Blogs & Serious Journalism (Why should I give you a tip if it costs me my job?)

Re: Blogs & Serious Journalism (Why should I give you a tip if it costs me my jo

It's not the beat writer's job to rip the school and the AD. It's the beat writer's job to report the story. Perhaps if the beat guy had just written the story about whatever it was he/she was given a head's up about, it wouldn't have been as big a deal. It sounds like someone decided to go Mariotti on the story, instead of reporting it. From past experience, it's the opining that will piss everybody off, not the reporting.

A good SID usually will know what to expect from the beat guys. If their history is to rip the school, don't give the tip. If their history is to be fair and do their homework, then give the tip.

 

Re: Blogs & Serious Journalism (Why should I give you a tip if it costs me my jo

It CAN be the beat writer's duty to provide commentary if he has a column or depending on how the blog is structured.

Just_AN_SID's example is a great lesson in the strategy of being a beat writer.

I have privvied information on my desk that was tipped to me via a SID right now. I got the names of the baseball coach finalists from the SID on my beat in exchange for holding it until Monday release.

As a beat writer and as a SE, this is an acceptable bargain. I buy trust and goodwill from my in-house sources when I show that I can be trusted with privileged information, ensuring that privileged information will continue to come down the pike.

But let's face it, a baseball coaching hire, at least in my region, is small potatoes, which is what makes this scenario work in this case.

But if this were a football or basketball coaching hire? My strategy would be different. It wouldn't be acceptable to sit on names, so I wouldn't even put "my" SID in that boat, unless he was willing to leak info. I'd dig under every rock to circumvent any burning of valued sources, doing my own digging, potentially burning expendable sources, not valued ones.

It's a chess match, a political chess match of sorts, and knowing who is a pawn and who is a king makes all the difference. It sounds Machavellian, and it sort of is, but as long as you don't violate your trust with sources, you should be OK, even if you do piss them off on occasion.

In SID's example, either the beat writer didn't give a shit about burning a source, in which case, he'll be repaid in kind and with interest from here on out. Or, the SID fucked up, assumed (as in Moddy's example) that it was some sort of unsaid off-the-record information, and screwed himself.

In which case, the beat writer will be repaid in kind and with interest.

But Moddy makes a great point, the internet changes everything. We -- meaning print -- are as immediate as any other medium now. Training my veteran guys to think that way can be a challenge, but the old days of a release being sent at 1 p.m. disadvantaging newspapers vs. TV/radio is no more. In fact, due to the immediacy of print, the advantage is all ours.

I have learned, and I'm trying to impart in my guys, the advantages we have because of it. I regularly scoop our TV competitiors by getting scoops in the morning at a time that used to be disadvantageous to the tradtional morning newspaper.

I think a lot of SIDs and coaches are still coming to grips with that kind of immediacy which the net allows.

 

Re: Blogs & Serious Journalism (Why should I give you a tip if it costs me my jo

Exactly, you give the beat guy the news with the embargo on it, then if they want to try to get another source to spill the beans before the announcement that's ok, but don't leak something early that's going to put you in a bad position as a result.

In general, a good working relationship with a reporter should equal trust, but there should be enough dialogue in that relationship for an SID/PR guy to flat out say 'no.' In this case, it almost looks like the SID genuinely forgot to cover the bases, or maybe he wanted to see the criticism beforehand, maybe to force his department to reconsider - just unfortunately, it came back on him.

 

Re: Blogs & Serious Journalism (Why should I give you a tip if it costs me my jo

Bubbler, I agree with most of your post. However, has it now gotten to the point where beat writers, even those who are allowed and indeed encouraged to provide commentary and blog, will put those duties above reporting the news of the beat? If you got your baseball tip and, instead of reporting the names of the candidates, you first wrote in a blog about how horrible State College's choices and rip the selection committee for what it came up with, I think you've potentially damaged your beat duties. Again, without knowing any more than what JustAnSID originally posted, I would not be shocked that the commentary provided some, if not most, of the fury shown by the school.

 

Re: Blogs & Serious Journalism (Why should I give you a tip if it costs me my jo

Agreed. A beat writer's first duty is to report it, pontificate/capture its relevance later.

And there aren't many beat writers who do both. I happen to be one of the lucky/unlucky ones.

 

also keep in mind that different people have different opinions of what is 'negative'

some are very, very testy about such

(and, as a note, this is knowing very well more than just an sid's post)

 

Except this is bullshit as well. If I give you a story -- that you may have no clue about -- and you agree to embargo it, then you need to embargo it unless you come back to me to tell me things have changed (and hopefully I agree with you).

If you simply go to another source and get them to confirm and then print it based on those comments (and using the original embargoed comments as a confirmation), then you would have gotted your last tip ever from me.

I think in this case, the powers that be were expecting a negative backlash but the problems for the SID came about because the backlash started before the AD authorized the release of the information.

Personally, I can handle critical commentary, especially when we deserve it, and I can keep my AD in check when it happens. But the way this whole thing came about would have pissed me off as well.

 

It wasn't in sports, but in a previous job, I dealt with sensitive material. While I trusted the reporters, I always made sure we both understood the embargo.

And if it was just a general news release, I'd usually give the reporter a heads up to look for my e-mail. If it was something that I (re: my organization) didn't want published until it was released, I didn't give the reporter the information until I sent the release.

 

very true... and however, the backlash was going to happen regardless. and, well, in this case, the info was out just hours before it would have been anyway, and the backlash would have been the same. the very same. it was all the ad's fault, not the sid's

 

I go to the meetings and do the paperwork and fire the SID. My SID doesn't leak big news, even if it does us a favor. And if I'm on the other side, like I am, I want everyone getting the news at the same time. Maybe it's just me, but I want an even playing field. I'll find my own sources. I'm all for front offices dumping their incompetents in PR.