Taking advantage with press credentials

good work Flip...love it

 

Does any sport other than baseball charge for meals? I've been away for awhile...

My biggest issue was having non-media in a working press box. Covering the NFL, they frequently put the front office guys of the visiting team in the press box, sometimes right behind the beat writers. That was sometimes amusing, but sometimes led to some pretty awkward moments.

 

Many do now. I have no problem with it. I'll eat there because of the convenience, but it removes the ethical quandaries that many organizations have about freebies. Although if you think I can be swayed by a buffet meal, or a hot dog and chips, there's no convincing you anyway.

 

That's how it is with the pro team I used to cover .... Three rows, and visiting team guys sat in the top row. Although I don't know why there would be awkward situations between writers and team employees.

 

Must confess ... in my last year as a full-time reporter, I covered an exhibition game involving the major-league team we ostensibly covered (I wasn't an MLB writer -- we didn't really have such -- but we would send someone to most of the big team's home games). It was at the home of the organization's AA affiliate, which just happened to be down the road from my hometown. At the game, I noticed my pass was good for the whole season. Anyway, a month or so later I quit the biz and moved back to my hometown. But that summer, several times I flashed the pass they'd given me to get in for free. Never darkened the press box door -- that would have been too much -- but I did enjoy a few relaxing nights lounging out along the right-field line.

 

When I did some contract work for a AAA team last summer, I didn't have a credential for the first few weeks of the season. Different employee manning the gate every time. I just told the employees that I worked with the team and acted like I knew what I was doing.

 

I looked at this the other way.

The state tournament was far enough away that we couldn't get to it, and a coach -- who we know and trust -- offered to take pics in exchange for a pass.

A little shaky, sure. But it gave us pics we would not have had.

 

I look at a press pass as a "ticket" to the game provided by the team or school to an organization as a gratis for coverage. It just so happens that the "ticket" is in a pseudo luxury box that affords information that most fans do not receive.

What the organization chooses to do with these "tickets" is up to them. If the organization wants to give them away or abuse them, then it is the team's right to give fewer passes or no passes at all.

If you are there and not working, just act professionally (don't cheer) and do not hinder the work of others.

I would have a problem with a paper giving tickets to a person who did not know the unwritten rules of the press box or press row. I took buddies with me using passes before, but I gave them a quick primer on what to do and not to do. Basically, shut the fuck up and never look happy no matter what happens.

 

www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6207616n

 

I don't really care if someone is using a press credential and not really working as long as the team giving out the credential is cool with it, the person isn't bothering me and no one who needs a credential is being shorted.

 

I don't necessarily have a problem with the non-working media members showing up, per se. As long as they're calmly watching the game, and not hooping and hollering, they don't bug me.

I think the ones I have a problem with are the ones that get press credentialed to events knowing they're going to get some kind of swag. I know a person who gets credentialed for everything he can, just to get the free hats, bags, pens, etc. He'll show up, get his swag, watch a half, then leave.

Most journalists I know don't even bring the swag home, or if they do they give it to a nephew or uncle. This guy goes strictly for the swag. LOL