President’s column B y B a r b a ra Co c h ra n
Sports Journalism: sively to the subject. Most local televi-
sion stations reserve two to five min-
utes in the newscast to report on sports.
it’s Not Just a Game
Although a lot of attention has been
paid to a few stations that have dropped
sports in the past few years, the 2007
RTNDA/Ball State University survey of
RTNDA leads talks with NFL to protect local stations found that the amount of
independent reporting on air and online. time and staff devoted to sports has re-
mained steady and is expected to remain
largely unchanged next year (see box).
As a child, I was never much of an athlete. These stories are told not by profes- Sports news is important enough that
If my team lost a game of kickball or soft- sional teams or leagues or managers, but RTNDA has long given an Edward R.
ball, teachers or parents would console by independent journalists. People are Murrow Award for sports reporting at
us with a simple phrase, meant to soothe strongly interested in sports and sports the regional and national level. But sports
bruised feelings: “It’s only a game.” figures, but they want to get their in- topics can also produce prize-winning
It’s only a game. That suggests that formation from credible sources. They investigative reporting.This year’s award
sports is not that big a deal, that it doesn’t count on independent journalists to for Network Television Documentary
compare as a topic of importance with report the good, the bad and the ugly goes to the late Ed Bradley and 60 Min-
serious stuff such as politics or econom- about teams and players. utes for a revealing examination of false
ics or foreign policy. Sports news is an important part of charges against members of the Duke
But anyone who follows the news radio and television. Some radio stations University lacrosse team.
knows how often sports and athletes and cable channels are devoted exclu- Sports is big business, too. The Na-
make headlines tional Football League amassed $5.3
and not just for billion in revenue in 2003 according
what happens on to Forbes magazine, $2.5 billion from
the playing field. selling broadcast rights. Those financial
Just in the past few arrangements bring together the NFL
months a number and television and radio networks and
of sports-related stations. Broadcast coverage has helped
stories have been NFL teams build strong fan bases in
in the news. Atlan- their communities, and so the teams
ta Falcons quarter- have always welcomed local stations.
back Michael Vick But now that equation is changing.
pleaded guilty in a With huge revenues at stake, the NFL
federal dog-fight- wants to control its image and its prod-
ing case. San Fran-
cisco Giants slugger
Myths About Sports coverage
Barry Bonds broke
baseball’s home run Much has been written about the decreasing amount of and focus on sports within
record amidst accusations of past steroid TV newscasts. At the risk of injecting facts into the mix, we decided to find out in
use. The Tour de France was disrupted the RTNDA/Ball State University annual survey.
by charges of doping among cyclists. A The bottom line? There is no evidence that there has been an overall decrease in
professional basketball referee was ac- sports coverage in the past year—with slightly more stations reporting an increase (15.5
cused of gambling and game-fixing. percent) than a decrease (13.5 percent). More than 70 percent say the time devoted to
Not all sports news is bad. Sports stars sports coverage remained the same. A few discernible patterns emerged within the
numbers, but the smallest markets are more likely to increase sports coverage, and
Scott Boehm/Getty Images
inspire us as well.Venus and Serena Wil-
liams, Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie there is a general trend toward more sports coverage as total staff size decreases.
have life stories that resonate far beyond The part of the survey about sports coverage is available only at RTNDA.org. Click on
the tennis court or golf course, and gar- Communicator in the Popular Picks section for more of this data.—Bob Papper
ner a lot of media coverage.
16 C o m m u n i C a t o r n O c t O b e r 2 0 0 7
President’s column
uct as much as possible. Not only does stations through RTNDA were able to In the struggle for access and freedom
the league license its broadcast rights, it voice their concerns to the league, re- to report on sports independently, the
has created its own cable channel and sulting in an agreement that was more ultimate weapon would be to decline to
its own website. The NFL sees itself as acceptable to stations. cover the sports events at all, something
getting into the media business. That This kind of tug-of-war between international journalists threatened to
has profound implications for radio sports organizations and electronic do in early September until the gov-
and television stations and for indepen- journalists is sure to continue as leagues, erning body of the Rugby World Cup
dent journalism.That’s why RTNDA is conferences and teams seek to maxi- retreated from efforts to limit the num-
meeting this challenge head-on. mize revenue and control. The online ber of photos and amount of video the
Last year, RTNDA fought alongside world is bound to become a battlefield media outlets could post online.
local stations to increase the number of in this struggle, as more sports organi- It hasn’t come to that with profes-
local crews allowed on the sidelines. In zations, like the NFL, see themselves as sional football, where stations would
response, the NFL expanded that num- media organizations and try to exert prefer to work out satisfactory agree-
ber from one pool crew to five crews for control over online content in ways ments. Still, journalists and their news
each team. This summer, RTNDA pro- they would never dream of imposing organizations will need to fight to as-
tested new and stringent restrictions for on print or broadcast reporting. It has sure they can continue their indepen-
online use of video from news confer- already happened at the collegiate level, dent reporting on a subject that is em-
ences, interviews and practice sessions at where the NCAA this June ejected a bedded in the fabric of culture, society,
NFL venues. We also objected strongly reporter for live-blogging from the education and big business. RTNDA is
to NFL plans to require photo journal- stands of a college baseball playoff game proud to be part of that fight and part
ists to wear vests emblazoned with the in Louisville, KY, an action that was of a winning team.—Barbara Cochran
corporate logos of NFL sponsors. subsequently repudiated. may be reached at president@rtnda.org.
One of the chief problems with these
new NFL policies is that they were for-
mulated and announced without any
input from local broadcasters. RTNDA
took an important step to correct that
by leading a delegation of senior news
executives to a meeting with the NFL
An innovative new look
in August.
Opening a dialogue was crucial. We for Austin’s News
were able to explain our objections to
the vests and the online policy and to
win greater flexibility and consideration
of changes later in the season. The vest Complete
logos, for example, will not become broadcast scenic
larger or more prominent. services for SD,
HD and 16:9
Most important, the NFL asked for
feedback and engaged in negotiation
over a new SidelineVideo Access Agree- Set Design
ment that they want to adopt this year. Fabrication
The talks—between RTNDA and sta- Installation
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tion groups on one hand and the NFL
Lighting Design
on the other—continued through the Set Remodels
preseason and early into the regular sea- KXAN-TV | AUSTIN, TEXAS
son, and the NFL did not immediately
insist on requiring the new agreement To find out how the experts at FX Group
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O c t O b e r 2 0 0 7 n C o m m u n i C a t o r 17