Christine Brennan

The Chicago Tribune’s already infamous Chrissy Pronger poster drew the ire of USA Today’s Christine Brennan.

Writes Brennan:

“In 2010, when millions of girls and women are playing sports in this country and around the world, how is it acceptable for a newspaper to resort to tired old sexist comparisons of this sort, trying to diminish (Chris) Pronger by saying he plays like a girl?”

Read the full piece: Why is sexism alive at the Chicago Tribune?

Image from Northwestern.edu

Edward R. Murrow

“Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices – just recognize them.” – Edward R. Murrow

Although never mentioned by name, Murrow is at the root of a New York Times article earlier this week, written by Joseph Plambeck, that shines a light on sports blogs that don’t bother to hide their affiliations, preferences and biases.

The article focuses heavily on SB Nation, a network of about 250 sports-focused blogs.

Plambeck did a nice job, with varying degrees of success depending on the “in-the-know” factor of the audience. Those interested in media in general will find it fascinating. Those who already have sports blogs might find it intelligent but unenlightening.

Take a read. It’s worth your time.

Image from DVDTalk.com

Pronger drew the ire of the Blackhawks by stealing the puck after the game. This is the NHL’s equivalent of violating baseball’s unwritten rules, such as running over the mound or bunting to break up a no-hitter.

Usually it’s the players themselves who handle these kinds of things. Run across the mound? You’re going to get plunked in the back next time you’re up to bat. Steal the puck? Fine: our enforcer will be waiting for you at the start of next game.

So why is the Trib getting involved, fighting the Blackhawks’ battles for them?

Money, probably, for one. That’s why news organizations insert things like posters and contests into their product. If that’s their motive, that’s their choice.

Attention, for another. Chicago is one of the last old-fashioned news battle grounds. It’s not just the Trib in Chicago. It’s the Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Southtown Star, Northwest Herald, Naperville Sun and Times of Northwest Indiana. You do what you can to stick out.

It’s working. Yahoo!’s Puck Daddy wrote something up. Poynter’s Romenesko made note of it too. And local sports talk radio, such as The Score 670-AM made it part of the discussion.

I’ll be curious how much single-copy sales were up, if at all.

Writes Barry:

“This year’s Super Bowl will feature a total of two teams, the Colts and the Saints. This is one of the nuggets of information I picked up on Media Day, which is when all the players are herded into a confined space to be harassed by several thousand media people, approximately four of whom are legitimate sports journalists. The remainder (I include myself in this group) are there to gawk and eat free food.”

For Barry’s full column, click here.

Barry screen capture from the Miami Herald.

Rick Reilly

Rick Reilly’s latest ESPN The Mag column is up.

He tells us all why he loves his job.

Here it is.

Our favorite line: “Sports is real. It can’t be faked. If you’re Henry Fonda’s son and you want to act, you get to act. If you’re Chelsea Clinton and want to govern, you get to govern. But just because you’re Nolan Ryan’s son doesn’t mean you get to pitch in the Show.”

You also might have enjoyed this column the first time he wrote it, two years ago.

You just hope that he didn’t write his own headline today in the Philadelphia Daily News.

The column itself was fine. Sort of. It stretched a bit to draw parallels between Allen Iverson and federally convicted Mike Vick, both playing in Philadelphia in two different sports. They both grew up in a rough part of Virginia, so I suppose that’s enough of a connection for Hofmann.

Although, if I was Iverson, I might be offended to be lumped in with a convicted criminal.

Oh yeah. The headline:

“Iverson could join Newport News homey Vick here”

Homey? Really?

*sigh*

Screen capture from the Philadelphia Daily News

Mike Penner

Mike Penner, the longtime Los Angeles Times sports writer, has died. He was 52.

Penner, long known to Times readers for a quarter century for his coverage of Major League Baseball, the Olympics, and other sports, jumped into the national spotlight a few years ago when he announced he was a transsexual and was changing his name to Christine Daniels.

Here is The Associated Press’ obit, via National Public Radio.

And the obit from the L.A. Times.

Head shot from the L.A. Times

He noted yesterday the optimism/pessimism disparity that seems to tie in directly to the age of his interviewees. The younger reporters – the ones who enjoy reporting, blogging, Tweeting, etc., are thrilled with where the business is going.

The older ones are all gloom and doom, including one who told him that it seems like nobody cares about an opinion unless it’s told in 140 characters or less. Boo-hoo. It reminded me of an experience I had during an internship about a dozen years ago in Dallas.

In the Ballpark at Arlington I was thrilled to be in my first major-league press box. Not 15 minutes into the experience, the Dallas Morning News’ Gerry Fraley told me to consider a career in aluminum siding. It wasn’t a reflection of my work. It’s just that he, personally, was miserable, and maybe he thought he would save me the misery. Everyone needs aluminum siding, but journalism, he inferred, was miserable. I kind of wished he would have quit right there and handed me the job if he was so misanthropic. Sadly, he is still in Dallas, no doubt pissing and moaning because Cowboys practice ran a few minutes too long.

Many, many, many, many older, established journalists are struggling to come to grips with journalism’s new world order. Over the years Deadspin has noted some of the more egregious blasts fired by the old guard.

The biggest misconception among them is their belief that new world=morally and ethically bankrupt. But here’s a secret. The best young journalists and the best journalism schools – Northwestern, Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Arizona State, Mizzou – are teaching journalistic ethics and principles as well as modern practices that combine accuracy, tenacity, speed and, yes, blogging/social media.

We’re sorry you’re threatened by it. But frankly it’s time for you to accept the modern era or go find something else to do. Like aluminum siding.

Anyway, Deadspin has finally collected a large sample size of old-world disillusionment and delusion. Click here to read, enjoy and pity.

It’s a shame that it’s come to this. Squeaky wheel – you know how it is. Because there are plenty of great sports writers who are adapting, surviving and thriving. It might not have been easy on them at first, but they’re doing it. Rick Morrissey. John Canzano. Bernie Miklasz. To name just a few. Maybe we should be viewing them as the next generation of role models for today’s aspiring sports writers.

– David Schwartz

The second threw up red flags all around. It sounded like BS. It was anonymous. It just didn’t sound right. But Deadspin has earned our trust by knowing what to run and what not to. It’s an entertaining site, and its radar, historically, is strong.

This time, it wasn’t. The anonymous reader said he was trying to get Muhammad Ali’s autograph at a charity event in Arizona. He said that, at this event, Arizona State baseball coach Pat Murphy threatened to beat him up. Deadspin ran the story, which turned out to be a lie.

Here is Deadspin’s posted exchange between the site’s Drew Magary and the anonymous emailer:
Here is Deadspin’s full explanation. And here is Deadspin editor AJ Daulerio attempting to defend Magary with lines such as, “When you run one-sided versions of stories, which we often do here, the goal is just that — to show one person’s side.”

Deadspin took down the original story, which I read and now wished I would have saved.

One question now is whether Deadspin committed libel against Murphy. So let’s examine:

• Deadspin published that Murphy threatened assault. In many states, assault and battery is when someone not only does physical harm, but acts in a threatening manner to put another in fear of harm. They potentially wrote that Murphy had committed a crime when they published Murphy had threatened a physical confrontation.

• Murphy is coach of one of college baseball’s best programs. He also was an organizer of the charity event attended by Ali. That makes Murphy a public figure. It is harder for public figures to pursue libel litigation than ordinary citizens. The “false and defamatory statement” element isn’t enough for a public figure.

• For a public figure to prove libel, he must prove one of a couple of things. One is malicious intent on the part of the author, in this case Magary and Deadspin. There clearly was no malicious intent. Another possible track of litigation is to prove that the author “issued the statement with reckless disregard as to its truth.” Daulerio admitted Deadspin runs anonymous, one-sided stories. That certainly could be viewed as reckless disregard for the truth.

• Internet media law, while still developing, isn’t hazy on this issue. Libel is libel.

Whether Murphy plans on pursuing the matter is anyone’s guess. If he does, Deadspin won’t be able to hide behind the fact that it took down the post. It was there, and it was read by the general public. You can take down a page, but you can’t make a reader un-read a story.

An email has been sent to Deadspin seeking comment.

Photo of Murphy used for illustration taken from replayphotos.com