Sports Journalism- Last Bastion of Honesty

Sports journalism is the last bastion of honesty in today’s media. Once called the newspaper’s “Toy Department” by famed sportswriter Jimmy Cannon, rigid moral standards draw a fine line between sports reporter, pundit commentator and fan. It’s why sports journalism is the steady rock against an incoming tide of distorting media.

Every morning, after checking my inbox, I open Yahoo’s sports page. On Yahoo, I clearly know the difference between an Associated Press sports article and the commentary section. There’s a clear distinction between AP sportswriter Gregg Bell covering an M’s game, and Yahoo sports columnist Dan Wetzel’s commentary on Ken Griffey Jr. Sports is pretty clear-cut – there’s commentary in one corner, and game coverage in another.

This sharply contrasts where media’s political and economic coverage is apparently heading. For example, take The Huffington Post and Fox News. The Huffington Post is a creation of the liberal blogosphere. For every New York Times article on Huffington, there’re five “journalistic” articles written as liberal op-ed pieces. While Fox News, and its online entities, infamously cast conservative spin over their news.

Will all news eventually become politically divided, like politics? We shouldn’t receive news from sources believing in our views. We’re only deceiving ourselves by doing that. You can’t fence yourself in from the world, digesting news catering to your beliefs. News is the good, bad and ugly, all packaged together.

People should easily distinguish between unbiased news outlets like the Times or BBC News, and blog sites like The Huffington Post. That’s one of the blogosphere’s biggest flaws – unreliable and biased information.

Unlike sports, an unwary reader can’t tell the difference between an article and commentary. The fine line is blurring between honest journalism and blogosphere bias. It’s no surprise people become confused.

Perhaps the biggest flaw with online media is the bloggers themselves. Many so called “bloggers’’ have no comprehension of the topics they’re passionately blogging over. Remember the village idiot standing on the street corner with a megaphone? Many bloggers are the 21^st century’s village idiots. Just because you can blog 16 hours a day doesn’t mean you should.

When “TDN BaD KittY 35,” displaying writing equivalent to a dimwitted third grader, questions my credibility on TDN’s reader comments, I can’t help but laugh. “BaD KittY’s” charges lack punch when it’s glaringly obvious they failed English 101. I wouldn’t lecture a builder over constructing a house. I know nothing about construction. Bloggers shouldn’t blog about subjects they have no background knowledge in.

However I couldn’t be happier with Internet’s role in redefining quality journalism. Access to information is instantaneous. With a simple Google search, an individual can access dozens of news outlets worldwide. Through a global online audience, journalists’ chances for recognition are better than ever.

High school sports have particularly benefited from online media. Through team websites, easily available in pre-packaged sites catering to high school athletics, many high school teams have an online presence.

With newspapers – traditionally a town’s community forum – declining, people shouldn’t blindly accept other forms of media. The town blog doesn’t have the same cache, or integrity, a newspaper does.

 People should look towards sports journalism as the role model for balancing online media with newsprint. The newspaper hasn’t died just yet. Local athletes want their picture gracing the front page of Sports, not somewhere in cyberspace. 

Bob Dylan’s legendary hit “The Times They Are a Changing” wasn’t originally describing journalism. But in a changing business, people look towards sports journalism for integrity, entertainment and fun. That’s what sports are. It’s why sports blazes the way for a changing media industry.

Tom Lee is Editor-in-Chief of The Lumberjack Log, and a freelance sports columnist for The Daily News.