Thursday, October 14, 2021

Lower Standards, Diminished Credibility

ESPN Bigfoot reporter Adam Schefter is collateral damage in the email dump that’s part of the NFL’s investigation into the Washington Snydermen franchise that cost Jon Gruden his job. Schefter shared a piece about efforts to end the league’s lockout in 2011 and corresponded with then-team president Bruce Allen, emailing: “Please let me know if you see anything that should be added, changed, tweaked. Thanks, Mr. Editor, for that and the trust. Plan to file this to espn about 6 am. . . .” 

Schefter is catching heat for violating a foundational point of journalism: reporters do not share stories with sources before they’re printed. If a reporter wants further clarification from a source before printing? Fine. If a reporter or source wants to negotiate what and how something will be presented? No problem. But sharing a story with a source? Can’t happen. 

To be sure, the Schefter-Allen “arrangement” is a minor transgression compared to the racism, misogyny, homophobia and general assholery that the Gruden emails conveyed. But it’s a bad look for Schefter and troubling for several reasons. One, sharing stories with sources and permitting them to edit erodes the ideal of a free and independent press. The Founding Fathers thought that important enough to include in the Bill of Rights’ First Amendment. 

Now, some in the audience may be thinking, “Lighten up, Francis; it’s sports, not treason or state secrets.” But the NFL is a multi-billion-dollar behemoth and long ago quit being about just sports. We live in an era when public figures – politicians, executives, athletes, celebrities, even corporations and professional sports leagues – want to craft their own images and messages. They want to be seen as attractive or sympathetic or responsible, and they’re increasingly able to do so through P.R. types and contracted storytellers and various social media platforms that bypass the traditional press. Because access is so important, some reporters make ethical rationalizations about what they choose and choose not to report, about how chummy or forgiving they are to sources and subjects. 

The NFL hasn’t exactly been progressive on many fronts – concussions and head trauma, domestic violence, minority hiring, social justice and recognition of player concerns, to name a few areas. It’s fair to wonder how much Schefter and other reporters overlook certain subjects for the ability to report injuries, depth charts, player movement, juicy quotes from unnamed sources. Since the Gruden fallout was a result of a broader investigation into an entirely different franchise, it’s also fair to wonder to what extent the email dump is a cover for other people and organizations. Guaranteed that Gruden isn’t a one-off or outlier. 

Sharing stories with sources also skews the boundaries for other reporters. For example: Reporter, to source: “I found out such-and-such. Can you confirm?” Source: “I’d need to see the story first.” Reporter: “I can’t do that.” Source: “Why not? Schefter did it.” Full disclosure: In my newspaper days, I ran phrasing past a lawyer or two for a couple of stories for the sake of precision and proper language. Before I depended on an audio recorder in interviews and often relied on written notes, on rare occasions I ran a quote past a subject to double-check its accuracy. I never shared an entire story with a source. 

Under this gravestone, there is rolling
For his part, Schefter issued a statement that said the criticism is fair, and that he uncharacteristically
shared the story because of its complicated nature. He said that he was wrong to do so, and that he would never cede editorial control or final say about a story to outside sources. Schefter has reported plenty of complicated stories. Was that the only time he shared one with a source beforehand? We’re supposed to believe that he would never concede control to someone to whom he referred as “Mr. Editor”?

As award-winning journalist and author Tommy Tomlinson pointed out, no reporter has ever referred to a colleague as “Mr. Editor” unless there was an expletive between the two words. Schefter has broken dozens of stories over the years, through dogged reporting and a humongous contact list. But what he did, at least once, failed journalism, and the entire profession suffers for it.

28 comments:

  1. Hard to be Mr. Insider if you aren’t willing to play nice in the sandbox. The two need each other. And as much as ESPN May Pearl clutch at this, they’d rather have the guy than let him go to Fox.

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  2. the shefters of the world are gonna shefter. i think the bigger point articulated by our man in the obx is that those guys make it much harder for actual journalists to do their jobs. which is a problem for all of us.

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  3. Journalism is old timey talk, it's all about Infotainment these days, especially on the moving picture box.

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  4. Sadly, Scott, you are correct. Actual reporting does indeed go on, but I occasionally remind people to remember what the first letter in ESPN stands for, and that's not a coincidence.

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  5. I know Dave. I try and find and support reporting on topics that I follow. I suppose if we’re willing to accept shady self dealing among our society’s leaders, elected and otherwise, then we will swallow cronyish info trading from our sports media.

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  6. mike wise had a fun little story about bruce allen on the tweet machine this evening, even as he got to be the hero of his own story. i hope it went down the way he retold it.

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  7. I'm shocked that anything unethical would happen around pro sports.

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  8. This quote from that thread: "Bruce gets up and brushes his teeth with Coors Light”

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  9. yeah. and the shit with jeff pash and allen? the league has zero credibility. and it don't make a damn bit of difference. gonna keep wiping their asses with benjamins.

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  10. Who knew Jeff Pash wasn't a good guy? Oh, GTB knew.

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  11. the other thing about pash that didn't hit me until i saw a tweet earlier: what kind of two-bit legal mind puts all of that nonsense in an email? dude must've skipped legal procedure during his 1L year when they talked about discovery. just incompetent or arrogant. or both. both, i think.

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  12. Bruce Allen brushes his teeth with Coors Light and he fired Scot McLoughan for drinking?

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  13. Speaking of OBX Dave, I’m here live at Tortuga’s Lie. Things are going well. Fish burrito, bite of the day, muchas Guinness. Life… she’s good.

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  14. A buddy has covered the NFL for years, including the WFT for a time. I asked if he thought this story had a chance to provide a real reckoning, now that it's reached corporate HQ and Pash. He said, hard to tell. League put out a statement defending Pash. Said as shady as it looks, Pash assisting Allen, and perhaps others, with fines may be semi-common practice. Said if they start firing people for being slimy, a lot of folks are losing their jobs.

    Not that it requires confirmation, but my buddy also said that Bruce Allen is an all-time despicable human.

    And Whit: Salute!

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  15. Wait, you're saying that an entertainment cartel run by 31 billionaires (and whoever owns the Packers) does shady slimy stuff? I'm stunned.

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  16. I just watched that movie for the first time a few weeks ago.

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  17. I did! I watched Citizen Kane recently too. It’s still relevant and the opening is crazy good.

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  18. If you're on a '40s, '50s movie kick, may I recommend: A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront (Brando), African Queen, Night of the Hunter (noir king Robert Mitchum), and Rear Window.

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  19. I fail to see how this is impinging on the right to a free press. The government is doing nothing here to control the content of this story.

    Schefter undoubtedly climbed into bed with some first rate scumbags. Does it give capital J “Journalism” a black eye? Sure, but shitty journalists have been doing that for years. For every Edward R Murrow and OBX Dave, there are a lot of Jason Blair, Jack Kelley, all the hacks at the NY Post, and Rebekah Brookes.

    The highest award in journalism is named for the man who created yellow journalism in this country. The same man who helped push us to war in Cuba to drive circulation and satisfy his political and financial backers, the truth be damned. Hell, the aforementioned Citizen Kane was only partially fiction.

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  20. Tim, setting aside the notion that I no more belong in a sentence with Murrow than I do with Charlemagne, I'm not saying that it impinges on the right to a free press. My point, and perhaps I made it badly, is that reporters who cosy up to and collaborate with sources make it more difficult for straight-ahead reporting -- especially as news outlets are gutted, and we're increasingly fed sponsored content and infotainment. If I've misinterpreted your point, I'll hang up and listen.

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  21. my dog got attacked by a pit bull a little kid accidentally let out of a car and off leash. let me be clear that i have no beef with pit bulls as a breed - just so happens that this dog was a pit. fortunately, the dog’s snap missed my pup and its owner intervened quickly. scared the hell out of my dog, and me. whew.

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  22. Was it big head Bruno with the little shark teeth?

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  23. Maiden voyage trip to Tallahassee for a swim meet. Haven't seen a ton but what I have, I'd call it charming. Awaiting food order to go at The Edison. I dig it, should you be this way soon Mark.

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  24. Rob, glad you and jojo are ok.

    Dave, i agree with your point that Schefter’s actions make straight ahead reporting harder. I also know that there are many ink stained wretches that follow the unwritten rules and produce important work. Maybe I’m just jaded about how much actions like Schefter’s actually goes on. It seems like “journalists” have been cozying up to the wealthy and powerful for years in the pursuit of a buck. Shit like Schefter’s seems about as American as apple pie. That said, I also agree with you that the gutting of newsrooms and the rise of the blogosphere has only made this problem worse and made it harder for hard working journalists and their stories to get air.

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  25. Hi Gheorghies. My 12 y/o, who usually doesn’t like scary/horror stuff, had been begging to see the 2018 Halloween. The 14 y/o joined in. So we watched it as a family tonight. I hate horror movies. This one seemed decent, but I watched a lot with eyes half closed. I have no idea how or why people think this sort of movie experience is fun. Jamie Lee Curtis was good. Kids handled it well and now want to see the new one in the theater. F me.

    And guess who had to walk the dog outside in the dark at 11?

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