Lack of Class and Professionalism (Part II)

^^Blogging needs more of him.

Yet another blogger gets hired to join the professional sports world.  JasonB reported that Daniel Jeremiah was hired by the Eagles to join their scouting staff.

But, as I discussed last week, that still doesn't give confidence to the blogging community as a whole that it is accepted.

It may appear on the outside that portions of the blogging world are accepted but diving underneath the surface proves otherwise.

This ability to be both used and ignored at the same time comes from a variety of reasons, but the main one is the inability to connect with a portion of the established sports media.

Where I believe blogging lacks a foothold is with the writing journalism community, namely newspaper sports journalists.  My reasoning behind this belief rests upon the canons of journalism.  

The canons are, in layman's terms, the list of standards that journalists must adhere to. I learned this important set of rules and guidelines back in 10th grade, when I took Journalism I at my high school.  

Sure it was a year-long class, but I learned them early on into the class and was constantly reminded of the duties of a reporter to adhere to the guidelines...while still putting out the best effort possible.

Some reporters walk a fine line on portions of their reporting and occasionally it pays out well for the public.  Other times we hear of reporters facing libel suits.  

Nonetheless, there is a set of guidelines out there for professional journalists.  The First Amendment does not mean everything is open and free.  

Arguments over plagiarism have even come onto BGN, which shows just how far-reaching some of the more well known components of the canons are.

My breakdown will be based off of the canon summary found on Wikipedia (just to save time explaining each portion in great detail).

Accuracy and standards for factual reporting

Sites like Deadspin have caused a lot of discussion on this issue.  Blogs that detail the sports world like tabloids will never gain a footing in the professional world.  

There are certain lines you don't cross and most of them involve sections of personal life.  Stories like that of Tiger Woods' infidelities come out every so often, but it should not be the intent of a journalist to discredit someone for malignant intent.  

If research leads a journalist to the stance that someone used a PED, or Tiger had affairs, then by all means run with it.  

But at this point in time, there are people who are simply intent on outing people for the sake of outing people, whether or not everything is in line fact wise.

ProFootballTalk (PFT) comes into this discussion on their consistent choosing to ignore the context of quotes.  Instead of presenting the full story, PFT instead shows only the smallest of bites in order to gain a larger community of readers.

As seen with their choices of shortened quotes in the case of DeSean Jackson, it is clear to me that PFT and Mike Florio knowingly misrepresent athletes and their quotes.

There are two ways to give incorrect information to the public: misinformation and disinformation.  "Mis" is unknowingly doing so, while "dis" is done with the intent to spread the incorrect information knowingly.

PFT and Florio use disinformation to create events that are not already in play. Jackson's full quote was nothing more than a statement of support for his new quarterback, Kevin Kolb, yet by shortening it into the equivalent of a TV sound bite, PFT and Florio created a supernova of sports news.

Soon, ESPN jumped on the "DJax v McNabb" train, as did the rest of the sportsverse.  An non-issue turned into the issue, all because PFT and Florio decided to break a pretty straight forward cannon of journalism.  

Slander and libel considerations 

I'm not going to go so far as to say that Florio and Co. at PFT are committing libel, but I will state that I believe there is clear malicious intent by PFT to give disinformation/misinform the public.

Their reporting of the "facts" led to a situation that could easily have scarred his reputation.  In fact, PFT itself pushed the limits of the effect of their reporting by creating another issue.  

Jackson was quickly named "TO redux" by PFT and that pushed the idea to the web and that influenced the public image of Jackson.  

The attack on his public image down the line could cost him money, whether in his NFL contract or possible sponsorship deals.  

I can assure you that a sports journalist writing for a newspaper (sans a writer like SAS) would go for a yellow journalism move like PFT.  

In my opinion, PFT is the sports reporting equivalent of the yellow journalistic newspapers that sparked the Spanish-American War (Remember the Maine!).  

Harm limitation principle

There are only part of this that needs to be touched on deals with reporting and minors. Minors involved in crimes, victims or the criminals themselves, should not be named nor are they normally named.  

However, this doesn't stop those aforementioned tabloid-like blogs from doing so.  It's despicable and that's all I really have to say on the matter.  

Presentation

What is the summary provide on this section?

(1) "Correctly spoken or written language..."  Some users of BGN know that their writing won't fulfill this part, but that's fine because you're not putting yourself out there as a writer.  

You all are commenting on a blog that runs stories about your favorite team.  This portion of the canons refers to anyone who wishes to pass him or herself off as a writer...amateur or professional.  

No offense to JIBTA, but if someone tried to tell me your spelling was indicative of a professional writer, I'd freak.

(2) "Clarity..."  Not something to really harp about because I don't think this is a huge problem.  I know I sometimes have problems with writing north-to-south articles, but clarity in this case means presenting information clearly.  Perhaps PFT needs to learn that?  

(3) "Brevity (or depth, depending on the niche of the publisher)..." Don't say with more words than actually needed.  A lesson I need to occasionally put into practice, but of all things I covered here this is the last one I'm worried about.  It's in the eye of the beholder.  But in the case of PFT, 'depth' is definitely needed.

A week later, my rage/anger slowed down, so this entry was a bit less ranty.  I still hate PFT, though.

Read the full column here