The invasion of the sports section

I didn't play any of those stories, but this is how I might have done it:

Duke lax case: News
Benoit: News
Hot dog boy: Sayonara.

 

"delete." (grin)

 

had this same argument and lost on benoit.

i was filling in for the SE (who's on vacation), and i didn't include the benoit story on the sports budget intentionally to see if anyone would mention it in the meeting.

nobody said a word about it while running down their proposed wire stories about the latest crap. so before we broke, i had to hold up the train and say, "what about this pro wrestler? it's pretty big news."

everyone went, "OHHHHH YEAHHH." the EIC says, "that's sports."

i go on to say how it's national news. everyone's talking about it, including all national news stations and web sites. wrestling's not a sport. benoit is a television celebrity on one of the highest rated cable dramas. he killed his wife and kids. it has nothing to do with sports. why would we "bury" such a huge general audience story on the sports page?

blank stares. blank stares. a yawn.

EIC says, "it's sports." everyone nods and leaves the room.

 

You work for idiots. I'm sorry.

 

Luckily, I have an ME who is on my side of the sports debate (although he is a Cardinals fan who thinks last year wasn't a fluke). But he was simply out-voted and the news side wanted nothing to do with either story.

We were thinking of changing the banner on our section to "Sports, plus..." or "Sports and then some"

 

Duke lacrosse was peripherally about sports early in the case, when significant parts of the story concerned the suspension of the players/cancellation of the season/resignation of the coach. That affects a legitimate competitive sports event. (Argue all you want about how popular college lacrosse is or isn't, it is a legitimate sport.) After that it went to news.

WWE has nothing to do with sports whatsoever. We ran Litke's column basically eviscerating McMahon and the entire WWE enterprise for being a disgrace to the world of sports, and if I have my way about it, that'll be all that ever appears in the sports section.

Hot-dog eating contests and dog shows have nothing to do with sports. Begone from my doorstep and hie thy asses to features.

 

You hit the nail on the head.

Once the Duke lacrosse case started moving away from its affect on the field of play to the happenings in court, it became a crime/courts story that happened to involve athletes. You could have your lacrosse beat writer or your GA sports writer on the story when it involved the sports peg, but once Nifong got involved and the players were indicted, you need a cops/courts reporter on it.

The case was clearly not about sports by the time North Carolina's attorney general got involved. It was about a district attorney who was so hungry for political gain that he let his ego take control of his better judgment. Thus, he earned the forfeiture of his law license.

If I had my druthers, WWE wouldn't be in any newspaper. If I had to put it somewhere, it might go in the entertainment section. It has nothing to do with sports whatsoever. Nor does competitive eating, which isn't a sport no matter what the flacks at ESPN tell you.

 

I think its clear to most on this board that the Nifong case, WWE, and eating close to 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes are not sports - and two of the three are just damn disgusting.

So when you run into these topics, and an debate over where the story lands ensues, how do you keep your section clean of it? Just "forget" to put it in? Bitch and moan till you get your way?

 

FWIW, my shop ended up putting many of the Duke stories in sports at first, but now that it became more about Nifong being disbarred, it went in News.
The Benoit thing has been in the news section and I don't think we had anything about Kobayashi.

 

Kobayashi has an arthritic jaw? That's not a story from The Onion??

Hell, I'd want to run that story in my section just for this quote: “Eater safety is our top priority and we will respect whatever decision Kobayashi makes about participating in these events,” said Richard Shea, President of Major League Eating.

 

I was actually thinking of starting a thread to see how others were playing this up in the paper, but this seems to cover most of it.
We ended up with Benoit in the sports section. I wasn't there for the discussion, so I don't know how it went down. But it's here now, and to me it's an opportunity.
This story clearly falls into a nebulous area, and it seems like a lot of newspapers aren't really playing it up. Yet judging by reaction nationally (I think half of Jim Rome's show on Thursday consisted of people calling in to talk about it), there's clearly interest in the story from both a sports and news side. Hell, the steroid angle alone definitely relates to sports and athletes even if nothing else does.
And, for crissakes, it's almost July. What else is going on right now?
So why not give it some play? We ran extended briefs on the front page the first couple days, but have put in larger stories the last two days. I can see the argument that "it's not a sport", but if you're stuck with it why not run with it? People will read it, no matter where it is.