E&P story: Sports whiffed on steroids story

[Del_B_Vista]

I fear I'll d_b with this, one of the downsides of the different boards, but I thought this was a Journalism Board issue. Joe Strupp has an Editor and Publisher story on the steroid story coming out, and this story teases it from their Web site.

No bombshells in this blurb, really more general self-flagellation about the issue, but some pertinent quotes:

"It was too easy to ignore what was happening and we did ignore it." Adds Jeff Pearlman, a former baseball writer for Sports Illustrated, "I think we just blew it."

Ken Rosenthal, an analyst for FoxSports.com, covered baseball for The Sun of Baltimore. He also takes blame, declaring to E&P, "In hindsight, I screwed up."

And ...

Buster Olney of ESPN the Magazine, and a former Yankees beat writer for The New York Times, says that writers should have at least put more speculation out there. This might have led to firm discoveries sooner. "We could have written general stories about what people were saying," he told Strupp.

 

[Claws for Concern]

Why didn't E&P uncover this thread from SportsJournalists.com?

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/27926/

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Yes, we should have put more speculation out there.

What sense does that make?

That's disappointing, coming from Olney.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Jesus, this idiocy will never die.
I'd like to thank Pearlman, Rosenthal, and Olney for flagellating themselves on behalf of the rest of us.
Throw speculation out there in order to bring out "firm discoveries"?
And this would differ from blogs how?

 

[Double Down]

I'm still waiting for the the E&P story that goes:

Political Journalists: We totally forked up the entire story about the Iraq War, and most of the Bush presidency

 

[Canyonero!]

The responsibility in the way it's presented here doesn't lie on the Rosenthals and Olneys of the world. Wouldn't this have been the duty of the screaming mouths on sports radio?

 

[goalmouth]

Those quotes show an appalling lack of self-awareness, and leave no doubt why they 'missed' the steroids story.

 

[SF_Express]

Jesus, this idiocy will never die.
I'd like to thank Pearlman, Rosenthal, and Olney for flagellating themselves on behalf of the rest of us.
Throw speculation out there in order to bring out "firm discoveries"?
And this would differ from blogs how?

100 percent agree, and have from the get-go.

Yeah, I suppose those in the business could have "tried harder" to unearth steroid use. But lacking a smoking guy -- or very questionable reporting and writing -- I think the only benefit would have been for everybody to feel better about themselves in hindsight.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

If Buster had submitted steroid-speculation stories at the responsible newspapers he worked for before ESPN, the only person who would have been ordered to have drug testing would have been Buster.

 

[Gold]

I have heard this before.

My question is this - exactly how would you uncover this story? Walk up to Roger Clemons and ask - "Can you tell me details about your steroid use?" Direct players to take tests for steroids?

When Ken Caminiti and later Jose Canseco came out and admitted steroid use, people questioned it. Both of them said something like half of players used steroids, and that was viewed as an exaggeration.

I once covered a local agency which was really corrupt. I challenged them on a couple of issues where they closed meetings. Everyone in the city told me it was corrupt, but I couldn't get the smoking gun. To get that sort of story, you usually have to find somebody who is really knowledgeable and knows where everything is buried. You also have to have editors who will be supportive - in the case I had, it was a fairly poor city and the agency wasn't like the city council or board of ed, and the attitude was "So what?"

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

What they could have and should have written/talk-radioed about: testing.

You didn't have to know that anyone in baseball was using them--just that other sports were testing and use among kids was widespread. You didn't even have to speculate that anyone in baseball was taking Vitamin S ... just take the line that MLB should test its player to demonstrate that the sport is as clean as it purported to be. And if MLBPA fought against a testing initiative then you could speculate about the reason for foot-dragging.

Not salacious but totally fair.

YHS, etc

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Testing is a joke. It doesn't work. The NFL is proof of that.