Yesterday Sarah Ganim differented what Sports Reporters do at a panel discussion in Dallas. For the most part, her comments about sports reporters having a “sheet of paper” telling them what to do or what is going on every five minutes was right on. Sports reporting is lucrative, sometimes informative, but ultimately it is entertainment journalism and while entertainment itself is valuable in that it relieves the daily stress of or inexorable march toward death

1, it is not as important as reporting on the shady deals your local city council is making behind closed doors or under the table.

No one wants their life choices called into question, but no matter how *ahem* successful *ahem* a person is at getting people to fork over cash, or votes, it doesn’t matter as much in the longer term

2. Certainly, that is all very subjective there. In the interest of avoiding a semantics argument and-or a discussion on philosophy just know that I realize this is very much my perspective. But the argument for impactful work by slightly miffed sports writers is built upon the idea that reads as “people like it, enjoy it, and therefore is meaningful”. Sports
3 are often held up to this lofty status akin to military service. The good life lessons that are learned etc.

It is okay and fine if you spend your time chasing celebs around and asking who they date. It is okay and fine if you chase Dame Lilliard around and ask who he likes to defend. People will enjoy and read and watch your work and you probably will make more money doing that than if you were “getting court documents”. You still are just doing entertainment reporting.

  1. And planetary destruction at the level that would kill our species. ↩

  2. Shania Twain voice ↩

  3. and theatre, and really any group in their own world. People like to do this with what they belong to. ↩