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Being real just isn't worth the trouble now
Published: 08:01 a.m., Tuesday, August 10, 2010
By Dan Le Batard

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI Let's say you've just finished a brutal day at work. You come out of your cubicle and are immediately met by someone asking you questions about how and why you failed. This person doesn't put in your hours and isn't nearly as informed about your job as you are, but he gets paid to question you every day inside the TV, the radio, the newspaper. And, armed with the day's results, he always gets to look right about how you do your job without taking your risks or suffering your consequences. That's the questioner's job to question you.

How annoying do you think that would get?

"What I have learned in 11 years in the sports business is that the dumbest guys in the room are always the media guys," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote on his blog last week. "Listening to the media only increases your odds of failing at whatever you are doing."

___

This candor is rare in sports these days and fear is the reason. Fear for your job, fear of becoming the face and voice attached to a news cycle's issue of the day, fear of picking an unwinnable fight with a media beast that has you outnumbered. That's why so many of the answers in sports, too many, are droning cliches. Being real isn't worth the hassle.

The guys who dare do it loudest Allen Iverson, Barry Bonds, Terrell Owens, Jose Canseco become unpopular and tend to get run out of their sports as they age and tire of the fight. This is why Cincinnati's Chad Ochocinco forms his own media to eliminate the news filter clogged with the sensibilities of reporters who don't look or think anything like him. Journalism major and Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington, honorable and professional, lectured the New York tabloids once about fairness. Once. The backlash was such that he hasn't said anything interesting since.

But Cuban does not fear. Helps that he doesn't have a boss. The NBA has fined him more than any owner in sports history, but he doesn't seem to care. Cuban is guilty of generalizing about the media, but there's truth in his accusation.

If you consume sports media, you know the best-and-brightest don't go into my profession. They become doctors, lawyers, scientists, owners, whatever. Sports tends to be the place where people go to rest their minds from heavy lifting and ...

___

"Not true," says Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. "There are very smart media members and plenty of dumb asses. Same in my profession some very smart people and some dumb asses. By far my biggest frustration is what I see as a hypocrisy. The media wants us to be accessible, honest and forthright. But when we are, we get destroyed. It's like you want us to talk so you can kill us. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind if people kill my ideas. I think it's interesting when people disagree. I mean the people who say I should just shut up and coach. Fine. Then don't ask us any questions."

There are certainly benefits to having people care enough to question.

The sports trough spills money at least in part because hunger for information enhances appetite, and coverage fuels those bloated sports salaries.

But Cuban is a digital pioneer aware of the changing media, and he's right to be concerned by what surrounds him now.

It appears to be getting dumber and meaner, a vicious combination. And then, with the instantaneousness of new media merging with the insecurity of old media, the pressure to be first is encroaching upon the duty to be right, never mind just.

The result is more reckless, and less credible, than anything we've ever seen.

It leaves sports figures vulnerable and exposed in more than one way, as Portland Trail Blazer Greg Oden learned.

"Coverage is crueler because negativity sells, and it is a business," Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas says. "And you have to say being that way has paid off. But the cost is what it has done to athlete-reporter relationships and the national conversation. Bill Russell, Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali thoughtful, articulate, fighting for rights couldn't survive in today's climate. They'd get chewed up. The backlash to expressing an opinion used to be a negative newspaper column or two. Now it's a backlash that will kick the expletive out of you forever. So the smartest athletes shy away, choosing to be silent in an era when their voices are needed, and the media just goes toward the guy who isn't as smart but will say anything."

The result, of course, is that everyone involved in that transaction gets dumber.

"You hope for fair and honest, but what I've figured out is that a lot of media members aren't fair and honest," says Hall of Famer Charles Barkley. "There are hidden agendas against guys you don't like or for guys you do. It's selective prosecution."

What can we do better?

"Preparation," Cuban says. "Having some journalistic and quality standards. I can't remember the last time I had a sports interview where I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of questioning and knowledge of the interviewer. When something has to be written/taped quickly about the day's/week's events, media has no choice but to talk out of their rear ends because having an uninformed opinion and winging it is always better than choosing not to participate. Being left out means you probably lose your job. Worse still, media lives off the brands they built for themselves in the pre-blog/Twitter/Facebook era. If you were a good reporter in 2002, fans probably think you still are, and treat your opinions as facts."

Teddy Roosevelt once said, famously, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Let me let you in on a secret: The people covering sports, the critics, tend to be more insecure than the athletes we cover. I'll give you an example. Stephen A. Smith, ESPN's Chris Broussard and I all reported early that LeBron James was coming to Miami. As the moment arrived, all of us were terrified. Smith says he never wants to cover a story like that again. Broussard looked haunted on national TV.

And I, allegedly a grown man, wanted to curl up in a ball and hide somewhere. Just out of fear of being wrong and ridiculed.

This wasn't in the action, mind you.

This wasn't taking a big shot in Game 7. We were on the periphery of the arena, near the doer of deeds.

And we're the same guys who accuse athletes of being soft in big moments.

___

(c) 2010, The Miami Herald.

http://www.herald.com/ .

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.


And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)
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packerfanoutwest (8h) : he won't be wearing #12, maybe he will wear number two
packerfanoutwest (8h) : He will fail this season, should have retired
Mucky Tundra (9h) : Thus the cycle of Hall of Fame Packer QBs going to the Jets and then the Vikings is broken
bboystyle (12h) : Rodgers to steelers on 1 year contract
Zero2Cool (21h) : It's the cycle of civilizations. Get lazier, lazier, softer, softer and vanish.
Martha Careful (22h) : great point. every aspect of society, including art, culture and sports has degraded.
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Green Bay sweep meant something to society about stopping pure excellence. We have the tush push now
dfosterf (4-Jun) : We old Martha.
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : *front four
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : Re frout four, I wish we had some Green "People Eaters" or a fearsome foursome
dfosterf (4-Jun) : *directions*
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Just don't ask him for driving direct
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Jim Marshall was an all-time great DE for the Purple People Eaters. Didn't like him. That's a compliment. RIP
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : ooppppss
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : “Kenny Clark played all of last season hurt by the way and got surgery to fix it in January”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood How much did the injury affect him last fall? “A lot.”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood Kenny Clark said he had foot surgery in January. Injured his foot in opener against Eagles and played through it all year.
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : Golden is wearing guardian cap again. I bet he plays with it on too.
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : All the stuff I'm reading from Lions fans are pointing at his toe; he more or less has permanent turf toe in one of his big toes
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Kenny played through it, and a shame he gets little credit for that, imo
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Big men. I hope it's not the undoing of Kenny Clark
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Probably his toe. Pretty much a great center. Toe injuries are brutal to bigen
Mucky Tundra (2-Jun) : Lions All-Pro C Frank Ragnow retires
wpr (30-May) : It's all good.
beast (30-May) : Yeah, and I enjoyed your comments and just attempted to add to it. Sorry if I did it incorrectly.
wpr (30-May) : Beast I never said Henderson was the salt of the earth. Nor even that he was correct. Just quoting the guy.
Zero2Cool (29-May) : What did you do??
Zero2Cool (29-May) : Whoa
beast (29-May) : OMG the website is now all white, even some white on white text
beast (29-May) : Henderson, who admits to taking cocaine during the Super Bowl against the Steelers, might dislike Bradshaw as he lost two Superbowls to him
wpr (28-May) : Hollywood Henderson said Bradshaw “is so dumb, he couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the C and an A.”
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : Cooper stock=BUY BUY BUY
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : Also notes he’s playing with more confidence.
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : @AndyHermanNFL MLF says there was a time last year where Cooper was at 220 pounds. Now he’s at 240 and still flying around.
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : And don't even get me started on Frank Caliendos "impersonations"
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : I got tired of them being circle jerks with them overlaughing at each others jokes.
Zero2Cool (28-May) : It used to be must watch TV for me. now it's "meh" maybe to hear injury update
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : I haven't watched the pregame shows in years and I don't feel like I've missed a thing
Zero2Cool (28-May) : Love says knee affected him all season, groin injury didn't help matters.
Zero2Cool (28-May) : I used to enjoy him on FOX Pregame. Now it's like a frat party of former Patriots.
Zero2Cool (28-May) : LaFleur on Watson: “Christian is doing outstanding. I would say he’s ahead of schedule.”
Martha Careful (28-May) : Bradshaw is a dumb ass cracker. I am so tired of his "aw shucks" diatribe. He should shrivel up and go away.
buckeyepackfan (28-May) : He wad all butt hurt because Aaron duped the media saying he was immunized.
buckeyepackfan (28-May) : Bradshaw needs to retire. He's been ripping on Rodgers ever since the covid crap. He was all hury
Zero2Cool (28-May) : Terry Bradshaw doesn't want Rodgers in Pittsburgh lol wow
Zero2Cool (27-May) : one day contract, which he also feels is pointless, but if Packers came to him, he would
packerfanoutwest (27-May) : Aaron Rodgers talks possibility of retiring with Packers, just another rumor
dfosterf (27-May) : Go watch 2001
Zero2Cool (26-May) : 1984
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