TBL talks to Karen Crouse

Nothing worse in this business than people who act like they know what readers want.

 

I know that, Smasher, I was trying to show there are really no holes in her game. She certainly could cover a beat in a conventional way because she's done it before, although she pretty much always took some risks in her approach to how she wrote it. And I don't think she missed anything in New York, but a case could be made that she beat the other writers on some pretty cool stories.

From what I hear, the NYT didn't give the other papers' Jets writers even courtesy interviews for that opening -- in my opinion a big mistake from even just a getting-along perspective, not to mention some of them are quite good --and some of them were quite honked at the time and not very hospitable. The fact that she goes her own way probably didn't help, but that can't dictate how you do your job.

 

That's a judgment beat writers, columnists and sports editors make every day.

Probably easier than ever to track now with web hits being counted.

 

I'm just gonna list my thoughts because I'm too tired to arrange them in anything that might make sense:

1) Someone described Karen as arrogant a few posts back. I don't know Karen, but I've been around her enough to know she's nothing of the sort.

2) I don't think Karen ever ignored a major story in effort to get her "Lifetime" stories into the Times.

3) The most insecure people I've met in this business are beat reporters. For some, that's what makes them tremendous reporters. For others, that's what makes them criticize others for doing things differently. The former is admirable, the latter is lame.

4) Spare me the "What about the Jets fans who read the Times!?!" argument. Fans these days read four newspapers, scan fansites, listen to talk radio, watch the NFL Network ... Ain't like the news is slipping by these people. Karen probably gave them information they got from nowhere else. Meanwhile, every other media outline reported that the second string defensive back sprained his ankle. Whoop-di-do.

 

I don't think anyone in the biz would view it your way. It's the same path the NYT gave Bill Pennington, who started there covering the Giants and was promoted to a spot in which he could better use his considerable writing skills. Pennington, like Crouse, had been a columnist at his previous paper. A very astute source at her previous paper suggested this might be the case when she left for New York.

 

wtf are you talking about, dools? i never said karen wasn't welcomed in the press room, just that her complaints -- and those of her vast legion of fans here -- have said/indicated she felt like an unwelcomed outsider in the jets room. i, in turn, am asking if she may have behaved in such a way to make the others treat her coldly.

just seeking the perspective of anyone else in that room. pretty simple.

just as frank ridgeway feels he must defend karen 'cause of their past excellent working relationship, i know several jets beat writers who have worked that room for many years. they include three excellent female scribes who have been on that beat -- including judy battista of the times. and none of them share karen's feelings about the jets beat writers who have all-too-often been trashed on this board.

 

I don't think I've seen a Jets beat writer trashed on this board--except for Crouse, of course. Freeman's assertions about the Jets' beat writers are what you should be more worried about.

 

But Pennington covered The Giants in a traditional manner. If Jet fans loved Karen's coverage so much why did the Times switch back to more traditional style of coverage with Greg Bishop?

 

Read slowly. I'm saying they probably had this move in mind all along. I don't think anyone expected her to spend even as much time on the beat as she did.

I don't think you can assume that the change of direction was a slap at the previous direction. Not many writers can do what Karen does. It may not be to your taste, but it takes extraordinary people skills to get athletes to open up the way they do to her. I think highly of my own skills, but there is no way I could do what she did -- I am not wired that way. Few are.

The way I look at it, is that at worst, Times readers may have missed some extremely trivial stuff that in the big picture meant absolutely nothing, and in exchange got the most memorable Jets stories of that time that no one else had. I'd take that any day.

 

the beat reporters in the jets press room have been trashed as a whole by freeman and crouse/her supporters. no one individually. cripes, read "the big lead" interview. she in essence says she hated everything about her time in hempstead except locker-room time. i'm just trying to find out why.

not trying to start anything with frank ridgeway, a poster i respect tremendously. but the relationship between a reporter and editor who work together is VASTLY different from that of the same reporter and others on their beat. the only people who really know how a beat reporter goes about his/her business and also coexists with the others on his/her beat are the people who share the press room.

a reporter can be a dreamboat dealing with his/her own desk. doesn't mean the reporter gets along well with others. AGAIN, i don't know what happened or why it happened, but karen clearly was not happy working in that press room. i'm just trying to uncover why that is. my guess is both karen and her competitors can share in the blame -- but it's just a guess.

i need some sleep. sorry to have droned on, folks.

 

The stories that Karen wrote would have been fine if the Times had someone else covering Jet beat. I still feel that if readers liked the direction The Times would have stayed the course.

 

I agree that desk-writer and writer-competitor relationships are different. But the desk is not going to like or respect a writer who gets beat on important stuff. Desk people tend to notice that. It makes the desk extremely nervous if a writer makes a habit of missing important shit because every night the desk has to worry that AP's gonna move something 10 minutes before deadline and either the paper is going to look bad or you're going to have to blow deadline to cover the writer's ass. All I can say is that in a different market, but still a very competitive one, that was never a concern with Karen's beat.