Tim Layden says objectivity is dying in sports reporting

If you guys can follow a team all season and not feel a *little* affection for them and want them to do well because of it, you're more Spock than I am. But fortunately, my desire to see them crash out of the playoffs to make my life easier always canceled it out.

 

And I remember a time, long before Twitter, when the public's first instinct was that I was in the bag for Podunk High because I dared to report that Smallville turned the ball over with 33 seconds to go to set up Podunk's game-winning shot. They know for a FACT that I graduated from Podunk High, and that's the only reason I would write such a biased report about what I saw. In reality, I went to Podunk West.

Objectivity is in the eye of the beholder, when it comes to sports fans. And it's totally OK to write what you saw with your own eyes, and then ask questions about it after the game. Otherwise, why bother being there? Just do a phoner or write it off the stat sheet and be done with it.

 

My first job was with a six-man team where none of us were from within 100 miles of the 14 schools we were covering, and we got the "everyone in your department went to Podunk West, it's so obvious" at least once a week.

 

Ignoring the sort of disinterest in what people want to read (really, really often it's news over takes), how much of an demanding we just stay objective change the public's response?

I mean, faith in media isn't limited to segments. We've had decades of media attacking the voracity of other media. It seems unlikely that unless all of that stops on a larger scale (i.e. agended networks undercutting each other's credibility), it seems unlikely that not admitting we grew up Packers or Seahawks fans will turn that tide.

And even if we were to do this, imagining we could become "objective" authorities seems to undercut the psychology of all this. Sports, and thus our work, will always be consumed that way. It's why 80 percent of fanbases think ESPN is after them. It's why fans back their coach irrationally and then turn on them just as irrationally when things are bad. I doubt it was all that different back in the day. Folks likely didn't side with writers over successful coaches. They probably still refused to believe things they didn't like. They now just have a better platform they didn't like.

(This isn't to say be a homer, but that "objectivity" is a nuanced thing, unlike someone above who felt objective and subjective were black and white?)

 

This is pretty instructive becuase it shows what we should be focusing on.

The ideas of emotional attachment and "rooting" have something more immature to them. If simply not doing that is being objective, it's a relatively narrow definition, and one I'm mostly fine with. I get the sense most define it more broadly, and that's where it gets interesting.

(I suppose one could call me not objective. I've hoped for a bowl that allowed me to spend New Years with a girlfriend. I've wanted a team to not to play in the second-to-last bowl game of the season becuase I wanted to be done with i"a season or hoped a team would lose so I didn't have to spend a night on the road writing things I knew would go lightly read. I've hoped to watch a game that wasn't a one-sided rock fight. I've also done that privately. I've even hoped a game was not on na

 

Editorializing in a gamer is no big deal anymore. You're just presenting alternative facts.

 

I've done this a long, long time. What I figured out long ago, was that in the end it really doesn't matter who wins or who loses because there's a story to file. That's why I'm there. To tell the story. Rooting is for the dolts in the stands.

There's always going to be another game, another season, another coach, another star quarterback, another everything. I'm just there to record it into the history books in an informative, entertaining manner. Once some of these guys do this long enough, they'll understand.

 

I will say that since I've left the business, I've rediscovered my "rooting" gene, and hadn't realized how much I missed it. But as you might have surmised, I was a badge-carrying member of the "no cheering in the press box" crew.

 

Sort of, yes, when he referred to the NFL Combine.

 

It will be a fine day when I can go to a game, enjoy the play on the field for what it is, and leave when the fourth quarter, second half, or final inning ends. While I can't stand them, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a fan.

 

Sadly, this is so true. We've done it wrong for 100 years. To hell with journalistic integrity and accountability, it's all about being a fanboy and who's funniest on Twitter now.