Pearlman on sportsjournalist.com: "long-faded turf"

I still freelance so I still have a foot and maybe a shin in the industry (possibly up to a knee but no more) but this is what it is for me as well. There are interesting people with interesting people here who provide stimulating conversation. I find some of these threads more interesting than the ones of 15 years ago where we were debating "who is the next 'stud' at a major metro under the age of 30 on a major beat but no taller than 6-foot" or whatever the hell.

 

Well, that’s not going to get the coveted Mizzougrad Seal of Approval.

 

A fuckin’ stud of a thread.

(Mizzou was right about Jeff Darlington. Perhaps Mizzou was Jeff Darlington.)

 

I find some of them more interesting, too. Some of them.

There were many weaknesses with the site 15-20 years ago. There were, for example, a lot more people here in seemingly deep sorrow, using this place as a flawed (at best) outlet.

The "who's good in journalism and why they're good or not" threads were...pretty OK by me. Honestly, it's part of Pearlman does now...his own "cool writer" list. The willingness to discuss those kinds of things went way down when a few posters decided the most important thing was loyalty to their friends in the form of olympian "you really shouldn't be saying that/you're not allowed to say that" posts.

 

To riff off the bad headline thread: "What's the favorite sports journalist forum in all 50 states!"

 

I will say that I would enjoy a lot more shop talk than is currently on the site. Will be very beneficial for those who are still in the business or are studying to get into it.

And I imagine that all the griping/complaining/gossip about the business now happens in group texts, hence the lack of SJ to become that place.

 

Agreed. Harder to talk about that stuff when many posters here have either left the business or, again, want to employ the hall monitor ethos.

 

I'm one of those people who is now out of the journalism industry, and has been, for a long time, so I guess what I say should be taken with a grain of salt.

But I'd suggest that there is less straight-journalism discussion around here now not only because of there being fewer actual current journalists anymore but also because journalism has changed SO much as to become almost unrecognizable.

It is also much less thoughtful, and even more like a daily-grind, hamster-on-a-wheel routine than it used to be because of the virtual 24/7, literally never-ending aspect of it that takes away from any interest in actual discussion or passion. There's less depth, and because the industry as a whole, as a result of evolution and near-necessity, has become so much younger, there is less perspective, too.

It all lends itself to there being less discussion, and less inclination to discuss things, too.

 

Haven't posted much in the last few years. Can't entirely say why. This place once meant a great deal to me. Now it seems like a town where I grew up, and still have fond (if complicated) memories about, but no longer wish to live in. Only occasionally pass through for a cup of coffee. And I mean no offense to anyone who does live here. I lived here for 17 years, made some life-long friends who feel like family. When I got married a few months ago, the officiant was someone I met here, someone who has become my literal best friend.

It meant a lot, once. But it changed and I changed. And that's okay.

I think it sharpened the writer that I was trying to be. I once got a job interview at Sports Illustrated because of this place. An editor liked the writing in my posts. I didn't get a job there, but it was quite the rush to have inexplicably message-board-posted my way into an interview at the place I dreamed, as a kid, of working. Even now it seems like an absurd sentence to type.

Journalism is hard. It's hard for people at every level, people who do work that is read by millions and people who do work read by small town communities. It was often fun to debate and share and discuss that stuff with people at every level. I mostly liked being here because there was a baseline assumption that most everyone could write well and was smart. I do think social media offered some other outlets for that, but a lot of people just got tired of having the same fights — or even the same jokes — most of which felt weighed down by 10 years of baggage.

I really do like message boards, despite their flaws. I like going back with the search function here, reading old posts I made in my 30s. Man I was earnest! And self righteous! It's almost like reading a diary of who you were, which is interesting, even when it's embarrassing. I was working on a big story this fall about an athlete and I knew a poster (who is no longer in journalism) had covered him years ago, so I messaged him on Facebook. We hopped on the phone and talked for an hour. We'd never spoken, but because of SJ we felt like we'd known each other for 20 years. This place never came up, but it was an unspoken wink between us. We'd clashed here over politics, we'd motherfucked each other over various alliances, we'd called an eventual truce, we'd grown to be Internet friends, and we both knew we were some of the OGs of this joint, having being frequent posters in its infancy and, as Pearlman wrote, it really meant something. We talked about our kids and families and life in and out of journalism. It was great. It was a nice reminder that the years spent here had value, not just for the IRL friends we made, but because we would always be part of a shared, weird, wonderful internet family.

 

You're missed around here, Double Down.

When I wrote my post above, I nearly mentioned all the threads you started regarding journalism writing, etc., and how good they were, but that even they sometimes didn't get the amount of response you/we probably always hoped for, even back then.

But the reasons were different, I think. Back then, reporters often came here for release and relief, not to, essentially, do more "work" in writing well, or thinking about writing well, etc., and that sometimes impacted the response. The journalists were here, but the will wasn't.

Now, it's almost the opposite situation.

 

My list of story ideas for DD is getting longer.

1, roadie across Montana with Musburger

2, go find the running back, again

3, caddie for Theegala in India

 

Excellent post.

I can’t imagine how many young writers are here. Very few I’d guess. Not that you can know really.