Yahoo levels Miami

Even talking salary, I would be stunned if the Times could afford either of them. The Times isn't really putting a whole lot into college sports right now, it's just Pete Thamel, their GA sports reporters and a few freelancers. Thamel's very good, but he's a one-man army asked to cover all college sports throughout the entire country.

But Dick, I think the point black dude with pompano was making is absolutely correct: In this day and age, it's better to work for Yahoo! Sports than The New York Times sports section, at least as a reporter.

Also keep in mind that Wetzel has been with Yahoo! for eight years. In addition, they've hired most of their writers away from newspaper/online jobs, to my knowledge. These aren't people pining to return to the dead tree world.

 

Umm... Trying?

I beginning to think Yahoo and the NYT are the only major national outlets that still make a real committment to sports investigative journalism. Given their resources, ESPN's work on the investigative end is rather pathetic. Of course it doesn't help that it's loaded down with ethical conflicts--given its investment in the Longhorn Network, would ESPN dare take down UT athletics even if handed the goods?

And when was the last time Sports Illustrated broke anything that grabbed the world's attention? It used to be on the forefront of this stuff.

 

Obviously biased by my own view of the NCAA rules, but I see this as a waste of resources. And even if the NCAA rules made sense, wouldn't we be better served if Yahoo! devoting these resources to something like chasing down fraud in the financial system? Or, if we want to stick with investigative sports journalism, something like teams that abuse practice-time rules or provide worthless "educations"?

 

Waste of resources? Is their goal to fix things or draw readers?

 

This.

And this.

And this.

 

Good advice from a former j-school professor: "We're not here to save the world. We're here to inform it of what needs saving."

The system's broke. It's not Yahoo's job to fix it. But Yahoo is showing exactly how broken it is, which theoretically (if the NCAA has any shell of respectability remaining), could lead to the major reform it requires.

 

But my sense is that most people appear to be taking the lesson that the NCAA should be more aggressive in enforcing its cartel--give Miami the death penalty--rather than reform the system by paying players. Do journalists have no responsibility if people take the wrong message from their story?

 

The president of the U needs to resign. And so does the editor of the Miami Herald.

Destroyed in its own backyard. Like the U honcho, if the Herald didn't know what was going on, it should have.

As for paying players, would they have spent their earnings on hiring hookers? Or would those still come from the boosters?

 

All the stories would likely draw readers. The others would also be much more beneficial for society.

 

And as for paying players--this isn't the proper forum and we've argued about it elsewhere--but I'll just say it's unreasonable to think a black market won't exist as long as the NCAA and its member institutions suppress wages through a cartel.

 

I'm not ready to throw SI under the bus yet. Yes, Yahoo snagged the big fish here with Miami, but I'd rank some of the work George Dohrman does alongside this story. His expose on Ohio State bought down Tressel and his work on college hoops recruiting has been very strong.

And ESPN? Yes, they did lure one of the Chronicle's Bonds writers away, but what have they had him do since the Bonds trial ended?