Denver Post tells writers to stop making picks in games they cover

We shouldn't. Picks are OK.
I can't believe with all this blogging and interactive bullshit that is condoned by many, that anybody would be against sportswriters making picks regarding the team they cover.

 

Yes...we're a community-based paper and I get regular feedback via e-mail and in-person about our picks column...I've yet to have anyone challenge it as a conflict of interest. The most I get are light-hearted jabs from a parent or coach when I pick against their side.

 

Funny ... where I last worked, there was nothing light-hearted about the parents' jabs when I picked against them. I almost think some people were keeping a running tally of who I picked on a regular basis.

(Of course, the people who complained that I always picked Angry Red High School and thus I clearly was in Angry Red's pocket tended to forget that said high school won over 40 games in four years with back-to-back state championships and that their own kids haven't beaten Angry Red High School since the first Clinton administration.)

 

Or as one editor said to me once, "We run stories about murders and rapes and bank robberies, but that doesn't me we promote them."

 

During my days as a sports writer, each week I would write a column explaining my picks (getting the idea from a former boss and running with it). On occasion, yes, I was going to make some people made with my picks.
My answer was always simple: if you don't like it, there's a certain area called a football field. There's where you have the right to prove me wrong.

 

What SF said.

 

My predecessor ran picks until he left 3 years ago. I haven't run them since, and I have yet to hear one complaint or anybody who's mentioned it at all.

Seems to be that people didn't really care either way.

 

I know people would be pretty ticked at my paper if we stopped. I wouldn't have the option of stopping even if I wanted to because it's the publisher who wants it in there. Luckily, I love running it.

 

I have never been comfortable with the whole concept of papers making picks on games, especially high school games. Once, when my paper made me pick HS games, I protested by picking the home team in every game. Wound up one game over .500, and turned that into a column about how my unintended experiment, using a pretty large sample, showed home-field advantage is of little value in the HS game.

Still hate the idea of picking games.

 

Decent idea. The homefield advantage piece, not your hatred for picking games.