The Modern Sports Machine

In this week’s readings, we have two articles essentially saying the same thing: modern sports reporting is a brand new ballgame. It’s fast paced, it’s hectic and if you want to keep up, you have to be willing to throw down.

            Dave Kindred’s piece is about the non-stop schedule of a beat reporter. He relates how something as mundane as a lineup card, which is routine and posted before every single baseball game, sends the beat reporters into a tizzy to post the information to their blogs and Twitter accounts before the next guy does. As veteran sports reporter Wally Matthews relates, “The beat guys, it matters if we get the lineup posted first by 45 seconds.” This competitive frenzy leads to a watered down product in a race to post blasé information first. And that’s just for the lineup card. Kindred relates how Matthews, who is new to the beat reporting gig, would spend the entire time at the ballpark, from four hours prior to the game till two hours afterwards, typing away at stories. Everything from pregame hype and previews, injury information, to quotes from players, coaches or management and rumors regarding trades and other acquisitions is ripe for the presses. And if any information gets missed while a reporter is writing, he gets scooped by his competitors. That’s why writers are all on blogs and Twitter now, to give quick, instant updates that require little explanation. Kindred seems to indicate that the constant flurry of activity leaves a beat reporter little time to actually get a feel for the game, much less enjoy it.

            In Malcolm Moran’s article, we return to the 2010 Randy Moss trade that Bill Simmons made infamous with his Twitter announcement that turned sports reporting on its collective ear. Moran talks about the Boston Globe reporting the trade with Fox’s Jay Glazer as a source, coming from a sports talk show on Boston’s WEEI (no doubt Glazer had read about it on Bill Simmons’ Twitter). It just goes to show the endless cascade of sources (from Twitter to a radio station to a newspaper) that lead to what used to be the most reliable source of information, traditional print. Moran also discusses the time constraints that this new age of reporting has led to, and the dilemmas this may cause for reporters. In the rush to be the first out of the starting block with the information, a reporter may face the prospect of having to rely on an unreliable source, or not being able to verify the information. Moran warns against this, as he puts it, the safety net is gone, likely forever.

            Both articles seem to lament the advent of the 60-second-per-minute news cycle, while simultaneously embracing it. What we have given up in details and pretty prose, we have gained in a never-ending news cycle. This is the way of the modern age of reporting, and we would be wise to acclimate.