What Lee Jenkins' LeBron scoop says about our industry

That's a good point, but I'm not so sure it's a "gimmick" to be rarely used any more than a Q&A is a gimmick to be rarely used.

Hell, SI has let athletes (and former athletes) write its back page column a handful of times. That just seems to be part of their SOP now.

 

You could probably make the same criticism of almost every Presidential
speech ever written.

 

That's not what you're doing. You're telling everyone - people who make or made the sausage professionally - how you think the sausage is made.

And that's fine. Except when people who do or did this professionally tell you how the sausage is actually made, and you then say they're either wrong or lying.

If you're right, there are people here who won't hesitate to say it, just like they do when you're wrong.

 

Jenkins told us how the sausage was made.

They talked for about an hour. Jenkins got some quotes. He got a sense of how LeBron came to the decision. Then he left, wrote an essay in LeBron's voice, and submitted it to LeBron for approval.

It's the same process any speechwriter or ghost writer uses.

 

And you say it's unethical in this context.

People who have done it are telling you it's not, and why.

LeBron James is an athlete. He's not accountable to you or me, so comparisons to presidential coverage are ridiculous.

 

On the piece itself, I'll just say "it's ok because we always edit quotes" isn't a good answer.

But anyone who says this is out of bouds must've never read a magazine before or have any idea what magazines do.

 

I think it's unethical because they partnered with someone they cover, and served as his PR team. Why would we accept that in sports coverage, when we don't in other coverage?

You can tell me I'm wrong all day on that score, and it won't bother me. I think an argument can be made for each side of the debate, especially if you believe sports is the toy department, and the same rules don't apply.

As for not believing James spoke every word used in the essay, I'm still shocked by the "you're not a journalist, you don't understand" mentality.

Sure, you guys know how journalism better than I do. But, this isn't journalism. This is PR, a subject I know quite a bit about. That's the point.

Next time you're on a flight, pop open the inflight magazine. Early in the magazine, you will find a letter from the CEO. Do you think he wrote the letter, or do you think it's written in his voice?

Open your daily newspaper tomorrow. If there is a big story, maybe a merger or something, you will see a quote from a CEO -- likely pulled from a press release. Do you think the CEO wrote the statement, or do you think he approved a statement written by his communications team?

This James essay is much more akin to my examples than it is to journalism. And, Jenkins hasn't stated anything to dispel my belief.

 

James probably did say those words, after careful deliberation about his exact phrasing.

To that it say eh, whatever. It's his name on it.

Unless the argument is that the first thing that pops into anyone's head is the only thing that should ever be on the record.

 

We're down to "probably".

I'm making progress.

 

How is reordering an interview, as you alledge, different from something like Sunday conversation in SportsCenter or 60 minutes? We don't see the whole interview so I guess it's conceivable there were edits and restructuring for proper delivery. Would you call a Sunday conversation pr or coverage? You have a point with final approval, but it was the best way to deliver the coverage IMO.

 

Lebron James should at least get a nomination in the Reporting Category of the 2015 National Magazine Awards

 

My issue is not with reordering the interview, per se, though I think it should have been presented as a third person story, or as a Q/A, as opposed to a ghost written, first person essay.

But, again, it's not the editing. I don't need every word.

I just don't believe every word in the essay came from the interview. I believe Jenkins wrote some of them in James' voice. (And, I think he admits to that.)

That doesn't happen on the Sunday conversation, or on 60 Minutes.