What Lee Jenkins' LeBron scoop says about our industry

Jenkins, who wrote the 2012 Sportsman of the Year cover story about James for Sports Illustrated, said he did not fashion James’s article/statement so much as stitch it together from quotes given during an interview Thursday night at James’s hotel room in Las Vegas.

“I was able to get those quotes and present the news to readers,” Jenkins said. “It’s a feat of editing, to put it together in a simple structure that made sense.”

He added, “I felt that, in order to get his voice, it was worth it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/12/sports/basketball/role-of-sports-illustrated-in-lebron-jamess-announcement-raises-journalistic-questions.html?_r=0

 

Sandomir was wondering about the absence of context—but needlessly, to my mind. This is a huge story but also a simple story: Lebron signs with Cleveland. This isn't, say, giving Donald Sterling a forum to make accusations and not doing any reporting into whether the remarks are true. It's simply, here's what Lebron is doing, and here's what he is saying is his explanation. The set-up is transparent.

Congrats to Lee Jenkins, a great writer and reporter.

 

I'm sorry, but I think it's preposterous to expect me to believe this.

This is like a Presidential speechwriter trying to deflect credit for a President's words.

In a conversation/interview with James, Jenkins elicited an evocative quote like, "before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled," that works as a perfect lede?

And, how could that be "stitched together"? He either said it, or didn't.

 

Reporters admittedly clean up quotes on a regular basis.

But, I'm supposed to believe these words are all James, and were just "stitched together" by a good writer?

 

Do you trust it when you see quotes from players in other stories? Do these "" really carry that much importance to you of whether or not something was said?

 

Again, you don't unstand at all. I could sit here and type up a transcript of how I presume this went, and maybe it would satisfy you, but I don't see how it's worth the time.

 

Also, in order for you to even begin to see this another way, you'd have to abandon the presumption the LeBron is a meathead athlete incapable of articulate thoughts, which if you've spent time around him (something you have not) is easy to do.

 

When they hand out the end of year magazine awards does Lebron get the award or Jenkins?

 

Wasn't Jason Collins' coming out story the exact same thing? Collins controlled the message and the timing. And which outlet he preferred. Why didn't anyone freak out about that?

 

The Gay.