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What Lee Jenkins' LeBron scoop says about our industry

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by GBNF, Jul 11, 2014.

  1. Meatie Pie

    Meatie Pie Member

    The story does "raise questions" that are worth discussing, and shouldn't be dismissed automatically.

    It's the answers to those questions that are different.

    SI was very obviously partnering with LeBron here, and as one of the recaps - adage? - said, Jenkins had written a complimentary piece on LeBron before, which likely led to an assumption of trustworthiness.

    SI has done this type of thing before, and will probably do it again. The mediums are completely different, but this was Decision 2.0, right down to a legacy media outlet agreeing to partner with LeBron and his camp.

    The answers to Sandomir's "questions" depend on whether you are sensitive to this idea. I had no problem with The Decision, have no problem here. Media outlets sometimes agree to release stories at the discretion of the main source. Letting LeBron approve the letter, well . . . I guess that was part of the deal, if his name was going to be on it.

    But this is absolutely worth discussing, and such discussion does not have to be an indictment of Sports Illustrated or media in general. It's not a bad thing to discuss what this means for Journalism (if anything), beyond the simplest topics of "Yay, Jenkins and SI!" and "Hahaha, Broussard and ESPN!!!!"
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    In the post 9/11 SI, Wayne Gretzky wrote a first-person piece about his friend who was on one of the planes when it crashed. Would you say that SI has forever ruined its credibility by having him write about his friend instead of a reporter putting words in his mouth?
     
  3. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Does anyone trust Jenkins to aggressively report on James in the future?
     
  4. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    The analogy does not hold. Not that I'm surprised.

    Newspapers allow people they cover to write op-eds all the time. It's not an issue of allowing the person to speak directly to your audience.
     
  5. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I wonder what Richard Sandomir thinks about the fact error on his own section's front page.

    Partnering with LeBron James is displayed transparently, the rarest of things in this industry. And a media critic gets mad because The New York Times used to get these types of exclusives.
     
  6. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    He's a profiles writer. How is this "worse" than spending days with a ton of one-on-one time getting to know Rajon Rondo?
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Who is likely to write about James in the (near) future:

    Lee Jenkins joined Sports Illustrated and SI.com as a senior writer in September 2007 and he has written more than 100 features for the magazine and more than 30 cover stories across every major sport. Since 2010 his primary beat has been the NBA, and he has profiled the league's biggest stars, including LeBron James and Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. He wrote the annual SI Sportsman of the Year story about James in 2012.

    http://www.si.com/author/lee-jenkins


    Do you trust him break negative news about James? Does he value his access to James, or does he value his readers?

    And, I understand SI isn't worried about this. Tom Verducci's conflicts didn't bother them. Why would this?
     
  8. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    When has Lee Jenkins broken any negative news or done a negative profile?

    As said he's a profile writer. This is no different. It's just that it's in first person as LeBron said it. Again I have no problem with the approach or how all of this came out other than the whining by those who got beat.
     
  9. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Give me a break. This isn't "as LeBron said it".

    Jenkins and his editors wrote it for James, and James team signed off on it.

    It's bad enough when we pretend a statement put out by a PR agent is actually the words of the client. In this case, I'm supposed to suspend my belief and pretend these are James' words?

    Jenkins and SI served as James PR team. That's not journalism.

    As for profiles, does no reporting go into them? If the Cavs struggle this season, might we expect a writer like Jenkins to do a feature on them? What if James is playing selfishly, or undermining a coach, or something similar? What if he's not, but some people are suggesting it? Can we trust Jenkins to get to the bottom of it?
     
  10. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled.

    LOL.

    Does anyone believe that James and Jenkins sat down in Vegas, and these were the first words out of James' mouth?
     
  11. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Why would anyone care whether they were the first words or the 45th words?

    Should this have began: Hey Lee, good to see you. How was the flight? Want some water? A bourbon? You mind if I take a quick piss? Cool. Btw, it's CAVS.
     
  12. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    Personally, I laughed my ass off that, for all the ESPN stuff (LeBron's on a plane! Where is he going to go? Let's talk about this and shove all the other highlights off our screen!) the WWL didn't get the story. Instead SI played it quiet and ended up with the biggest story in quite some time.

    I will say ESPN handled one thing right yesterday, and this is where multiple networks come in handy. Regular programming went to ESPN2 on Friday, so if you didn't want to see LeBron all day, all the time you could watch Outside the Lines or other stuff. They honestly should have done that with Friday night's Sportscenter.

    And I have no problem with how SI did it.
     
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