(This ran in the Feb. 20 edition of The Anderson News. JH)
That one little piece of
journalistic advice offered on a hot August morning nearly 28 years ago is
still the one that drives my career as a sports journalist.
I was attending my first University
of Kentucky Football Media Day gathering at Commonwealth Stadium. Looking for a
chance to be known as a hot-shot writer, I made my way over to the best in the
business: Cawood Ledford.
Extremely nervous talking to the
giant who would eventually call Wildcat games on the radio for 39 years, I was
undoubtedly conducted one of the worst interviews ever, but so true to his
nature, Cawood was gracious. I also asked him how he balanced being a fan and
being a journalist.
His answer was simple, yet profound.
I have shared it in print on several occasions.
“You can't be around a team and not
want them to win, but you have to tell the truth.”
The older I get, the more I realize
that is almost a prerequisite for successful local sports journalism.
You want the team to do well, but
the journalist is still charged with telling the truth.
I have pondered that early lesson
quite a bit lately and wonder if many on the news side of journalism need to
heed the words of one of all-time greats.
“You can't be around a team and not
want them to win, but you have to tell the truth.”
Never have I seen some journalistic
standards more egregiously overlooked than following President Obama's State of
the Union speech several weeks ago.
I did not get to watch most of the
speech live as I was covering a high school basketball game. I got home in time
to see about the last five minutes, but later found the entire text online and
read word-for-word.
What I did see live was the
Republican response by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who, among other things,
shared his remarkable success story. So, yes, I saw the reply before reading
Obama's speech. Not that it really mattered.
After all, Sen. Rubio had to take a
sip of water.
Repeat. The man's mouth got dry and
he took a sip of water.
The next day, I saw commentary on
CBS, ABC, CNN and Fox News. Some were even discussing whether a sip of water
had killed Rubio's chance at the White House in 2016. You have GOT to be
kidding me.
You might like Sen. Rubio or you
might disagree with his stands. Honest debate is healthy for the country. But a
sip of water even being news?
(Full disclosure: I am a
conservative Christian. My world view has been formed with that background. I
see no reason to change and am proud of that heritage. However, I am more than
willing to discuss the issues with those who disagree, but that is for another
day.)
The question lingers. Why did the
broadcast media seem to overlook some of the spurious claims in the President's
speech? Why was there precious little about his claim that businesses had
created over 6 million new jobs? Or that the federal deficit had been cut by
$2.5 trillion? Or how about his claim of 500,000 new manufacturing jobs?
Thankfully, some other major news
sources did their job. The Washington Post, never known as a bastion of
conservatism, published rebuttals to some of the President's claims, including
some I listed, and rightly noted that he used some numbers that amounted to
“cherry-picking.” There were others.
I might have missed it but saw
relatively little analysis about the substance of the State of the Union
message in the powerful broadcast media. But had I watched enough, I might have
known how many drops of water Sen. Rubio swallowed.
The conservative Daily Caller
claims MSNBC ran clips of Sen. Rubio taking a sip of water 155 times the
following day, CNN 34 and Fox News 12.
Really, who cares? Someone's mouth got dry. It
happens. Is that what we have become in the media? Is that what people want to
know?
Have we forgotten what is really
important in the news?
No wonder so many are frustrated
with the national media.
Since they are human beings, it
would be unreasonable to think a journalist cannot or will not have political
preferences.
But he still has to set that aside
and tell the truth.
