Should Peter King Resign From Football Night In America?

[Boom_70]

If King has any chance of restoring his credibility as a journalist he
needs to start decoupling himself from his conflict of interest positions outside
of his primary job as lead NFL writer for Sports Illustrated.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Yes.

As soon as Verducci resigns from MLB.com.

As a compromise, I'd like to see SI disclose their relationships with the leagues they cover. Just once.

 

[The Big Ragu]

What is his conflict of interest?

 

[Dick Whitman]

What is his conflict of interest?

NBC is a financial partner of the NFL.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I'm pretty sure Boom is trolling, but I know **** is serious ... and as much as I agree in theory, this is a fairy-tale discussion. We are living in an era where our two biggest sports entities have their own networks, and the public treats the reporters on those networks as independent and trustworthy voices.

Horse, barn, etc.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'm pretty sure Boom is trolling, but I know **** is serious ... and as much as I agree in theory, this is a fairy-tale discussion. We are living in an era where our two biggest sports entities have their own networks, and the public treats the reporters on those networks as independent and trustworthy voices.

Horse, barn, etc.

Yesterday, four hours after TMZ posted the video, NFL.com did not have a mention on its site about the Rice story.

I understand your point, but I'm going to stick to this position until they put me in the ground.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

http://www.si.com/nfl/2009/08/10/schefter

"I always look forward to Monday mornings to read the ultimate quarterback of NFL journalism," said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "Nobody does it better than Peter."

 

[The Big Ragu]

What is his conflict of interest?

NBC is a financial partner of the NFL.

It buys the rights to broadcast games from the NFL. Same way that ESPN does with sports leagues. That bridge was crossed a long, long, long time ago.

It's a relatively weak link, if the idea is that it somehow compromises King's ability to report on the NFL in an unbiased way.

In your other example of Verducci (or Heyman), mlb.com / mlb network is OWNED by mlb. I agree with you. THAT seems like a conflict of interest.

The Boston Globe and the Boston Red Sox are owned by the same person. Newsday shares an owner with the Knicks and Rangers. Those seem like conflicts of interest.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

He should resign from NBC when Clayton, Schefter, Mort, and the 32 beat writers across the country do the same because of the conflict of interest for working for ESPN since ESPN airs games. The NBA and MLB writers need to resign for the same reason.

Also, any beat writers who cover teams where their paper is a corporate partner or part-owner, they need to quit too. If you work in a college town and the school advertises in the paper or the paper sponsors anything the school does, quit now.

Anyone left?

 

[Dick Whitman]

He should resign from NBC when Clayton, Schefter, Mort, and the 32 beat writers across the country do the same because of the conflict of interest for working for ESPN since ESPN airs games. The NBA and MLB writers need to resign for the same reason.

Also, any beat writers who cover teams where their paper is a corporate partner or part-owner, they need to quit too. If you work in a college town and the school advertises in the paper or the paper sponsors anything the school does, quit now.

Anyone left?

I think that the ESPN case is different because those guys actually work for ESPN. I don't love it, but I see them more comparable to Costas or the Fox.com writers. King is working for an independent entity - Sports Illustrated - and then hooking up financially with the NFL separately, through NBC.

I agree that it's a closer case than the Verducci one. That is inexcusable.

And, yes, when I worked for a college town paper, the relationship between the paper and the university made me very uncomfortable at times.

I've been less uncomfortable working for an alumni magazine - in that case, again, I know who my master is.

 

[LongTimeListener]

The key is really for thinking people to not listen to all the bull**** these guys peddle about how great the league is.

We had a long conversation here about why King would write the glowing profile of Goodell that he did. Now it's clear. They're buddies and business partners.

 

[Chef2]

King will resign the same day Goodell does.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Boom, you really want to free up more air time for Florio?

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

He should resign from NBC when Clayton, Schefter, Mort, and the 32 beat writers across the country do the same because of the conflict of interest for working for ESPN since ESPN airs games. The NBA and MLB writers need to resign for the same reason.

Also, any beat writers who cover teams where their paper is a corporate partner or part-owner, they need to quit too. If you work in a college town and the school advertises in the paper or the paper sponsors anything the school does, quit now.

Anyone left?

I think that the ESPN case is different because those guys actually work for ESPN. I don't love it, but I see them more comparable to Costas or the Fox.com writers. King is working for an independent entity - Sports Illustrated - and then hooking up financially with the NFL separately, through NBC.

I agree that it's a closer case than the Verducci one. That is inexcusable.

And, yes, when I worked for a college town paper, the relationship between the paper and the university made me very uncomfortable at times.

I've been less uncomfortable working for an alumni magazine - in that case, again, I know who my master is.

I had the same experience at a college town paper. I was told to back off more than a few times. Left as a result. Covering the NFL, it was never quite that cut and dry, but there were a lot of times where it would be, "Do we really want to go there?" The difference was that the college had no problem flexing its muscle to try to kill a story. Covering the NFL, it was just a couple wuss editors who were afraid to field whiny phone calls from the team's PR department.

With the national guys, it's all about who can break news and if Schefter, King, Mort, Glazer, Prisco, or any of the top guys burn a source who has been good to them, they could be ****ed.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

So to maintain access to scoops with a shelf life of minutes and the impact of air, these reporters should allow sources to lie to them with impunity. Hell, they might as well go work for the damn league if that's the setup.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Boom, you really want to free up more air time for Florio?

Outing: Boom is Florio.

 

[Hokie_pokie]

So to maintain access to scoops with a shelf life of minutes and the impact of air, these reporters should allow sources to lie to them with impunity. Hell, they might as well go work for the damn league if that's the setup.

Where's the like button?

I was thinking the same thing -- many of the "scoops" these guys break are only significant to a very select audience, men who are obsessed about NFL football.

If I'm an editor, my reporter's credibility is not worth being first to break the Redskins putting their backup long-snapper on IR.

I'd prefer that they comport themselves like professional journalists.

 

[heyabbott]

how popular is MMQB

 

[Double Down]

I think you guys are looking at the wrong way. If he SI asked him to resign from NBC, wouldn't he just choose NBC instead? Can't imagine NBC doesn't pay him way more.

 

[playthrough]

http://www.si.com/nfl/2009/08/10/schefter

"I always look forward to Monday mornings to read the ultimate quarterback of NFL journalism," said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "Nobody does it better than Peter."

This isn't a King bash, but here's the lede on that story:

"In this world of Twitter, few people are worthy of more than 140 characters. Peter King is."

Huh?