Tim Layden says objectivity is dying in sports reporting

That's a fair point. I don't think any sports writer should be publicly displaying their fandom on twitter. As you point out, it could look bad later down the road. I do think sports writers can follow, root for, etc. other sports or teams that they do not cover. Just not a good idea to mix work and play.

 

To be clear, though, I was backing you to those who were suggesting that you can be a college football fanboi and still cover the NFL.

 

Along the same lines and in the same city, I graduated from UVA and came back to Charlottesville later to run the sports desk before leaving the business. I had no problem turning my fanhood off at the time because it was the professional thing to do. I can't speak as to why my bosses hired me, but I'm sure the institutional knowledge I had of UVA sports history was weighed against me being a fan. (I was also far from the only UVA grad to work in that department.) I like to think I struck the right balance, and I was mostly doing headlines and story assignment/prioritization anyway, so I had fewer chances to editorialize.

It was also very easy to be less of a UVA fan during the time I was there - they fired Al Groh and Dave Leitao during that period and hired Mike London. It's also been very easy to become more of a fan, as you all know very well I have, since Bennett came to town.

Probably the least professional thing I did was to offer my buddy the chance to write the lead headline for a football win over Maryland on his birthday. (He declined.)

 

What if he had put shithole in the headline?

 

The headline I wound up writing was a Willy Wonka/Veruca Salt pun - Marc Verica was the UVA quarterback at the time. What I’m trying to say is: It would have improved the page.

 

OK, the first year I was a sportswriter at the Phoenix, the Phillies, my team since I was old enough to remember things, won its first World Series in franchise history. I was there. The Phillies PR department sat me next to Roger Angell (both weeklies, I guess) an honor I did not deserve but which sure as hell kept me a stoneface in the press box. But when I wrote about that postseason, I told people I was a Phillies fan. There's nothing wrong with having a rooting interest if you are transparent about it and honest in your coverage. When the Red Sox won in 2004, I didn't care for myself, but I was happy for many friends and neighbors and for the long time back office Sox employees I knew. I told readers that, too. In game coverage, there's a limited amount any bias can do. Scoreboard gonna scoreboard. Of course, it's different for college sports scandals and recruiting and like that, but I went to a D-III school so it never came up.
PS: I think the real rooting interest problem in sports journalism is the same one that exists in all journalism -- the tendency to be too nice to the people who return your phone calls a/k/a sources.

 

This sounds like something Bill Simmons would say to a journalism class.

 

Yes.

Yes, it does.

 

I think if you have a rooting interest by accident, you can't let it show, because perception is often reality and your readers want to see that you're being fair in your work. If you're transparent about your fandom, it's easier for your audience to see bias in your work, even if it isn't there.

 

You can't control what readers think. You can only control what you tell them. I felt transparency was the best policy. Still do.

 

I was once offered a job covering my alma mater, too. The thing is, I had covered the athletic department for a few years while in school and had seen some things that ruined my fandom forever. I'm often surprised others haven't been tainted by their deep knowledge of the departments they've covered, even at their alma mater.

 

I just think there's already a severe misunderstanding among readers about the responsibility and role of journalists. I've worked places where I was asked why I was picking on the hometown team when, as a beat writer, I should be helping to scrub and promote its image. But that wasn't my job.

I'd imagine if you're being transparent about being a fan of the team you cover, everything you write and report will be viewed through a lense that you're not there to dig up the hard-hitting stories that are meaningful yet may be unpleasant or even harmful for the institution you're covering.

That relationship with your audience and integrity as an impartial observer is important now more than ever, with Trump and his fake news truthers running amok.