Bob CollinsAt least one journalist in the Twin Cities has been tsk-tsk’ing the mainstream media for not reporting the details of Brett Favre’s alleged self portraits.
I’ve been thinking about this since Nick Coleman posted that tweet last week. He’s right, perhaps, that someone in the Twin Cities sports media corps should’ve at least asked Favre about it. That “honor,” however, went to an out-of-town reporter.
On the other hand, it may not be such a bad thing that the rumors stayed rumors until NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s office announced he’d look into them.
But former Twin Cities journalist David Carr wrote in Sunday’s New York Times that even that shouldn’t have led the mainstream media to adopt the blogger mentality.
That cycle is both oddly familiar and rapidly evolving. Most news organizations stayed off the John Edwards love child story when The National Enquirer broke the news in October 2007, but the dam broke over the course of many months as the drip-drip of evidence and consequences began to accumulate. (At least The Enquirer had to chase John Edwards all over the Beverly Hilton. All Deadspin had to do was pay some loot and open a jpeg.)
There are differences between the two stories. First, the informational value of reporting that a famous married athlete may have been looking to step outside the holy bonds of matrimony does not pass the laugh test. If and when the N.F.L. decides that Favre violated the league’s code of personal conduct, it may be news, but not before.
Though they may have been late to the story, the local media is making up for it. In an article in Sunday’s Pioneer Press, about the only angle of the story that wasn’t covered was this one: the possibility that Favre is being unjustly accused.
You are the editor. What would you have done?
