College Football Writer - Oklahoman/NewsOK

He also went to OSU, if I'm correct. Do you think they'd put that recent of an OKState grad on the OKState beat? Just something to think about... Maybe not?

 

You're correct. But that's a good point. He knows the area and people in the department, so it'd be an easy transition. It could raise some eyebrows that he graduated there. You never know, though. It'll be interesting to see.

 

^Just curious, what would be the reason they wouldn't want to put a recent OSU grad on the OK state beat?

If anything, I thought that would help his chances. Weird.

 

I suspect some would wonder if an OSU graduate would be too much of an OSU fan when covering the team.

I don't believe that's always the case, though. Lots of journalists are fans of particular colleges or teams, but they know to check that fandom at the door when work begins.

 

This. I'm a Colorado State grad and have covered CSU full time for two years now. I get a lot of comments from CU fans saying I'm a homer while CSU fans criticize me for not being one, which, to me, says objectivity. It's really not that hard to cover a beat well and do in-depth stories that, often times, don't always make the school you graduated from look good. Your job as a journalist is to report the news, not get tied up an emotional investment. Do your job the way you (hopefully) were taught, and there should be no issues covering the school you graduated from (or rival school, for that matter). I know plenty of great sports journalists in the field today reporting on the school they attended without any issue, one being an Oklahoma State beat writer.

The way I look at it is, yes, I hold a degree from Colorado State University, but I've never worked for its athletic department.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure Jason Kersey, who just won an APSE award for his cover of the Sooners, is an OU grad.

 

I remember one time in college covering my alma mater, the team I'd rooted for since I was a toddler, for the student paper I found myself getting pissed it came from behind to take the lead late in the game and I had to scrap pretty much everything I'd written. I thought to myself "hmm, I guess this is journalism."

 

Apparently said no one who works for ESPN.

 

Once you cover your own school, you come to realize a great many things. You see the team not as something you root for but a collection of folks you deal with. Some are nice, some are pricks, some consistently play below the talent level you're told they have again and again. And eventually you learn to parse out the differences. You can leave the idea of a team you like outside the stadium because you have to tell the fans about a team they like and often deliver a dose of truth along with it.

 

I think the best person should get the job, whether they already work there or not, or whether they would be covering their alma mater or not. And given their reputation I like the odds of it happening regardless of whom that may be.

 

Few years back, I worked with a beat writer - a good beat writer - whom the fan base organized a movement to have him fired because he a) graduated from the rival school and b) wrote that a track runner lost at a national event. I am NOT exaggerating about the second one. As for the first, when the company announced layoffs, our boss got emails, nearly identical, from no less than five different email addressed. Plus, a Facebook page was set up titled "Fire Joe Beat Writer" that had 30-something likes.

Was it a coincidence that when folks actually got laid off that he one of a few writers - and the only one in sports - to be laid off?

Yes, in some markets, it's very bad for an alum of one school to cover the other and that's not the fault of the writer and paper.

 

Of course the trick is determining who the best person actually is.