12/21/24
June 11, 2002
Why sports journalism sucks.: In fact, investigation with stories such as this is sometimes actively discouraged because sports editors don't want to kill the golden goose that gives them so much space and status. It's also much easier and more fun to celebrate than debunk. That's why, in part, sports reporters are often seen as second-raters - unserious journalists covering unserious events. It's also in part why, in quality papers especially, sports sections are seen as mostly simple-minded stats and scores, a necessary but not status part of the paper. The news bosses, whatever their Walter Mitty fantasies of playing center field, generally see sports as beneath them, and leave sports sections to their own devices.
posted by srboisvert to baseball at 12:43 PM - 4 comments
I'm too tired of him to bother with making an argument, but this man will be familiar to all Boston sports fans (and readers of the old BSG as the infamous "CHB" or "Curly-haired boyfriend"). He writes hateful crap, personal attacks, ads for his latest book and fluff pieces about his own daughter and the Globe continues to send him paychecks.
posted by yerfatma at 12:53 PM on June 12, 2002
I'm too tired of him to bother with making an argument Tired of Shaugnessy, or of Pierce?
posted by jackhererra at 01:14 PM on June 12, 2002
Shaugnessy. You don't honestly think I'd be sick of the Truth, do you?
posted by yerfatma at 08:05 AM on June 13, 2002
A RESPONSE ON THE POYNTER.ORG SITE Hitting a dead horse From CHARLES PIERCE: Let us be charitable and mention only in passing that a Lexis-Nexis search for the phrase, "by Barbara Walder" produced a single result, and that to the piece to which we were linked in the first place. Let us accept the bona fides as a gesture of good fellowship because we're all good folks and we can all do better. And, however much we may be tempted, let us not necessarily regard "TV producer" as a dead giveaway. Anyway, her sweeping indictment of American sportswriting represents little more than a few more whacks at the deadest horse in the pasture. Read first Hendrik Hertzberg's dissection of political journalism under Ronald Reagan. Then read Gene Lyons on the genesis of the Whitewater mishegas. Visit Bob Somersby's invaluable Daily Howler -- which, to be fair, I wish was somewhat more Daily than it has been lately. Have a chat with Wen Ho Lee. Are there some of my brethren whose work is less thoughtful and nuanced than I think it ought to be? Very likely. (It is more than passing odd to see a lefty press critic like Ms. Walder taking the William Bennett position on Mark McGwire's use of wholly legal substances.) Is there any question that, day in and day out, sportswriters serve their primary audiences with more honesty and skepticism than do, say, most of the Cool Kids in Washington. Absolutely not. You make that ghastly poolroom liar Ari Fleischer the PR guy for the Yankees for 40 minutes and there wouldn't be anything left but a puddle on the floor and his glasses.