...next caller.

[thebiglead]

(long-time reader, only occasional poster)

Let me see if I get this right ... David Aldridge gets ripped on here by plenty of folks. Frequently. Don't know the backstory of 'David Aldridge is reporting ...' but I see it here often.

Aldridge gets the Iverson scoop, which is the arguably the biggest NBA 'get' since ... geez, is it since the Mike Wise Jordan-is-out-of-DC story back when Wise was at the NYT? ... only to have ESPN muscle in and claim it as their own ... and Aldridge counters by standing up to the Worldwide Leader (let's face it, that email took some brass ones), and nobody says a word?

Isn't this power play by ESPN the kind of thing you guys bemoan on a weekly basis? Or perhaps I'm overestimating this 'get' because I'm an NBA junkie (maybe Vecsey breaking this wide open was bigger. Who knows).

Anywho, thought it bizarre that nobody would pat the guy on his back. Guess that's the industry. Or, he's deeper in the doghouse here than Ronald "Lawn Boy" Miller and Andrew Bynum.

Happy holidays. I'll hang up now.

* Never spoken to Aldridge, not his brother-in-law, former neighbor, high school drinking buddy, pet-sitter, secret santa gift giver, etc.

 

[SilvioDante]

I don't think Aldridge is the one getting smacked around here - he just became a symbol for ESPN claiming every single scoop, no matter who had beaten them on it, and throwing in their reporter's name to boot.

Aldridge was just the fall guy.

 

[21]

(long-time reader, only occasional poster)

Let me see if I get this right ... David Aldridge gets ripped on here by plenty of folks. Frequently. Don't know the backstory of 'David Aldridge is reporting ...' but I see it here often.

Aldridge gets the Iverson scoop, which is the arguably the biggest NBA 'get' since ... geez, is it since the Mike Wise Jordan-is-out-of-DC story back when Wise was at the NYT? ... only to have ESPN muscle in and claim it as their own ... and Aldridge counters by standing up to the Worldwide Leader (let's face it, that email took some brass ones), and nobody says a word?

Isn't this power play by ESPN the kind of thing you guys bemoan on a weekly basis? Or perhaps I'm overestimating this 'get' because I'm an NBA junkie (maybe Vecsey breaking this wide open was bigger. Who knows).

That 'power play by ESPN' is what made Aldridge's TV career, when he was 'breaking' stories over there.

'David Aldridge is reporting that Michael Jordan has two legs....David Aldridge with breaking news that Pat Riley will wear a suit to tonight's game....according to ESPN's David Aldridge, the NBA will open in November....'

Wasn't Aldridge's fault, but when he did actually break a story, it was lost in the wash of ESPN psuedo-headlines and muddy attributions.

So now he's on the other side of that. Live by the Mouse, die by the Mouse.

 

[leo1]

and not only was it **** that didn't fit the definition of breaking, it was often so obviously **** that had been broken by someone else.

 

[Claws for Concern]

I first heard the trade news while in my car and listening to the Dan Patrick radio show. Marc Stein came on and talked about it.

 

[slappy4428]

Didn't Jim Gray break it? :

 

[Double Down]

Did I miss a thread? Where did this whole thing play out? Where is the angry Alderidge email thebiglead speaks of? Why was I not afforded an opportunity to bang out 1,500 words condemming both Dave and The Mouse? Does thebiglead know I was sick the day they taught telepathy in journalism school?

 

[21]

Did I miss a thread? Where did this whole thing play out? Where is the angry Alderidge email thebiglead speaks of? Why was I not afforded an opportunity to bang out 1,500 words condemming both Dave and The Mouse? Does thebiglead know I was sick the day they taught telepathy in journalism school?

Not sure if this appeared here (and if not, why thebiglead didn't post it with this thread), but tbl apparently received a note from Mr Aldridge and posted it on that site yesterday:

I’m a big fan of your site. Enjoy it very much. And I feel funny doing this, but I have to protect my paper and myself.
The Philadelphia Inquirer broke the story about [Tuesday’s] trade. I should know, because I wrote it. It was on our site about 10 minutes before ESPN “broke” it.
I don’t expect everyone to read every website every minute of the day, and the Four-Letter is ubiquitous, so people almost always see it first. But in this case, they weren’t first. We were.
I hope you can make the appropriate correction.
Regards,
David Aldridge
[Philadelphia Inquirer]

 

[henryhenry]

does it matter who was first by two minutes?
who cares - the news was going to come out anyway.
it's only important if you dig out news that people are trying to hide.

 

[Moland Spring]

Wow. Good for Aldridge, who I thought was ESPN's best on-camera reporter (though he did steal a bunch of scoops, as has been mentioned).
But it seems ESPN has limited the amount of scoop-stealing in the past year or so. Maybe the backlash has gotten to them. The more I look, the more I see "This news was first reported by The Big City Press." But letters like Aldridge's help. And when it's my story, I definitely appreciate the shoutout.
But here's my only other question. Sometimes it takes more than 10 minutes to post an article online. What if ESPN didn't happen to click on the Inquirer in that small period of time?

--Oh and Henryhecht: any reporter who doesn't care about being beaten on the biggest story of the year, even if it's by a few minutes is, in my opinion, in the wrong business. No offense.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

Considering Aldridge once did this to me -- Damon Stoudamire to Portland -- I find his email great comedy.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

When you're working for the Mob . . . and then you're not working for the Mob, anymore . . .
some things just don't come, so easy . . .

 

[spnited]

Sorry, Moland. Breaking this story by 10 minutes on the web is no big deal.
Nobody outside of the business cares who "broke" a story, especially of a trade that everyone knew was going to happen at any minute.
The breaking a story concept gets waaaaaaaaay to much play arouond here. We care, and we should because it's our job, but our readers for the most part have no idea who actually broke a story.

 

[Songbird]

MAN
BREAKS
PENIS

This was an actual headline on the cover of a daily tab I worked at in Kingston, Jamaica. Talk about breaking news ...

 

[The Big Ragu]

Big Lead, the irony here is that Aldridge used to work for ESPN, and they were always taking news that someone else had reported and putting it on the air or on their website with "ESPN's David Aldridge is reporting..." The reality was that that Aldridge had just confirmed news that had already been reported by someone else.

I don't understand why he would send that e-mail. It makes him look bad. ESPN let him go, so it just comes off as sour grapes (to me, at least). No one really gives a **** if you had a story everyone was going to get 10 minutes before everyone else. In the grand scheme of things, what did that do for the Philadelphia Inquirer?

 

[shotglass]

Sorry, Moland. Breaking this story by 10 minutes on the web is no big deal.
Nobody outside of the business cares who "broke" a story, especially of a trade that everyone knew was going to happen at any minute.
The breaking a story concept gets waaaaaaaaay to much play arouond here. We care, and we should because it's our job, but our readers for the most part have no idea who actually broke a story.

A huge AMEN rains down from the chorus.

 

[Moland Spring]

I never said the readers care... What I said was, any reporter that doesn't care about getting beat on the biggest NBA story of the year is in the wrong business.
Am I wrong? Isn't breaking news our job?

 

[buckweaver]

I never said the readers care... What I said was, any reporter that doesn't care about getting beat on the biggest NBA story of the year is in the wrong business.
Am I wrong? Isn't breaking news our job?

But when you get "beat" by 10 minutes on a Web site, you're not really getting beat.

The fact of the matter is: "breaking" news, as regarding the common practice, is overrated. Being the first person to say where Allen Iverson got traded ... does not matter. No one cares who has it first. No one cares who "broke" that story. No one remembers because no one cares.

Now ... digging for a story like the S.F. Chron reporters did, getting information that no one else has, and writing about it ... that's when people care who did the work. But so few people engage in that type of reporting, that nobody's making a fuss over it.

Your point is well-taken, Moland. But there's not a way in the world that anyone can "beat" or "get beat" on this Iverson story -- or any "big" story, like a T.O. story, that gets so much hype beforehand and so much chatter afterward -- once it's out there, it's out there for everyone. And it doesn't matter who had it first, last, or anywhere in between.

 

[SF_Express]

But when you get "beat" by 10 minutes on a Web site, you're not really getting beat.

The fact of the matter is: "breaking" news, as regarding the common practice, is overrated. Being the first person to say where Allen Iverson got traded ... does not matter. No one cares who has it first.

Sorry, Buck, but I care. It's part of what we do on the web. And by the way, it makes it more fun.

Is it going to change the world in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely not.

But when you get that "as first reported by xxxxxx" in a web story, it's great stuff.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

I agree with buck.

We get caught up in the "inside baseball" stuff that doesn't mean a thing to the readers.

Balco is a big deal. Being first by 10 minutes -- or hell, make it a full hour -- on Iverson? Not so much.