Writing about a side hustle report, much less doing one, is risky.
Please fix it. “Danger” here is not accurate. More precisely, people who think the job is unnecessary will never believe that there is value in reports collected from the people who are best at the job, or in real-time reports on injuries and strategies.
It is okay.
But that’s because, on more than one occasion, during her time as a sideline reporter for Fox Sports football games, Carissa Thompson simply made up halftime reports because she couldn’t talk to the coaches on and off the field. does not mean that it is approved. It’s not that corrosive to my business. Thompson, who hosts NFL games on Fox Sports and Amazon Prime, apologized Friday, saying he “chosen the wrong words” during the interview, but said in a halftime report that he “never lied.” No,” he added.
too late.
There is an attack on journalism. It is continuous and constant. It is a continuation of the attack on truth by those in power, such as authoritarian governments, multinational corporations, and bastards everywhere, who do not want to be regulated, challenged, or criticized. The fact that journalism is under such relentless attack from so many people is a sign of its continuing power.
It’s worked: journalism is now consistently ranked as one of the least trusted professions, and misinformation is rife. X/The lies on Twitter, IG, and TikTok spread into the bloodstream of the entire society, being swallowed whole by many people who don’t know any better, and sadly promoted by many people who do know.
The best journalism provides the necessary counterweight to its fiction. It’s about seeking the truth and telling what actually happened, how it happened and why it matters.
The importance of truth is particularly hard to take hold on this side of journalism, namely sports. Those of us who have spent our lives covering sports understand this. Many people come to games to distract themselves from life for a few hours, where they don’t have to worry about paying bills, politics or other unpleasant topics. Watching a game with my sick grandmother or grandfather is a welcome respite. Gathering together on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to watch your favorite team with your loved ones will create fond memories that will last a lifetime. (In some cases, this may be the only time you speak politely to each other all week.)
Some people never consider reporting on the side to be a serious job.
Most people who do it, and those who have done it, master the skill very seriously.
Not ourselves. the work.
But Mr. Thompson provided ammunition to those who already believe that all journalists lie or just write and report things for clicks and ratings.
The majority of people in journalism love to tell stories that inspire, inform, and outrage. we, griot, the cry of the town, the elder of the tribe. Our work sometimes requires us to speak truth to power, ask difficult questions, and demand answers on your behalf, not on ours. Some of you may find it particularly difficult to recognize the entrenched nature of the idea that “you don’t learn anything from sideline reporters/you always stay silent.”
Every game has a story, whether it’s a championship like the World Series or the Stanley Cup Final, or a meaningless game between .500 teams in a mid-major conference. Sideline reporters help flesh out the story.
When I was at Turner Sports, every week we were told, “A beginning, a middle, an end.” At the beginning of the program, we begin by telling this week’s story. The story progresses during the game. End the story with the final buzzer or gun signal. We had a good broadcast. A side hustle report can help with that if done well.
I worked for over 10 years, mostly for Turner, mostly on NBA games. But this isn’t about me. This is about people who were once great at their craft and are still great at it: Andrea Kremer. Pam Oliver. The late Craig Sager. Tracy Wolfson. Holly Rowe. And back in the day, it was Jim Gray and Leslie Visser and James Brown.
Sideline coverage is often the only way for journalists other than former players, especially journalists of color, to participate in game coverage, especially now that studio programming is almost entirely dominated by former players and coaches. Even more so. These former players and coaches also do almost all of the pregame interviews with current players and coaches that you see on pregame shows.
Thompson did untold damage to journalists, especially young people just entering the industry. Many of them went to journalism schools at Syracuse, Missouri, and Northwestern, or my beloved alma mater, American University, where they learned the craft and how to do it with integrity and passion and not to be cussed. Women like Kramer, Oliver, Lisa Salters, and Laura Okmin have done great work and paved the way on the sidelines for decades, and are far more shitty than me about looks, voice, and everything. have been dealt with.their very In front of you It seems to cause a hustle in some viewers, mostly men.
Sideline reporting wasn’t the career I chose after college, and I never dreamed that some of my end-of-quarter interviews with Gregg Popovich would go viral.
But once we agreed to do it, we worked from the moment we arrived in each game city to find a story that we could weave between plays. That meant attending practice and speaking with players and coaches the day before the game, going to the shootaround the morning of the game, doing sit-down interviews with the star players as they arrived at the arena, and sitting in on pre-game interviews with both head coaches. meant to. , talking to people from both teams before the game and mining all those touchpoints for information and storylines. (I’ve been fortunate to work with legends of play-by-play like Marv Albert and Kevin Harlan, as well as game producers who respect my contributions and make time for me on the air.)
And when it comes to reporting, whether it’s side stories or other news, there’s no such thing as a “little” lie. Either you have the information, you don’t have it, and if you don’t have it, say so. If you don’t have a head coach, hire an assistant. Or a player. Or a trainer.obtain who. It’s always up to you.
Journalists’ reaction to this was very strong. Because those of us who do this job for a living have nothing but honor. You need a career to build. And it is the bear who changes once lost.
(Photo: Cooper Neal/Getty Images)