Conflict of interest at APSE?

I hope someone has the stones to give their award back.

 

Just to be clear, I wasn't commenting in the Jenks business; I understand pretty much everybody's thinking on that front.

I was commenting on ESPN.com and CBSSports.com and Foxsports.com and others being in a "gray area." I was just saying that I don't think the major websites' area (MLB.com aside) is any grayer than most newspapers'.

 

Big difference between SELLING a sports team something (an ad) that is readily available at a fixed price to anyone in the market, sports team, news source or not, and PAYING rights fees to a news source that in essence becomes a partner.

 

Still, there's nothing "gray area" about the Jenks/APSE judging relationship. There is no good reason that he should be involved in it. Plenty of bad form, bad appearances, bad precedents if he is though.

 

This is confirmed. This is what happened.
So, Frank, you were right.

 

By degree, perhaps, but if the local baseball team advertises in your newspaper, and your newspaper advertises at the ballpark, that's an economic partnership, too. And newspapers have managed to keep editorial separate from those relationships for years.

I've been doing this since 1997, and I remember exactly one time -- and it was probably 8-9 years ago -- where somebody from a league or association said something to a boss in my company about one headline. And that was when we were a lot weaker than we are now.

We keep the business and editorial sides separate just like any newspaper does. Again, from our editorial standpoint, we're in no "gray area."