Eating at high school games

They need Daddy Bloomberg up there to straighten things out.

 

They had Chick-fil-A nuggets in my press box tonight. It's a working press box and it's hospitality.

 

If you ate any food without paying, how could you possibly write an unbiased recap.

 

The same way I've been doing for 20 years. A hospitality table doesn't persuade me how to write.

 

I hear ya. Some people think that's a conflict of interest if you eat free food which is available to all in the press box.

 

Back to the question of the OP:

Tell him to fuck off. Say it with conviction. Then take your clipboard and shove it into his throat drain -- since he won't need his to eat any food on that assignment.

 

No.

But I'd insist on paying for it.

Here's the thing. As Rick Stain says, it's impossible not to be compromised by partnerships and sponsorships and advertising and co-promotions, etc., ad infinitum, world without end, at the corporate levels of the work we do.

But I can absolutely define a set of daily ethics for myself on the ground.

No free meals. No gifts. No junkets.

The standards to which I adhere are my own.

 

I wasn't saying it's impossible not to be compromised. I was saying it's impossible to not be perceived as compromised.

Literally zero readers ever are going to say "Man, that Slim Hackman for the Podunk Metro News can really be trusted. He doesn't even take free food in the press box, so you know that it's true when he says the team is lying about our star's knee injury."

Meanwhile, approximately every reader ever is going to call you a fucking hack who is obviously in the tank for something because you wrote something factually impeccable but not in line with their biases.

 

The local U provides Papa John pizza in the media room before every game. I get tired of Papa John pizza prior to every game, so I would sometimes go by the campus cafeteria and fix myself a really nice salad and take that to the game with me. Many folks, obviously also tired of Papa John pizza, expressed their jealously at my really nice salad.

On another note, sorta: The same local U usually has a pretty good buffet before football games for any of the hundreds of people in the press box. One pregame meal was hamburgers. However, when I bit into my burger, which appeared to be well-cooked, the interior was pink. Like...almost uncooked ground beef pink. I took my plate and stuck my head in the room where they prep the food, and the dude was using his bare hands to take the hamburger patties from the big pan and put them in the smaller pan to place on the buffet. The whole situation was gross.

 

If chicken nuggets or a slice of pizza can affect the way somebody reports something, they probably didn't have much credibility in the first place.
I don't see a problem with eating pizza or hot dogs or sandwiches, if they're provided. Steak and lobster might be a different story.

 

Honestly, he was probably just busting my balls.
I guess, I can see where he's coming from, though. First, obviously, when you're in public representing your company, how you look and how you act matters. Maybe if people see you eating on the job, it doesn't make a good impression.
Second, as I said, I ate when I was "not otherwise occupied," either before the game or at halftime, but maybe if I have time to eat then, it's time that I could be doing video or social media or adding stats or something like that?

 

So noted.

Seconded.