Friday, February 12, 2010
One of the beauties, and one of the challenges, of being in the daily journalism business is that you never know what a new day is going to hold.
Rob Rains
For lack of a better, or more recent, example, let’s take a look at Thursday – actually, let’s start our day at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
That was when the sports department of Globe-Democrat.com was alerted to the fact that our competitors, the Post-Dispatch, were preparing a story on the sale of the Rams. That is a story which all of the media in town has been chasing for some time.
One facet of the business which has not changed over time, whether from the “stop the presses” old movie days or in the modern instant world of online journalism, is that no reporter wants to get beat on a story. When you do, you congratulate your opponent and try harder to beat them on the next big story.
Getting beat, and ignoring a story, however, are two entirely different issues, but ones which seems to have had their lines crossed in St. Louis on Thursday.
Globe-Democrat.com acknowledges that the Post-Dispatch reported the agreement to sell the Rams first on Wednesday night and we congratulate them for breaking the story. Making that acknowledgement, however, does not mean that the other media outlets in town, including Globe-Democrat.com, are going to ignore the story and act like it never happened.
No, it made us, and our NFL writer, Howard Balzer – a veteran of 34 years in the media and one of only 44 media members in the country to serve on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee – go to work to see if we could get our sources to confirm the story.
That is, in fact, exactly what happened. One of Howard’s sources told him shortly after midnight that he could confirm the story. Howard wrote it, and the Globe-Democrat.com’s story went online about 2 a.m. Our story was based on what our sources told us, and what we found in researching Shahid Khan’s background, not what the Post-Dispatch was reporting. Our story included the price range of the sale, and the fact Khan had some IRS issues in his past.
If the situation had been reversed, I am quite confident the Post-Dispatch would have done exactly the same thing, which is exactly what they should have done.
It’s called competition, and it also is one of the most fun aspects of being involved in the journalism business. It is the reason most of us got into the field in the first place, the thrill of chasing down a big story, the glee you feel when you get it first; the pride you feel when you know you have done a good job.
This town has not had much journalistic competition in recent years, and that’s a shame, because the people who lose out when that happens are the readers, our town’s citizens. It would be the same if there was only one supermarket chain in town, or one department store. Competition is at the heart of the American business, and that should never change.
It seems, however, that some people in our town have lost sight of that in the last 24 hours. They are choosing to listen to one viewpoint, and fail to consider that there could be two sides to a story.
Globe-Democrat.com wants to be the best source of news and sports information in St. Louis. We know we are not going to be able to make that claim by “stealing” stories from other news outlets. We are professionals. Our reporters have been in this business for a long time. We would not do that.
We are not, however, going to ignore a story and act like it doesn’t exist simply because another media outlet in town reported it first. We were not asleep when the story came out. One of Globe-Democrat.com’s services to our readers is to provide email newsletters in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Because of a current limitation in our computer system, the times which are posted to our stories have to be changed so that the best stories, and not simply the most recent stories, are included in those newsletters. That is the reason the posted time on our story of the sale of the Rams changed several times during the day on Thursday. The content of the story never changed from what was first reported around 2 a.m. until after the Rams press conference at 4 p.m.
There were some attempts at humor posted on message boards and twitter throughout the day Thursday referring to a story last week that identified Dr. Richard Chaifetz of Chicago as being a member of a group that was bidding on the Rams. Globe-Democrat.com did not make up that story. We reported what we were told, plain and simple, including from Chaifetz himself.
Chaifetz’ name was one of several mentioned in the last several weeks as many reporters tried to pin down what was happening with the Rams sale. Actually, the first person to mention the name of the man who apparently is buying the team, Shahid Khan, was KTVI-TV’s sports director, Martin Kilcoyne, about two weeks ago. Khan’s name was one of several Kilcoyne mentioned as being potential buyers of the team. Yet nobody is accusing the Post-Dispatch of “stealing” his story.
Did Bernie Miklasz of the Post-Dispatch report the story first Wednesday night? Yes. Did the Globe-Democrat “steal” his story? No. We just got the story second. And that is going to make us try even harder going forward.
Contact Globe-Democrat.com Sports Editor Rob Rains at rrains@globe-democrat.com
Comments
slapshot3 (anonymous) says...
I agree with you, and I find no faults with your argument. However, this whole article just seems petty and unprofessional. Why stoop to this?
February 11, 2010 at 9:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Bill (anonymous) says...
May be it's just me, but I'm not really concerned who broke the story first. I come to this site first thing to get my news, I still go to the PD to get other news too. I just don't care for their political slant on most things.
February 11, 2010 at 10:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
uvi (anonymous) says...
How is this article petty? He basically gave props to the Post but also stressed the importance of journalistic integrity. Bernie was a big cry baby today and stepped over the line. He must be bitter that he's not the only fish in the pond anymore. He lost a lot of respect from me today. It's a business at the end of the day. Good to read an honest opinion. That's my 2 cents.
February 11, 2010 at 10:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
flyoverland (anonymous) says...
Sounds fair to me. Do people think you are just going to ignore a story like this? The idea is to take the story a step farther, not just repeat the rehash.
February 11, 2010 at 10:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
swingandalong1 (anonymous) says...
Just some good ol' fashioned competition. Seriously, though, the GD will be good for the PD...it'll keep them honest and on their toes.
Rains was the professor for my Sports Reporting class at WebsterU. Great guy, great professor and a man of the highest journalistic integrity.
Keep it real, Rob! You're the man!
February 12, 2010 at 12:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tom63010 (anonymous) says...
The Post Dispatch has had a monopoly for so long they forgot what "competition" was. I used to listen to 101.1 ESPN on my drive home from work from 4 - 4:45 or so. When they started talking politics before the Presidential Election I turned them off. I started listening again and when D'Marco Farr went off about Rush Limbaugh with a preceding disclaimer that he never listened to the show that was it for me. I don't have any use for Bernie or D'Marco.
The whole "we broke the news first" is tedious to readers and viewers and they stole our story is pure pettiness.
All the best to the Globe-Democrat. The Post Dispatch can keep their $1.00 paper!
February 12, 2010 at 12:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Schecky (anonymous) says...
thankyou for a reporting of the facts, instead of the shrill whining we've been hearing. full props to martin kilcoyne for getting the story first.
February 12, 2010 at 6:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sportsdude101 (anonymous) says...
Rob - the whole thing could have avoided if you guys had said 'confirmed' instead of learned. if you had confirmed the story that the deal was done, and then said 'sources have told us there have been issues between Khan and the IRS,' then no one would have raised an eyebrow.
Instead, it came off differently. I know it wasn't your intention, but it did.
February 12, 2010 at 7:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
phdsvp (anonymous) says...
I'd care about what the P-D thought if I still paid for it or used it. Thankfully, I don't. Thanks, G-D, for restoring choice to printed news in St. Louis.
February 12, 2010 at 7:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ldffly (anonymous) says...
Fine article. And yes, this town needs journalistic competition. Keep it up.
February 12, 2010 at 8:03 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
2yellowdogs (anonymous) says...
This seems to be an "inside baseball" story. Who really cares who broke the story first? Why does this non-sports issue (it's a journalistic ethics matter - sports was just the subject of the original piece) warrant this long description of what happened when? If someone has raised an ethical question about your story (and I haven't hear or read this) address it directly with them. This seems like a waste of electrons.
February 12, 2010 at 10:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Gino_60 (anonymous) says...
THIS JUST IN! The St. Louis Post Dispatch woke up to the fact Thursday morning that they are no longer the only game in town. Their reaction? Classless.
February 12, 2010 at 10:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
climber (anonymous) says...
Miklasz is a pathetic know-it-all who assumes that everyone adores him as much as he adores himself. I can't believe that you could work for a news outlet as dishonest as the P-D and have the gall to question another reporter's ethics. He just doesn't get it. However, I wished the G-D would have just ignored it. Now we'll probably be treated to 500 word column by Bernie on what a "stand-up" guy he thinks he is based on, well, his opinion of himself.
February 12, 2010 at 1:28 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
HeavyChevy (anonymous) says...
I appreciated this article. Glad Rains set the record straight.
February 12, 2010 at 1:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
matguy7071 (anonymous) says...
WHO CARES - Just report the news. The Post Disgrace is a mess anyway!
February 16, 2010 at 11:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )