it to the roaring crowd. My article with the player's comments got shared on Facebook, yada, yada, yada, the principal just thought it was out in space.
     
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