"This is the golden age of narrative sports journalism. Despite the raucous competition for stories and the demands of readers clamoring for more, there’s no limit to the fantastic sports stories waiting to be discovered, reported and shared."
-- reporter Don Van Natta, in a January interview with USA Today's Big Lead Sports blog. Van Natta has led ESPN's headline-grabbing coverage of fired Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice. He joined ESPN in January 2012 after 16 years as an investigative correspondent at The New York Times, where he was a member of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams. Rice's reporting comes as USAT's Sports Media Group elbows its way forward in sports news coverage.
Related: USAT's coverage of the Rice-Rutgers story.
Given the fact he was being interviewed by a sports blog, this Van Natta comment is noteworthy:
ReplyDelete"I never understood the blogs that dissect the inner workings of newspapers because it feels like so much inside baseball, even to the newspaper journalists being written about. But the endless fascination with sports media including ESPN is something different, and it’s also an easy way to drum up traffic and money to your blog or startup business. It’s completely understandable that fans want to know everything about sports media because it’s the delivery system for the games and teams that they love."
Rice has led the coverage of the Rice firing? Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteYou suck, Jim.
Thanks for pointing that out; I've fixed it.
DeleteOK, now you can delete that comment. You can keep the part about how you suck if you really want to. I'm sure it will apply to something else.
Delete2:53,
DeleteAnd I find it appealing that Jim didn't take a swipe at you after taking your "you suck" comment. Jim not only provides a valuable service for those of us employed by this rag tag outfit, but also shows class on a daily basis. You, on the other hand, are a different story. Back to spin control for you!
Bold statement from someone hiding anonymously, bud.
ReplyDeleteYou lost me. Jim made a mistake, fixed it, and then someone added a snarky comment. You, posting anonymously, then criticized something -- not sure what. I'm sure the response will be that this post is done anonymously, and that dance could continue forever. But Jim has provided no reason for anyone to post with a name. I think one of the last females foolish enough to post with a name got blasted.
DeleteA well-educated consumer WANTS to know the delivery system for his product. A guilt-tripping consumer WANTS to feel that he isn't polluting the planet or wearing the labor of a 10-year-old making a dollar a day. The whole "Green Revolution" is an attempt to make people feel good about consuming.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that people WANT to know the processes by which they get their news and who controls those processes. "All The President's Men". Many books by Ken Auletta. For 60s music fans, "The Wrecking Crew" by Kent Hartman, and before that by Hal Blaine.