Cam Newton thinks female reporter talking routes is 'funny'

[JC]

Maybe some media members should not have their feelings hurt and stop trying to be these guys friends.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Limited experience compared to others around these parts, but I'm sure I'm not alone in that all the best stuff I ever got from any player on any level was outside the mandatory appearances. Plenty of players are interesting without being dicks. The trouble is finding the time to find out who they are.

We talked about this a lot when everybody got huffy with Steph Curry for bringing his daughter to press conferences. Take a look at the questions his daughter was supposedly "interrupting." They were all irrelevant, obvious or pointless.

 

[cranberry]

Maybe he's just a deck? That seems to be the most likely answer.

Exactly. Why would anyone take that personally? Report about it. Go have a few beers and laugh about. Just stop whining to me and your audience about it, though. It isn't about you.

 

[QYFW]

Exactly. Why would anyone take that personally? Report about it. Go have a few beers and laugh about. Just stop whining to me and your audience about it, though. It isn't about you.

But dignity.

 

[cranberry]

But dignity.

For who? Who was robbed of their dignity?

 

[QYFW]

For who? Who was robbed of their dignity?

We're all people first.

 

[SnarkShark]

Exactly. Why would anyone take that personally? Report about it. Go have a few beers and laugh about. Just stop whining to me and your audience about it, though. It isn't about you.

On my beat, 99% of the newsmakers treat me with respect. Those who don't, I don't report their childishness and lack of professionalism, because I'm not the story and nobody cares.

I don't get where you guys are getting that people who personally have a problem with that behavior are "whining."

I handle myself as a professional and I treat people with respect. Cam doesn't, because he's a child.

 

[QYFW]

On my beat, 99% of the newsmakers treat me with respect. Those who don't, I don't report their childishness and lack of professionalism, because I'm not the story and nobody cares.

I don't get where you guys are getting that people who personally have a problem with that behavior are "whining."

I handle myself as a professional and I treat people with respect. Cam doesn't, because he's a child.

Cran thinks you're a racist.

 

[cranberry]

On my beat, 99% of the newsmakers treat me with respect. Those who don't, I don't report their childishness and lack of professionalism, because I'm not the story and nobody cares.

I don't get where you guys are getting that people who personally have a problem with that behavior are "whining."

I handle myself as a professional and I treat people with respect. Cam doesn't, because he's a child.

I've taken "no" as an answer from interview subjects and potential interview subjects hundreds of times with as many different deliveries. I always chalked it up as part of being a reporter.

So if Newton did not want to answer questions and believed the question to be dumb, would you have preferred that he pretended it was an insightful and thoughtful question and told the guy some bullshirt answer as a show of "respect" to whoever asked it?

Or is journalism about getting at the truth and reporting it? Does every question a reporter asks deserve an answer? Does the subject of a reporter's question not have the right to say, "No, I'm not answering that"?

Honestly, I'm not sure there's a lot of journalism coming out of a press conference to help promote a football game.

 

[Tweener]

Depends on the guy, no? I never get why a reporter would take something like that personally unless he calls you out by name or insults you personally or physically intimidates you. If I'm his editor, I tell the reporter to stop whining and report about it. Bennett did something that was more interesting and will attract more page views than if he had provided some mundane quote. Report about it!

Personally, I'm not interested in reading, "Our offense is finding it's rhythm and rookie Jimmy Lightning is beginning to show you why he was drafted 16th overall. We're confident we can move the ball -- little chunks, big chunks, don't matter."

If someone doesn't want to give you the quote you tried to steer him toward for for the story you wanted to write, he isn't hindering your job; you're not doing your job properly. This is one of the reasons some of the best sportswriters start in news. They don't have the expectation that all stories originate at a press conference or a player standing in front of his locker. They know how to write a story about someone even if that person doesn't want to be interviewed.

QFYW brought up Lynch before. He got a shirtload of attention and notoriety for sitting there and saying "I'm here so I won't get fined" over and over and over. I'd rather report that than some stupid crap about how he wants the ball and plans to take the Seahawks on his back and lead them to victory.

I'm not talking about press conferences or media scrums in my case. Of course the stories you can write from of a player publicly not answering questions are interesting.

I was "whining" about an athlete hindering my work because there are situations as a reporter where having a subject talk to you greatly helps the story. Of course you can do it well without them, but having their voice in the story obviously enhances it. (In more than one case, I broke a story or wrote a feature about this particular athlete, and a bigger publication swept in on my scoop and interviewed said player to essentially write my story again, but this time with the players' voice in it).

If a guy is being universally disrespectful to media, yes, clearly you report on it. You act like people don't know this obvious shirt. But when an athlete is rude to you away from the cameras, and for years singles you out and denies any sort of access, and publicly trashes your publication, reporting about that beef then makes it about you and you never want that.

 

[Alma]

Take a look at the questions his daughter was supposedly "interrupting." They were all irrelevant, obvious or pointless.

Immaterial. It was unprofessional.

Reporters don't bat 1.000 any more than athletes do. It doesn't mean that athletes get a free pass when their kids turn a press conference into a playroom. You think a bunch of super-duper Longform-y queries are getting asked when a 3-year-old is up there messing around?

 

[JC]

Immaterial. It was unprofessional.

Reporters don't bat 1.000 any more than athletes do. It doesn't mean that athletes get a free pass when their kids turn a press conference into a playroom. You think a bunch of super-duper Longform-y queries are getting asked when a 3-year-old is up there messing around?

You think they are anyways?

If Curry wants to include his daughter he ahs every right to. He doesn't owe you a damn thing but his presence.