Pittsburgh Trib debacle

In a perfect world, you'd be right. In a competitive market, you do take risks. Hopefully your sources don't screw you, and hopefully you couch it a bit, but the pressure to be first is usually not something the reporter creates, it is created for him. I think we have to consider that when deciding the reporter has been irresponsible. Perhaps he does the best he can with a decree to break news on his beat.

 

Too bad it wasn't an online-first story that could have disappeared/changed/updated/corrected, like the non-print sports sites have the luxury of doing. Once it printed ... there's no taking it back.

 

I don't know your definition of a risk. To me, a risk is Russ Grimm saying he was offered the job and is pretty sure he will take it and will announce it in the morning.

Do you go with "pretty sure?" Did he say it in a way that led you to believe he was sure but just being coy? That's a risk.

If Russ Grimm says off the record he was offered the job and will accept and the Steelers say they are holding an news conference at 10 a.m. you aren't really taking a risk. You are reporting what you know to be true.

Now, if Grimm decides at 6 a.m. that he has changed his mind. I would hope like hell you get him to describe his thinking for a story for the paper so you don't look like fools.

 

The value of having that story 24 hours before the official announcemen is far, far outweighed by the stigma of having it wrong.

People would be unlikely to remember who had it first, but the blunder is likely to stick with them. Your paper has now become a punchline for a lot of jokes.

Bad.

 

If a reporter says he trusts his sources, you have to go with it. From the reporter's perspective, if the editor says, "You have enough," then you have no choice. I don't think I know anyone at the Pitt Trib, but I've seen stuff like this happen to good reporters. Embarrassing, but not always preventable.

 

If Russ Grimm gave the "scoop" to the writer in question, the writer needs to acknowledge that, in print...

 

Grimm. . . Tomlin.

I wonder if this could be a case of somebody getting a bad cell phone reception or just flat our hearing wrong. It's not like Tomlin's name was associated with the job every time the opening was mentioned.

Sources source: "The Steelers GM tells me that it is Tomlin."
Source: "Grimm. Got it. Thanks."

I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Well, some stories would not run a story with sources except in rare circumstances.

For a story of this nature, you can't trust the reporter. At least some editor has to know who the source is and make the call.

That would be stupid to run with the story and not even have anyone above the reporter know who the sources is.

And unless the source was Grimm or the GM we sure wouldn't run it.

 

Agreed, and I would go beyond "unlikely". People will NOT remember who had it first. They never remember, because it doesn't matter.

Not even in our own business are people going to remember who had it first, because the story's old and/or changed by the time it hits your front doorstep. That's the nature of a 24-hour news cycle. Who gets it first is irrelevant in almost every situation of national interest.

Get it right, get it best -- THAT should be the focus -- not get it first.

There is simply no reward for getting it first anymore.

I understand why we have "competitive" beats, but damn ... this situation just reeks. Again. The Iverson situation reeked a month ago. The Saban situation (although a lot of that was on the coach) reeked last month. The Rich Rodriguez situation reeked.

This keeps happening over ... and over ... and over again ...

 

No way...

 

Where did I say the reporter doesn't reveal his sources to the editor? But it stands to reason that in a major market, the SE probably does not have a relationship with any of those sources. So his response is most likely going to be, "Uh, he never screwed us before? OK, then."

 

I think also, at least in the competitive markets I've been, the smaller paper is more willing to go out on a limb. They live for those rare instances when they can beat the larger paper. Even after the city's No. 2 daily goes to the Happy Scooping Ground, the survivors sound like what a Confederate veterans' convention probably was like: Ah, but we kicked their asses that one day, didn't we?