The latest from Bleacher Report

I believe I'm actually most very unique.

 

Say the Washington Times breaks a story about Stephen Strasburg. The "breaking news team" sees it, sends out alerts (not driving traffic to you, of course), assigns a quick-spin piece to a "featured columnist" (not driving traffic to you, of course) ... etc, etc.

They do aggregation well. They do SEO well. They don't break any news, but they take your news and your clicks too. What a thing.

 

A few thoughts on this thread:

1. Calling out Bleacher for a minor "prior to" style infraction is like condemning a mass murderer for parking tickets.

2. Don't count on them breaking news anytime soon. It's actually a corporate no-no.

From SF Weekly:

"Perhaps uniquely among journalistic entities, Bleacher Report has a "blanket policy" forbidding its writers from seeking out and breaking news."

http://www.sfweekly.com/2012-10-03/news/bleacher-report-sports-jAournalism-internet-espn-news-technology/2/

 

I read the enthusiasm in that post and saw your avatar, and they went together perfectly.

 

As much as you guys enjoy the BR bash, can any of you honestly say your first time covering a pro game wasn't a little surreal? There wasn't a little rush stepping onto the dirt? Walking into the clubhouse? If the answer is no and you were unmoved, then I'm sorry about that ice water flowing through your veins. Yes, there's a professional job to do and, after a while, it all becomes very hum drum and normal. And, yes, this guy is a doofus for bragging about access and elbow rubbing, but goddamn it all if this job isn't cool as fuck sometimes.

 

Until payday.

 

The column actually is perfect for its goal. They're trying to attract fanbois to write unpaid articles that reach the standard of Bleacher Report.

 

This article is written by a fan without any legitimate journalism credentials or a college degree. It's the typical B/R writer. His bio says he wrote for CBS and a local newspaper but his work was for CBS Sacramento, who partners with B/R and when you click on and CBS local page you have CBS and B/R stories, it's not CBS or CBSSports.com. He wrote 10 articles for the local CBS site none related to sports. Here's a tweet that showed up when doing a simple google search: "@jimrome moved to @CBS. I blog freelance for @CBSSacramento. I like sports. Does @jimrome need a writer? " Need I say more?

Getting a couple games under your belt I grant you is a nice feeling but publishing it, in almost a childlike manor is a little excessive. I saw a Yahoo freelance piece done the same way except the kid who wrote it said afterword in his bio that he covers the Phillies, but it was only for one game. Same kinda thing, and really the irritating/annoying part is when someone claims they "cover" a team, especially at B/R when their guideline is to not break a story or seek out one. Being a beat reporter and truly covering a team, that's your job. You want to break news and dig deep to get a story, along with doing daily coverage.

But this is a little much.

 

For a minute or two, yeah. But I'd also been in locker/changing rooms in college while on the student paper and working in sports information as well. After a while, it's somewhere else to work in. A sense of being a professional and knowing why you're there takes over any urge to call your buddies back in their mothers' basements and brag about where you are, even when, say, you're sharing the elevator up to the press box with a radio announcer who was one of the voices from your youth, or realize you're standing behind one of your childhood heroes for a soda in the press box.

 

Unabashed fan-boyism from a site called Bleacher Report? That is surprising...Hopefully this kid will get with the program and become cynical, jaded and condescending before long, then come on message boards and tell people the difference between "prior to" and "before," prompting readers to think he's a d-bag, too.

 

Welcome to the board, taint breath.

And it's "fanboi-ism." Please read the stylebook.

 

Their "breaking news team" has a "policy against" ... breaking news?