Glenn Greenwald has a great post up today steering his readers to an article by Dwight Jaynes in the Portland (Ore.) Tribune -- the gist is how he quit worrying (about alienating his sources) and learned to love the blog, specifically about the Portland Trail Blazers. He says a career change took him out of the Blazers' locker room, where he had lots of friendly sources, and into a situation where he blogged about the team from a distance. The conventional wisdom of journalism is that his writing would suffer from the lack of access, but instead he found it improved. Here's why:
Over time, you realize that in spite of all your attempts to know athletes and public figures, what you usually end up writing about them is the cover story -- the half-true piece of semifiction that those people want the public to see. You begin to realize you're usually getting played. And you sold your soul to get it.
Oh, when you get close to sources, you get access. You get inside information. At least you think you do. You get close enough to players and coaches that it's a fan's dream. Sources become something very close to friends, and, I confess, I've been down that road.
But I also know that when that happens, you're probably not going to do your job as well as you should. Yes, I'm old school, and I think it's the job of a columnist or a beat reporter to always tell the truth and be critical when merited, even about the revered home team.
How true. I've seen this here with my own beloved Phillies, where what you read about a struggling player like a pitcher Adam Eaton on a blog is more acerbic and often more insightful than what comes from the locker room beat writers who have to be around Adam Eaton every day. Locker room access journalism is the main reason, in my opinion, why baseball's steroids scandal wasn't exposed when it started taking place in the 1990s.
Unfortunately, it's not just an issue in sports. City Hall, the police headquarters, the White House -- many beats place a high priority on access to the powerful and the famous, and they suffer as a result. So what's the solution? Make everyone a blogger, and have them rant non-stop about Andy Reid or President Bush without ever talking to them or their underlings? Of course not.
The problem for existing news organizations is that you'd want two layers covering, say, City Hall -- the insiders with access and the outsiders who can feel comfortable taking potshots when necessary. But you know what? -- today's news org can't afford both layers. And too often, we err on the side of access, keeping the friendly beats and ditching the hard-nosed investigative reporters.
The next best thing would be news orgs with access -- and independent, non-affiliated curmudgeonly blogger types to call their bluffs. In other words, the near-perfect world may look a lot like...the world we actually have now. Funny how that works. I do think, however, that editors and publishers should read what Portland's Jaynes has to say -- and try to assign a few rugged camels outside the tent.
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Conservatives--heads stuck in the sand, close minded simpletons who only see black and white. They don't have the brain power to discern shades of grey. Plus, it seems like a lot of them like little girls, little boys, and big boys.— Some Boca Dude- When was the last time Bunch "reported" as opposed to "blogged"? Perhaps Obama can fix this too.— shoeshineboy
- "He says a career change took him out of the Blazers' locker room, where he had lots of friendly sources, and into a situation where he blogged about the team from a distance."...When will you be leaving the U.S., to improve your "blogging"?— E Plebnista
- Liberals--noses stuck up high, smarter than everyone else, who see everything as gray because they have no spine. Want government to take care of them because they can't take care of themselves. Worry about everyone else's money and business rather than keeping their own house in order. Think the terrorists will love us if we just love them back.— MiddleNameHussein
- Conservatives-too dense to understand nuance, too cowardly to do anything but cheerlead a war, want government to leave them alone, except when it comes to gays, abortion, surveillance, flag burning, etc. Think the terrorists can be defeated by deficit spending on unnecessary wars, and establishing color coded threat levels.— RG
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- Really? Tell that to Faux News: "NEW YORK - Fox News Channel referred to Michelle Obama as “Obama’s baby mama” in a graphic on Wednesday, the latest in a trio of references to the Democratic presidential campaign that have given fuel to network critics." Is this fair and balanced?— RG
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- Maybe we can get more straight talk from McCain on gas prices. He did introduce that gas tax holiday bill he keeps touting, didn't he?— RG
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- Speaking of the beloved Phillies, Jamie Moyer is very quietly having an awesome first half of a season. I'm a little concerned about the number of innings he is pitching, but his performance is helping balance out the rough start that Myers has been off to.— Captain Awesome
- Really? Here's his comment, sounds rational to me. HARWOOD: As difficult as this is for consumers right now, is, in fact, high gas prices what we need to let the market work, a line incentive so that we do shift to alternative means of energy? Sen. OBAMA: Well, I think that we have been slow to move in a better direction when it comes to energy usage. And the president, frankly, hasn't had an energy policy. And as a consequence, we've been consuming energy as if it's infinite. We now know that our demand is badly outstripping supply with China and India growing as rapidly as they are. So...— RG
- "...as a consequence, we've been consuming energy as if it's infinite. We now know that our demand is badly outstripping supply with China and India growing as rapidly as they are. So..." It's a bit disingenuous to omit the conclusion to his remarks. He went on to say, "I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing. But if we take some steps right now to help people make the adjustment, first of all by putting more money into their pockets, but also by encouraging the market to adapt to these new circumstances more quickly, particularly US automakers, then I think ultimately, we can come out of this stronger and have a more efficient energy policy than we do right now." So, b.atkinson was essentially right...Obama wants gas prices higher, but he'd rather have seen it done gradually.— legatus
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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