Photos of reporters in print/online

Hey kid, do you think you can finish this no-hitter?

 

What are your thoughts on a photographer that usually get a pic of himself with the person that is the focus of the story? He's got numerous shots of himself with politicians, etc. on a bulletin board at work. I find it wildly unprofessional, but may that's just me.

 

Asking a famous person to pose for a selfie doesn't seem any more unprofessional than asking for an autograph.

 

I would never do either. I don't need anyone's autograph and I don't need a selfie. I figure if you're on company time, you need to be doing company business and if you're photographer on assignment, you shouldn't be on the other side of the camera.

 

Well, there's some variables here that you always need to consider with high school sports.
Is he suspended for the season, never to play again, or being sat down for one game? Was anyone arrested at the party, or did the cops come and break it up because the music was loud and the neighbors complained? Is it a fairly meaningless regular-season game or the playoffs?
Always got to keep in mind that we are dealing with teenagers who do stupid things from time to time. Not everything is worth breathlessly reporting on.

If he's being sat out for one non-conference game and he wasn't arrested or suspended from school, who cares? It's not going to affect the team going forward. It's the old "violation of team rules" and leave it at that.
If it's a situation where it needs to be reported -- an actual longer-term injury caused by jumping off a roof while drunk, a long suspension, a playoff series that's going to be heavily affected by his absence -- then you figure out a way to address it like any good reporter. We all learn of things off the record or in informal settings that we later work into more formal interviews. It's how you effectively work a beat.
A well-phrased question will get you your answers, or at least open the door and lead you down the road toward them.
In either case, you still ask the questions about why the kid didn't play. The difference is in how informed your questions are, and whether you can let the coach know he's full of shit.

 

I would be really conflicted about what to do with information I overheard in the dugout, as opposed to, say, parents in the stands talking.

As to your examples, in this s day and age, you also have to consider social media. Rumors of a player acting a fool at a party are one thing. Dealing with a video of him being chased around the house by police is another.

 

Well, if there's video that you know about (and, taking your chased around the house example, likely an arrest report), that's a whole different ball of fish. Then you have something concrete to go on, and likely a bigger mess to deal with. It still boils down to how big of a punishment he's facing and how it affects the team.
If it's a kid suspended for one game over something that happened out of school, that he's not otherwise in trouble for? It's a funny story they'll tell at the class reunion 10 years from now and that his teammates will bust his balls about. Not necessarily something that needs to go in the paper, at least not in any great detail.
If he's arrested for something more serious like DUI, assault, or God forbid a rape, I have a feeling you'll hear about it one way or another and then you deal with it in a different way.

To me, at least, how you get the tip doesn't matter as much as what you do with it. As far as the coach knows, I heard it from a parent or got a random phone call at the office. I'm not formally interviewing the kids gossiping about it in the dugout, although I might chat with them about it to get some details if I hear them talking about it. My formal interviews are with the principles of the case -- coach, player, and if it's a more serious matter the cops and parents, and of course they'd all know when it's a formal interview.

 

Don't get too close. You don't want to be the weird guy that likes to hangs around high school athletes. And, yes, people in the community make comments about reporters who seem to be too chummy with high schoolers.

 

Believe me, that is not a problem. I've been doing this a long time now, and if I was going to fall into that trap it would've happened a long time ago. I don't even live in the town I cover. I'm not about to start driving over there to go to high school parties when I'm almost 40. My wife probably wouldn't take too kindly to that.

 

Yeah, you don't want to be thought of as the next Don McCormick from Ashtabula.