The state of sports journalism

The Daily sports section published, on Sept. 24, a story on the infamous Ray Rice suspension scandal, and on Sept. 29, an article on the Donald Sterling scandal. In doing so, we joined every other sports media outlet in the United States. In doing so, we drew attention, under the guise of “sports coverage,” to topics that had nothing to do with sports. In doing so, we drew attention away from the fascinating and exciting action taking place on the field in those two great sports. And in doing so, we helped to continue a very troubling trend in sports media.

A panel of prominent sports journalists came to Tufts on Oct. 15 to discuss modern sports news coverage. Chris Stone (LA ’92), managing editor of Sports Illustrated, Dan Barbarisi (LA ’01), New York Yankees beat reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Tony Massarotti (LA’ 89), Boston Globe contributor and co-host of sports talk show “Felger and Mazz” on 98.5 The Sports Hub and Shira Springer, investigative and enterprise sports reporter for the Globe, all spoke at the event.

Stone, Barbarisi and Massarotti all used to write for the Daily. Each now does important, hard-hitting and well-respected work in the industry. But the same cannot be said for the industry as a whole. The panel members are a poor representation of the current quality of sports journalism. Yet, throughout the evening, the panelists espoused unwarranted confidence in and optimism for the collective sports media, with the most explicit endorsement coming from Barbarisi.

“Sports writing is better now than it’s ever been,” Barbarisi simply stated.

While I don’t disagree with Barbarisi -- in that there is thoughtful and enlightened work being done -- the current work, as a whole, is seriously flawed. The sensationalism employed by the national media outlets, led by ESPN, is unprecedented. Their lone interests seem to be the juicy scandals that have so little to do with sports that they belong on the cover of a gossip magazine in the checkout line at the grocery store. The Ray Rice domestic violence disgrace, Donald Sterling’s racist remarks, A-Rod's suspension, the LeBron free-agency saga and the 24/7 coverage of Tim Tebow’s career are a few good examples.

These stories draw attention to athletes as celebrities and personalities, overshadowing the incredible feats occurring in every season in every sport. Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw have had some of the best seasons in the history of baseball, but they haven’t gotten as much coverage as the Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera farewell tours. The San Antonio Spurs have put together a dynasty unrivaled by any team in any sport during this century, yet their coverage was buried under the racist remarks made by a league owner and the free-agency of a few star players.

Barbarisi chalks up this phenomenon to a shift in the way fans want to learn and talk about sports.

“Fandom is not just about the game story anymore, it’s about the larger picture,” Barbarisi said. “Field action, I think, is almost secondary to the actions of the personalities and the things surrounding the games right now. That’s what people have come to care about.”

While it may be accurate that the public is more interested in scandal-based stories than "true" sports coverage, the major sports news outlets should not fall prey. Instead of focusing on easy-to-digest fluff pieces, sports reporters should deliver hard-hitting, substantive journalism. Instead of catering to the lowest common denominator of fans, they should improve the discourse, advance the narrative and drag the public with them. In short, they should inform their readers, rather than let ratings dictate the content they produce.

The choice between writing to inform readers and writing what readers want to read is one that currently plagues the political journalism industry, too. Writers choosing to do the latter have seriously harmed our nation’s political discourse, and the same is marring sports journalism.

This phenomenon is especially apparent in the divide between baseball analysts who successfully incorporate advanced statistics into their work and those who choose to ignore these crucial tools. Organizations like Fangraphs.com and BaseballProspectus.com are currently providing the best, most factually accurate baseball analysis that has ever been done. But Boston Globe Columnist Bob Ryan gets just as many readers by bashing sabermetrics and talking about players’ values in terms of batting average and RBI totals. Ryan’s readers are genuinely uninformed, and Ryan is in the unique position to change that. But he chooses not to. Sports journalist should not ignore journalistic integrity and, instead, simply write stories to satisfy their readers.

“People go to media outlets that validate their pre-existing conceptions,” Barbarisi said. “Because of the fragmentation of media, they’re going to go where they can hear what they want to hear. People are going to see what they want to see and they’re going to consume things the way they want to consume them.”

What is the role of the sports journalist? Is it to enlighten and inform? To provide thoughtful discourse? Or to cater to the public and attract readers? If journalists could break out of the mindset of treating athletes like celebrities and instead focus on on-field actions, we would all be better for it -- journalists and their readers alike. Both groups could come together as sports fans and get sports the coverage they deserve. Sports are great, but, right now, sports journalism isn’t.