Opinion is the new hit king
By Kenneth Amos
Special Essay
We live in a verbal and viral age.
Keeping a lid on an already bubbling communications cauldron will be the story of the year. And, the very personal stories of players, coaches, managers, umpires, general managers and owners —sometimes far away from the playing fields — will surface more often from non-traditional and unlikely “new-media” sources.
We have left safe ethical harbor and entered choppy, uncharted in which Gawker-owned Deadspin boastfully claims to deliver sports news "without access, favor or discretion." Brand owner Nick Denton recently admitted to mainstream journalist Andrea Kremer (on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel) that he shameless enjoyed exposing NFL quarterbback Brett Favre’s private texts and photos simply because “it seemed to be a story with no real redeeming value.” Deadspin already had taken aim on Major League Baseball by publishing out-of-context financial documents about four teams.
Sometimes uncontrolled rantings or uncensored sparing between a couple of heavyweights can seem amusing. A column for The Daily Beast recently spawned Sunday afternoon Twitter Rage between Pulitzer-winning writer and author Buzz Bissinger and NBA bad-boy Mark Cuban.
While TMZ cameras keep an ever-lustful eye out for inappropriate celebrity behaviors, their paparazzi-equivalents — those pesky bloggers -- fly solo looking to enlarge or enrage their meager followings and paydays. Many are even aggregating under newly legitimate digital banners such as MLB Trade Rumors and SB Nation.
Everyone, it seems, is looking to be first with news, analysis and oftentimes distorted or unsubstantiated perspective.
Opinion is the new hit king.
Sociologist and politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan wasn’t speaking about our quickly transforming media or the melancholy state of journalism when he said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” But, he could have been.
All this comes at a time when tighter restrictions are being imposed on credentialed journalists by increasingly wary guardians of the pastime.
The guardians, themselves, will be no less immune from seeing their behaviors, eccentric and private moments and occasional blatherings under more viral scrutiny. Ongoing financial and personal entanglements will be fodder for conversation — especially in baseball’s largest markets — as will needless taunts about “players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning.”
As formative digital avenues become more aggressive and gain cultural acceptance and legitimacy, these same guardians must prepare to step boldly onto a new playing field. They must reach out to young players lacking in context and understanding about what really constitutes “the press.”
Respected journalist Ted Koppel lamented in the New York Times, “There is not much of a chance that 21st-century journalism will be adapted to conform with the old rules. Technology and the market are offering a tantalizing array of channels, each designed to fill a particular niche … and an infinite variety of news, prepared and seasoned to reflect our taste, just the way we like it.”
But it took Yogi Berra to succinctly say, “The future ain't what it used to be.”
Special Essay
We live in a verbal and viral age.
Keeping a lid on an already bubbling communications cauldron will be the story of the year. And, the very personal stories of players, coaches, managers, umpires, general managers and owners —sometimes far away from the playing fields — will surface more often from non-traditional and unlikely “new-media” sources.
We have left safe ethical harbor and entered choppy, uncharted in which Gawker-owned Deadspin boastfully claims to deliver sports news "without access, favor or discretion." Brand owner Nick Denton recently admitted to mainstream journalist Andrea Kremer (on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel) that he shameless enjoyed exposing NFL quarterbback Brett Favre’s private texts and photos simply because “it seemed to be a story with no real redeeming value.” Deadspin already had taken aim on Major League Baseball by publishing out-of-context financial documents about four teams.
Sometimes uncontrolled rantings or uncensored sparing between a couple of heavyweights can seem amusing. A column for The Daily Beast recently spawned Sunday afternoon Twitter Rage between Pulitzer-winning writer and author Buzz Bissinger and NBA bad-boy Mark Cuban.
While TMZ cameras keep an ever-lustful eye out for inappropriate celebrity behaviors, their paparazzi-equivalents — those pesky bloggers -- fly solo looking to enlarge or enrage their meager followings and paydays. Many are even aggregating under newly legitimate digital banners such as MLB Trade Rumors and SB Nation.
Everyone, it seems, is looking to be first with news, analysis and oftentimes distorted or unsubstantiated perspective.
Opinion is the new hit king.
Sociologist and politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan wasn’t speaking about our quickly transforming media or the melancholy state of journalism when he said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” But, he could have been.
All this comes at a time when tighter restrictions are being imposed on credentialed journalists by increasingly wary guardians of the pastime.
The guardians, themselves, will be no less immune from seeing their behaviors, eccentric and private moments and occasional blatherings under more viral scrutiny. Ongoing financial and personal entanglements will be fodder for conversation — especially in baseball’s largest markets — as will needless taunts about “players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning.”
As formative digital avenues become more aggressive and gain cultural acceptance and legitimacy, these same guardians must prepare to step boldly onto a new playing field. They must reach out to young players lacking in context and understanding about what really constitutes “the press.”
Respected journalist Ted Koppel lamented in the New York Times, “There is not much of a chance that 21st-century journalism will be adapted to conform with the old rules. Technology and the market are offering a tantalizing array of channels, each designed to fill a particular niche … and an infinite variety of news, prepared and seasoned to reflect our taste, just the way we like it.”
But it took Yogi Berra to succinctly say, “The future ain't what it used to be.”