No, you CAN'T root in the damn press box

I know there are a lot of Jeff Pearlman non-fans here. Doesn't matter. What is intriguing here are the comments about "rooting" for the team you cover. Some of them by so-called journalists.

I remain fascinated by adults who do not understand Rule No. 1 of sports journalism.

 

And if they were in journalism instead of TV ... (Apologies to those here in TV).

I know I mentioned this a couple of years ago, tapping into a web replay of the late local news on the NBC affiliate in Phoenix after the Suns advanced to the NBA Finals. The news anchors wore team swag and called them "our Suns,"while the sports folks wore suits and ties and addressed the team appropriately.

 

This one nearly gave me a facial twitch.

 

I think what she wrote is silly just because of the utter lack of perspective. It was one game against a team that might not be any good. Great win... but don't plan the championship parade just yet. Beyond that... she's an alum and she works in the market. Not a lot of hand-wringing for me.

As for the blowback here and from Pearlman and wherever else... it's valuable to remember that not everyone in every job in the communications business is trying to please that cranky 60-year old editor you had at your first job 30 years ago. Roles are different. Expectations are different. Mediums are different. The times are different.

During that Suns run we had our sports team inside the arena in professional attire and our news anchors and reporters outside the building mostly in team gear. We got flooded with viewer complaints. Every complaint -- and I mean every single complaint, 100% -- was about the one anchor who wasn't wearing a Suns jersey. Viewers wanted to know what his fuckin' problem was. (He got a jersey after game one.)

And seriously, I get the nostalgia of the notion that print is real journalism and TV isn't, but when hard news breaks regarding the team, the local paper covers it the same way the local TV affiliates do -- they quote the ESPN story that broke it.

 

[crankyoldman]

I just can't be that cavalier about the appearance of conflict of interest if I'm a journalist.

Just because Joe Blow at the bar likes his sports anchor acting like the San Diego Chicken, that does not make Joe Blow right.

[/crankyoldman]

 

I do find it somewhat amusing that Pearlman tries to group TV and newspaper journalists/reporters/sportscasters to the same standards. Like it or not, there is a difference. Like PCLoadLetter said, viewers get upset when the station isn't on the local team bandwagon.
Also, for good or bad (depending on the perspective) Romi is hosting Sanders' weekly TV show.
At the Super Bowl a couple years ago, the beat reporter from the main paper from one of the two competing teams was wearing a bright colored outfit in the team colors. I was more upset about that and then remembered that before that reporter got that job, they worked for an NFL team site.

 

Rule No. 1, at this point, of almost any sports journalism job is make it, as often as possible, about yourself on social media. Which Pearlman does even as he reports the hell out of his work like a skilled journalist.

Fanbois and Fangirls are all over the business at this point. But underneath that fandom is self-promotion. They don’t really care if the team wins. They care about being associated with the team and the social media celebrity that comes with it.

 

Didn’t Bob Ryan say he roots?

Not many people out there who anyone can convincingly say would know better than him

 

Key point here: I'm pretty sure Bob Ryan doesn't pound the press table furiously when Jayson Tatum finishes a drive.

 

In this case, people are "concerned" that a graduate of the University of Colorado who lives and works in Denver may be happy that her alma mater defeated TCU.

She's tweeting to people who live in the Denver area and to her friends. And of that group, there is not a single person thinking "OMG, is she HAPPY that her alma mater won?"

 

1) I wonder if she went to J-school.

2) I wonder what they teach in J-school these days.

 

If she were only tweeting to her friends, her account would be private. It isn’t. That’s a public face, and her public face needs to be more professional.