True Hoop Link

Yesterday I was part of a panel discussion about sports blogging at the Sports Business Journal conference. It was, frankly, pretty darned fun, and I thought there was some pleasingly meaty and thoughtful dialogue, especially between ESPN PR executive Chris LaPlaca and Deadspin's Will Leitch.

There was, essentially, a lot of worry on the part of everyone that sports media will just get more and more sensationalistic. Leitch says we're just a business model away from photographers waiting outside strip clubs to get photographs of athletes as they head home.

Not sure anyone wants that to be the future of sports media.

I came home from all that to a little bit of a doom-and-gloom coluimn about the future of sports media -- although it's not pointing the finger at bloggers as much as it is pointing the finger at PR strategies by teams and leagues.

Steve Aschburner, who writes for SI.com and others, and until recently covered the Timberwolves every day, reminds us in a MinnPost column about when journalists and athletes had tons of contact with each other. (Aschburner tells the classic tale of a naked Babe Ruth being chased through a train car of reporters, chased by a knife-wielding, nearly naked woman. "'Did you see that?' one Yankees writer asked the other scribes in his card game. 'See what?' came his answer.") And now that teams and leagues have restricted that kind of access, Aschburner points out, the coverage is harsher than ever:

See, in its attempt to control the story by limiting access, a team mostly just changes the story. Now, instead of writing about people -- a father of three, a guy who grew up in Hooterville, a gal who feels embarrassed at her shallow fame or a lucky kid whose parents sacrificed everything for his athletic pursuits -- we're left to cover players. Or worse, positions. And it's a lot easier to criticize the power forward who just missed two crucial free throws with three seconds left than it is to get snarky about a fellow who was up all night with his sick 3-year-old, just hours before he stepped to the foul line with his team trailing by one point.

Will sports coverage ever get as detached and pre-packaged as Lynn suggested almost two decades ago? Not until the outcomes are scripted like the movies and the plays. Till then, access is king, and sports writers will need to be there, asking questions as the fans' surrogates, not watching on TV somewhere. (Oops, almost forgot the obligatory shots at the blogosphere. Here goes...) In their underwear. From Mom's basement.

We discussed this over the summer as well. The same thing has happened to our news shows. YOu hear more about Brittney and Paris and jilted husbands who may have killed their missing wives, and moms that may have killed their missing children then you do about world events that affect all of us.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 14-11-2007 11:38 AM]