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Three Wednesday Afternoon Items

April 27, 2011 By

Just three media-related items that I thought I would pass along…

Sports coverage overdose - Emerson College journalism professor Mark Leccese writes the “Gatekeeper” blog for Boston.com. He touches on a lot of media items, and today his focus is on the saturation of sports media coverage in this area.

I agree with much of what he has to say. Part of what I try to do here is sift through some of that noise and get you the good stuff.

Robert Lee leaves ProJo sports department - I’m not saying this has anything to do with my blind item in yesterday’s post. Nope. Not saying that. But someone might.

The Enterprise mourns passing of former sports writer Win Bates - Longtime (1973-2008) Brockton Enterprise sports writer Win Bates passed away on Tuesday. Bates had covered the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins in addition to high school and college sports.

Filed Under: PM Links
  • latetodinner

    I know I posted the Robert Lee link in the comments section of the Tuesday Ramblings post. upon rereading it here three things strike me.

    1) The authors of that article are preoccupied with Lee's color. What will we do with no diversity on the sports page? Clearly being diverse changes sports team coverage…because a diverse reporter has insight into pitching and hitting a non diverse reporter does not have.

    2) No mention of the plagiarism. Was this deliberate because they did not want to accuse/believe an ethnically diverse individual could have questionable/bad ethics or was there no confirmation so they did not want to spread rumors?

    3) How bad a case is it, and how much trouble are the editors at the Projo in who allowed the information to be published. I take the silence about why he was fired as more an indictment of the editors and the liability position they now find themselves than any need/want to protect a reporter who messed up.

    • mandb97

      Late, your third point is great. It is amazing when a writer plagiarizes, the writer is the only one who seems to get fired. Shouldn't the editors also face some kind of sanctions as well?

      • latetodinner

        Thanks mandb… years ago on the old Patriots USENET board we argued this point pretty intensely when Borges was caught plagiarizing and later when Barnicle, Jayson Blair, Dorris Kearns Goodwin, and Ken Powers were all caught. The common denominator for me was always the liability of publication and who, in the end was responsible for policing the pages. If you talk to editors, and I have, they always claim that they have to accept that the work of their writers is authentic. I find this an indefensible position. As management whatever an employee of mine does reflects directly on me. Yet the powers to be at a newspaper want you to believe that buck stops with the author. If that is the case what does the editor do…correct spelling? Write headlines? Pick lint from their belly buttons? If the publication allows stolen work to be published, and then they profit from the stolen work, how is that publication any different than someone who buys or fences stolen goods? In which case who is responsible and who is liable?In this case I think the Projo is just being stupid. They should say…Robert Lee plagiarized this, this and this. This completely violates our journalistic standards and therefore Mr. Lee is no longer employed by our paper. There should be no gray, no hedging, no indecision. If they do this they will win the PR battle. By saying nothing, they look guilty of a plethora of different things.

        • mandb97

          could not say it any better

  • mandb97

    Line of the year by Rick Dempsey who was filling in for Jerry Remy who was under the weather. Dempsey was asked by Don Orsillo which baserunner scared him the most. Dempsey, emphatically, stated Bo Jackson. Jackson broke Dempsey's thumb during a collision at home plate. Dempsey said the following, "I knew I was in trouble when the proctologist came to help fix my thumb." Orsillo could not speak for the next thirty seconds because he was laughing so hard. Dempsey was fantastic. He was riot.

    P.S. Unfortunately, I cannot find the video of the collision but I remember it pretty well. Jackson actually knocked Dempsey out of the batting circle. Dempsey was lucky to only receive a broken thumb.

  • mandb97

    I better clarify this. I did not listen to the whole NESN broadcast due to the Bruins. The times I did listen, Dempsey was funny. I have been hearing this morning that there were other times where he went over the line. I guess he talked about kneecapping J.D. Drew. I agree that's not funny and a tad bit over the line.

    P.S. I watched the Bruins broadcast on Versus. In my opinion, Mike Emerick is not just the best hockey play-by-play announcer around, he just might be the best play-by-play man in any sport.

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