The Crew over at the Sports Corner put up a good old-fashioned rant concerning people who bash sports journalists, and I figured I would have my say.
I think the biggest problem I have with sports journalism today isn’t any sort of bias, but the lack of time on their hands. Much like any other journalism being done these days, the people responsible for writing sports articles are required to keep on churning out news at a horrendous pace. The statement that goes around these days is that if the story can’t be wrapped up within a day, don’t bother reporting on it.
It’s a sad place to be after an era in the mid-to-late 20th century, where investigative journalism was at its height. Then, the people who wrote stories could take days, weeks, or even months to flush out a story to its true conclusion, sticking to it and reporting on it regularly. They could really get to know the insides and outs of the situation to come up with some sort of impacting piece. One example of a situation that was turned around completely by the media was reporting on Alan Eagleson’s corrupt measures as head of the hockey world. A very influential series of articles on the matter (and a darn good book for hockey fans) was put forth by Russ Connway, and wound up playing a major role in toppling Eagleson from his lofty perch.
Read the book. It’s very good. And it’s the kind of thing you never see any more. The amount of detail crammed into the book, and the sheer audacity of the process required to challenge one of the most corrupt figures in sporting history, both wow and stun people like myself, who have grown up in an era when investigative journalism is, for all intents and purposes, obsolete.
I appreciate the defense the Sports Corner makes for journalists. It is true that there is no real way for journalists to avoid bias. But the problem is, today’s media churns out so much news that it’s nearly impossible to separate truth from guesswork, or fact from opinion. Both have their value, in either case. I don’t think that there’s something wrong with writing a purely opinionated piece, or cheering for one’s team. But those types of articles (editorials, as they were) have their time and place. Sometimes, it’s good to just get the facts. And that basically never happens anymore, because most journalists don’t know the facts. They simply skim the most recent pile of news rushing to them through the Internet, and throw out their own scope on it, making the assumption that the initial source was correct — even though the initial source is certainly doing the exact same thing with some other relatively difficult-to-trace source.
I like channels like TSN. I appreciate CBC.ca’s hockey news, and even NHL.com’s — although the latter often has too many silly updates on relative no-names for me to care. But “old style” journalism is worth mourning. We’re missing out on a lot with the lightning pace set by our favorite channels.
1 Comment
July 21, 2008 at 7:16 pm
You make some good points but the reason that journalists have to keep churning out stuff day after day is because the majority of its readers prefer that. They want instant updates – especially with the internet – and that forces media outlets to be the “first” to break a story. So that includes rumours and what not. Also, there are so many media outlets now a days that there isn’t enough time to churn out big, undercover stories when a rival outlet can break the story right away as well, albeit not as good.
I myself enjoy those well investigated articles and that is journalism at it’s best but how the industry has evolved over the years, the amount of those articles are decreasing. When it comes to passing on just news, well, that’s what I mentioned above. It’s all about competition and the “thrill of the hunt”. Media is evolving along with the audience and what was great years ago, might not be as effective nowadays. Also, attention spans are much shorter.
Hosea C