Global Games: Sports, Politics and Society An International Symposium

The Boston Globe Sunday, February 13, 2000 A Pitching Change is Needed by Howard Manley Jim Cohen has been at ESPN nine years, as chief correspondent and now senior coordinating producer. But, at heart, he's still an old-school newspaper man, his sports jacket a bit rumpled, his tie never straight. And as an old newspaper guy - with stints at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Milwaukee Journal, and Springfield Union - Cohen is appalled at the so-called television journalists at his network cozying up in commercials with the very people they are assigned to cover. ''It's unacceptable,'' he told a symposium on sports journalism at Tufts Friday. Sportswriter Frank Deford was equally astounded by the promotion that has Keyshawn Johnson and Ricky Watters hyping ''SportsCenter.'' Deford asked his audience to imagine Trent Lott shilling for Peter Jennings or Al Gore promoting ''NightLine.'' ''Sports has always had a touchy relationship with journalism,'' said Deford, ''and we all accept the tremendous symbiotic relationship. And while I am quite amused at the 'SportsCenter' promotions, I'm also appalled.'' Ethics in sports journalism is not a new topic. Most journalists feel strongly about the separation of church and state, but those lines have become extremely blurry, with media companies owning sports franchises. ESPN's John Walsh has been around the journalism block, as a managing editor of Rolling Stone and US News & World Report and a founding editor of Inside Sports. He has worked at ESPN since 1988, and he recently told the Columbia Journalism Review that he would prefer it if on-air talent did not do commercials. ''It's a very difficult issue, because at CNN or NBC News people don't do these kinds of things,'' said Walsh. ''And we don't want our people to be salesmen. If it's a sport product or relates to something that touches sports, we don't let our people do it. We don't let any of our people do Nike or any of the sneaker companies. We don't have people dealing with golf equipment. We routinely get proposals that we turn down.'' Walsh also explained that ESPN's employees make their own decisions within those rules. Under those guidelines, Coors is able to employ the services of Dan Patrick, and Patrick and Kenny Mayne can pitch pizza. The problem with allowing reporters from ESPN, or any news-gathering entity, to take corporate money or accept promotions from their newsmakers is obvious, and it involves ego and connections. The ESPN guys, for instance, often are more recognizable than the athletes they are covering. They have greater access to the sports power structure - including general managers, owners, coaches, and agents - than the majority of professional athletes. And, in some cases, they have as much money. It's not just the money an advertiser can pay. It's not even a question whether most of these guys would actually compromise a story or their ability to report. It's their celebrity. And that is a big reason why the criticism of Cohen, Walsh, and Deford most often goes unheard. Walsh told the Columbia Journalism Review that a higher standard would place ESPN at a competitive disadvantage in the ''talent marketplace.'' It was no surprise, then, that during an ESPY Award show, Mayne and Patrick asked Michael Jordan whether he had questions for them. In their minds, they - not the athletes, the coaches, the fans - are the show. It is that distorted view that allowed Jim Gray, a well-paid NBC sideline reporter, to push aside Pete Rose's accomplishments as a player and act like a stand-in baseball commissioner, demanding that Rose apologize for gambling. In Gray's mind, Rose is not his equal. Another example: Chris Berman in the Super Bowl pregame, showing a clip of himself running off the field at the Orange Bowl a la Joe Namath after Super Bowl III. Television personalities who have become larger than the events they cover are not limited to just the sports world. Republican presidential hopeful Alan Keyes chastised NBC's ''Meet the Press'' host Tim Russert after he refused to allow Keyes to talk during a debate. ''I've begun to wonder whether Mr. Russert will declare his candidacy,'' Keyes snorted. Deford talked about the emergence of radio in the 1940s, and how that freed print reporters from writing pitch-by-pitch game accounts. He talked about how legendary reporter Dick Young used his freedom to interview athletes in locker rooms. (He also talked about the ''very odd'' American institution of interviewing naked men.) He also talked about one of his employers, Sports Illustrated, and how that once-great magazine seems to be narrowing its coverage to only the sports and stars seen on television. Cohen said he always asked job candidates what they think ESPN does, and he said he received a variety of answers, including entertainment. Cohen's answer would be simple: journalism. He is right. ESPN has done more great sports journalism pieces than any sports or news organization in history. The only problem is that not too many people know that.