Adam Schefter: SJH will carry his water. Or will he?

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I'm not sure that's water-carrying. He just posted Snyder's statement without comment. Any reporter would do the same.
Scheft has a loooooooooooooong history of carrying owners' and the league's water. To issue a BS statement like that, to dissemenate it without a shred of righteous disgust makes Schefty a PR agent, not a reporter.
 

bradcote

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Scheft has a loooooooooooooong history of carrying owners' and the league's water. To issue a BS statement like that, to dissemenate it without a shred of righteous disgust makes Schefty a PR agent, not a reporter.
No disrespect intended, but shouldn't a reporter just provide the facts and let the consumer of news make their own opinion?

I think Dan Snyder is a dirtbag, but I struggle that so much of the news nowadays has to force a perspective/opinion instead of providing facts and relying on the intelligence of the viewer to make their own determination.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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No disrespect intended, but shouldn't a reporter just provide the facts and let the consumer of news make their own opinion?

I think Dan Snyder is a dirtbag, but I struggle that so much of the news nowadays has to force a perspective/opinion instead of providing facts and relying on the intelligence of the viewer to make their own determination.
No. If a reporter just does that, all they're doing is PR. Especially on Twitter of all places.
 

BaseballJones

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No. If a reporter just does that, all they're doing is PR. Especially on Twitter of all places.
This is not accurate. I was trained in the best journalism school in the world, and the job of a reporter is to report the news. Commentators have the job of elaborating and offering their two cents.

If you want to argue that Schefter is a commentator and not just a reporter, fine. But if you’re going to say he’s a reporter, then reporting this without commentary is what he’s supposed to do.

Now to be fair, once news became a 24/7 thing (accelerated by the advent of the internet and social media), the lines between reporter and commentator have been blurred significantly.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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This is not accurate. I was trained in the best journalism school in the world, and the job of a reporter is to report the news. Commentators have the job of elaborating and offering their two cents.

If you want to argue that Schefter is a commentator and not just a reporter, fine. But if you’re going to say he’s a reporter, then reporting this without commentary is what he’s supposed to do.

Now to be fair, once news became a 24/7 thing (accelerated by the advent of the internet and social media), the lines between reporter and commentator have been blurred significantly.
Schefter is reporting this blandly on his Twitter account. Many many many MANY other journalists are on Twitter and are freely giving their opinions on the stories they're running. Schefter never does.

I'm sorry, we disagree here. He's running PR for the league. No one with a shred of dignity should be running that statement from Snyder without some sort of commentary on it.
 

Kliq

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No. If a reporter just does that, all they're doing is PR. Especially on Twitter of all places.
This is 100% incorrect and if you think that is the case, you don't know much about journalism. Your follow-up post about how other journalists are giving THEIR OPINION on it and therefore Schefter needs too as well, makes that even more evident.

Schefter can be a water-carrier for the league and also correctly be Tweeting out the press release, both of those things can be true.
 

BaseballJones

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Schefter is reporting this blandly on his Twitter account. Many many many MANY other journalists are on Twitter and are freely giving their opinions on the stories they're running. Schefter never does.

I'm sorry, we disagree here. He's running PR for the league. No one with a shred of dignity should be running that statement from Snyder without some sort of commentary on it.
I can't speak about Schefter. I can speak with experience and education and training about what the job of a reporter is, and you're wrong.

When people offer their opinions, they've moved from "reporter" to "commentator".

Like I said in my other post, in today's social media world, the line between the two has been blurred, so you see people playing both roles. But that doesn't change what those roles are.
 

RIFan

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This was really a bit of a masterclass in how to manage this sort of crisis in a cynical world. Buy yourself enough time after the press asks for comment to fire the people you know the reporters have texts on and hire a lawyer and tell your media flacks that you have done so. Let some stuff leak that gets speculation run rampant about awful stuff you must have done.

Then sit back when the story comes out and let your shills do the heavy lifting by avoiding discussing how awful what you did is, and instead compare it to the stuff you didn’t do.

It is so repulsive and cynical and this sort of PR slight of hand is exactly why it just always feels like it is two steps forward and three steps back for making any headway on getting to a place where women have equal standing in the workplace and the world. The enablers like Schaffer suck and it even feels a bit like the Post pulled its punch here and gave the team time to develop a strategy. It is so sickening.
I agree with this 100%. I have no doubt that the outrageous theories about what the story could be were mostly plants to make the actual story appear less heinous. Judging by the reactions (outside of SoSH) it was a very successful ploy. All those media types who took the time to tweet out teasers about how bad the story would be without spilling the story are complicit. They either got played hard or did so to protect their access. Either way they showed themselves to be second rate journalists.
 

Kliq

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I can't speak about Schefter. I can speak with experience and education and training about what the job of a reporter is, and you're wrong.

When people offer their opinions, they've moved from "reporter" to "commentator".

Like I said in my other post, in today's social media world, the line between the two has been blurred, so you see people playing both roles. But that doesn't change what those roles are.
Right, reporters can be pundits, but not all reporters HAVE to be pundits. SJH seems to be drawing a line in the sand that says that Schefter HAS to offer some punditry in order to be taken seriously as a reporter, which imo, is just completely backwards. Schefter's job is to report the facts and it is up to the reader to form an opinion based on the facts, not try and sway people one way with some biting commentary.
 

BaseballJones

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Then the roles are meaningless. Which is as big an indictment of the journalism business as I can think of.
No, the roles aren't meaningless. It's just that some people do both roles. But not everyone. You can be a reporter or a commentator, or you can blur the lines and do both.

But don't conflate the two roles, because they aren't the same. At all.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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I only took one journalism class, but a major focus was on the artificial blurring of the line between reporting facts and reporting opinions. There are so many opinions embedded not just in word choice and focus but also in what is even covered in the first place. A reporter must choose from an infinite number of words to write and even when he or she focuses on solely quotes by others, like posting the Snyder statement, it is opinion in part solely by virtue of what else the reporter chooses not to cover or say -- especially when it's reported by a "reporter" that frequently does post opinion or fact/opinion hybrids in the very same feed on the very same subject.

These are artificial distinctions and I know that journalism schools spend a lot of time trying to isolate how to walk to line, but it's all mental masturbation because while there are degrees it is an absolutely impossible line to walk. Yes, sometimes it is more blatant than other times and sometimes it is nefarious and sometimes it is responsible, and there's a spectrum, but to pretend it is binary is ostriching.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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I only took one journalism class, but a major focus was on the artificial blurring of the line between reporting facts and reporting opinions. There are so many opinions embedded not just in word choice and focus but also in what is even covered in the first place. A reporter must choose from an infinite number of words to write and even when he or she focuses on solely quotes by others, like posting the Snyder statement, it is opinion in part solely by virtue of what else the reporter chooses not to cover or say -- especially when it's reported by a "reporter" that frequently does post opinion or fact/opinion hybrids in the very same feed on the very same subject.

These are artificial distinctions and I know that journalism schools spend a lot of time trying to isolate how to walk to line, but it's all mental masturbation because while there are degrees it is an absolutely impossible line to walk. Yes, sometimes it is more blatant than other times and sometimes it is nefarious and sometimes it is responsible, and there's a spectrum, but to pretend it is binary is ostriching.
Everything we say has to go through some sort of "editing" process. Including the sentence I just wrote, and the one I'm writing now. Nobody has ever disagreed with that and that's not what I'm talking about. It's not "ostriching" to point out that the roles of reporter and commentator are fundamentally different.
 

mauf

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Schefter is reporting this blandly on his Twitter account. Many many many MANY other journalists are on Twitter and are freely giving their opinions on the stories they're running. Schefter never does.

I'm sorry, we disagree here. He's running PR for the league. No one with a shred of dignity should be running that statement from Snyder without some sort of commentary on it.
I’m with you on some of his other tweets, but I didn’t have a problem with the copy/paste of Snyder’s statement. It’s newsworthy. Also, part of credible journalism is allowing a person accused of wrongdoing a right of rebuttal, even if the journalist believes that person is full of shit.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I’m with you on some of his other tweets, but I didn’t have a problem with the copy/paste of Snyder’s statement. It’s newsworthy. Also, part of credible journalism is allowing a person accused of wrongdoing a right of rebuttal, even if the journalist believes that person is full of shit.
I guess my issue is that Schefter never followed up with anything at all. Fine, report the statement, but follow up with something. Context, a larger POV, a guess at the penalties....something.

This isn't some anonymous AP byliner, this guy's supposed to be deeply connected. No one knows the league better than him, and yet he offers....nothing. It's a disgrace.
 

RIFan

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I know this is semantics, but I don't consider Schefter a reporter. He's an access journalist. His entire lifeblood is his ability get inside information and be the 1st with the scoop. Everything he does is through the lens of "will I be able to keep that source". I get that maintaining sources is a huge part of being a reporter, but Schefter long ago morphed into more of a mouthpiece that just a reporter.
 

Cotillion

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Just posting press releases does not make you a reporter. It makes you a stenographer. A reporter is supposed to add facts and context. Where is the facts and context around the Washington press release? I see nothing there.

Just printing a press release does none of that.
 

MuzzyField

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Mass distributing a PR propaganda statement shouldn't be the role of a reporter/journalist. Doing this is just serving the role of PR amplifier.

Pull the important quotes/statements and write a story add some actual reporting and journalism.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Everything we say has to go through some sort of "editing" process. Including the sentence I just wrote, and the one I'm writing now. Nobody has ever disagreed with that and that's not what I'm talking about. It's not "ostriching" to point out that the roles of reporter and commentator are fundamentally different.
I don't agree that it's merely "editing" unless you're using the word to include a vast array of subjective choices and biases that go into the decision even of what to cover. We're in the midst of a national discussion about how supposedly facially-neutral policies and views and perspectives can and have created an underclass based on race. I think the women (woman?) who posted in this thread has fairly well revealed the absurdity of pretending there is a pristine objective-subjective line and probably scoff at the idea.

I understand that journalists need to sleep at night and that pretending there is a difference between objectivity and subjectivity is a very well covered matter in journalism ethics. But for laypeople (or at least this layperson) -- even in a supposedly pristinely objective case where Schefter merely posts a press release -- it seems aburd and, yeah, osteriching. The social media era has not merely exacerbated the matter but it has also revealed it. I loved Walter Cronkite. Everyone did. And he had the best intentions and lived up to the highest standards of journalism, probably, but it's become very clear that the difference between Walter Cronkite for things that matter socially and TMZ is not as great as one would like to hope.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Your post is moderately interesting (that’s not an insult), but it doesn’t change the fact that reporting the news is fundamentally a different task than commenting (offering one’s opinion) on it. The nightly news used to have a “commentary” section of the newscast that showed you when the network was changing roles. Papers have editorial sections that serve the same purpose.

Of course one makes editorial decisions when choosing what to report and how to report it. But it’s still a different role than offering one’s personal views of what’s being reported.

I don’t know what else to tell you. This isn’t me opining from the peanut gallery. This is me coming from years of education, training, and experience in this.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Just posting press releases does not make you a reporter. It makes you a stenographer. A reporter is supposed to add facts and context. Where is the facts and context around the Washington press release? I see nothing there.

Just printing a press release does none of that.
This is a feature of the twitter world.
 

BunnzMcGinty

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I know this is semantics, but I don't consider Schefter a reporter. He's an access journalist. His entire lifeblood is his ability get inside information and be the 1st with the scoop. Everything he does is through the lens of "will I be able to keep that source". I get that maintaining sources is a huge part of being a reporter, but Schefter long ago morphed into more of a mouthpiece that just a reporter.
He's no more a reporter than Hedda Hopper or Walter Winchell or the schmucks at TMZ. He's the sports equivalent of a gossip columnist. Hedda and Walter were certainly not going to take any shots at the studios. They did their dirty work for them. Same thing here.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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If some of you guys are looking to Adam Schefter to be a moral compass via Twitter, I'm not sure what to tell you. And no, Rap tagging a press release with an emoji isn't exactly inspiring journalism.
 

E5 Yaz

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Scheft has a loooooooooooooong history of carrying owners' and the league's water. To issue a BS statement like that, to dissemenate it without a shred of righteous disgust makes Schefty a PR agent, not a reporter.
I'd say it makes him a reporter, not a commentator ... but that's a slippery slope we don't need to go down
 

mauf

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I know this is semantics, but I don't consider Schefter a reporter. He's an access journalist. His entire lifeblood is his ability get inside information and be the 1st with the scoop. Everything he does is through the lens of "will I be able to keep that source". I get that maintaining sources is a huge part of being a reporter, but Schefter long ago morphed into more of a mouthpiece that just a reporter.
I guess years ago, some editor thought that if the newspaper was going to devote a whole section to sports coverage, it was important to hold that coverage to journalistic standards. Of course, that was never actually done — can you imagine letting a news reporter curry favor with a politician the way, say, Will McDonough did over the years with his sources?

To be clear, I don’t think that’s a problem most of the time; sports isn’t the same as news, and it’s fine that it’s covered more like entertainment gossip. But when an actual news story like this one breaks into the sports world, it’s important to remember that people like Adam Schefter aren’t doing what we normally think of as journalism. And for Schefter’s part, he ought not to have tweeted that bit about WAS brass being upset about the rampant speculation (because that’s totally being their PR flak — let them issue a statement if they wish to rebut speculation).
 

joe dokes

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Also former reporter here. As long as Schefter notes that its a press release, and doesn't re-write it as factual reporting or insider access, I dont think he's done anything wrong here. His commentariat silence after the press release confirms that he's a water-carrier. Simply publishing a release on team letter head does not.
 

MuzzyField

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Being more of a BOT with a blue checkmark rather than a journalist with regards to press releases distribution seems more acceptable if the subject of the press release is ticket prices will increase, camp opens on, the team is releasing/signing type info and the like, not the owner responding/defending alleged longterm and widespread organizational sexual harassment complaints.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Boy am I glad that we finally got around to discussing the important part of the story - "Adam Schefter: reporter or commentator?"
I guess the fact that a sustained culture of making sure that women were constantly reminded their value to the organization was their bodies is sufficiently awful that not even Sosh is going to take a stab at debating it and so the tangential meta parts of the reporting of the story that reinforce clubs' abilities to do this crap are taking center stage. But, yeah, the real point is getting lost.
 

Seels

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I blocked him a while ago. Somewhere around 2017-2018 the signal to noise ratio for Shefter dropped down the tank. Him and Rappoport are both garbage
 

ifmanis5

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Shefty is at ESPN who is an official broadcast partner of the NFL. He's under huge legal and reportage restraints that others are not. It's apples and oranges. It's a lot easier to be Will McDonough when you aren't also working for an official platform of the sport you are covering. That said, ESPN reporting in general about the league has always been like walking on a plate of glass. Bill Simmons was expendable, the relationship with the league was not. Everybody got the message.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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All I know is that if Schefty, Simmons and SJH went into an octagon together, I have jeans money. If he is allowed to use a TV remote and can hype up using Eric Gagne blown save highlights, I will put every penny on him.
 

Shelterdog

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Jumping in late but it's not realistic to think a Schefter is going to be a hard news reporter. He gets a ton of information about transactions and player contracts and discipline, and some insights into the football side of things, but he (and the guys like him) are just not engaged in serious reporting on a multi billion dollar industry with union issues, health issues, sexual harassment issuers, BLM issuers, etc. Nor should we expect a company like ESPN that buys roughly a trillion dollars for the NFL and wants to promote the NFL as a business to provide actual hard news coverage of the league.

It's also nuts to think that it's good reporting to report the official corporate response to a crisis without providing more context and information. You can't convince me that Schefter hasn't been hearing about this kind of shit (in Washington or elsewhere) for years, but I've never seen him report anything like this. The next time a league reporter breaks a hard news story like this, or about BLM, or about concussions, or steroids, or metoo, or anything else of broader importance to society than which edge rusher is going to which team will the the first time.
 

j-man

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rem in case some of u guys do not know he got his start covering the broncos for the first 10-15 years of his career