There's some trouble at the Sports Department at the SF Chronicle. Warriors' beat reporter, Rusty Simmons, has been suspended for apparently blogging a news story which was copy-and-pasted.
From CJR:
"Rusty Simmons wrote the piece after the Warriors issued a press release announcing their purchase of land from the tech company Salesforce in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, where the team plans to build a new arena. The piece was posted to SFGate, the Chronicle’s website, on Monday morning, and stayed there until 5:45pm, when it was replaced by a much shorter version of the story. The new story had no byline and an editor’s note that read: “A previous version of this story was a lightly edited press release issued by the Golden State Warriors. The story is now written by a Chronicle staffer.”
Attempts to get reaction from Chronicle editor-in-chief, Audrey Cooper, were unsuccessful but Deadspin managed to dig further and uncover some more disturbing elements to the story.
As expected the morning knuckleheads on KNBR didn't say a word about the Simmons suspension--I'm not surprised, as Simmons is a regular guest on the Bleeder--{also appearing on the Radnich-Krueger show}; this seems more on Chronicle management than on Simmons, who has covered the team since 2009.
Simmons told Deadspin that he can't talk now because of his suspension but said he'd talk afterward. My best guess is that someone is going to get the boom here --probably not Simmons--because as shaky as the Chron is, their new EIC is not very happy.
Bummer.
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Attempts to get reaction from Chronicle editor-in-chief, Audrey Cooper, were unsuccessful but Deadspin managed to dig further and uncover some more disturbing elements to the story.
As expected the morning knuckleheads on KNBR didn't say a word about the Simmons suspension--I'm not surprised, as Simmons is a regular guest on the Bleeder--{also appearing on the Radnich-Krueger show}; this seems more on Chronicle management than on Simmons, who has covered the team since 2009.
Simmons told Deadspin that he can't talk now because of his suspension but said he'd talk afterward. My best guess is that someone is going to get the boom here --probably not Simmons--because as shaky as the Chron is, their new EIC is not very happy.
Bummer.
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Deadspin also caught sports editor Al Saracevic doing the same thing. My guess is he is the one that will be gone.
ReplyDeleteInteresting was not aware of this.
DeleteDeadspin also has some great reporting including a one hour videotape of a police interview of a then-sixteen year old girl, describing the sexual molestation she endured at the hands and other body parts of former bouncy ball star, Kevin Johnson. She looks like a shy, 90 pound middle-schooler, utterly unsexualized, awkwardly describing the circumstances of multiple such encounters His associates and counsel have referred to her as a "sick slut". Watch the tape,read the story and see what you think.. He began "grooming" her at age 15, telling her mother that he only wanted to "mentor" her. Her mother took 230,000 dollars in hush money. The girl, now a woman of 36 with kids and a college degree, is a compelling writer(see her blog mandikoba.com) She has realized that you can't bind a minor to such a contract. She's giving all the detail to Deadspin,including how he smelled and how he would tell her to wear long loose sweatshirts with no underwear for their "mentoring" outings. She's one of several young girls who have described such "interactions" with Kevin Johnson and his johnson. I find it troubling that a person, like Bernie Ward who looked at forbidden images on a computer, spent seven years in the federal slam. A basketball player who actually touches real children gets honored as some kind of messiah.
ReplyDeleteChristine, when I see REALLY LONG meaningless paragraphs with your name on the header, all I think of is blah, blah, blah & squeezing out a fat one.
Deletethat's because your brain is in your anus.
DeleteChristine seems to really enjoy the salacious details of Kevin Johnson's accuser.
DeleteI'm with Christine on this one: How come we punish guys who play with pictures on line, and let actual perpetrators get away with actual harm? There's something really fucked up about that.
DeleteCount me in as well. Although it is rare to agree with Christine her post is on the money today.
DeleteThe other day Gary Radnich briefly mentioned something (in vague terms) about Kevin Johnson. Then quickly changed the subject.
But why would I expect Radnich to discuss a negative story about his "friend".
After all, isn't G Rad the same guy who likes to mess around?
What does this have to do with the topic of the post? Nothing. Again, Christine is using this blog for her own selfish purposes. Start your own b blog or stay on topic.
DeleteClueless Christine's comment is entirely off topic, AGAIN.
DeleteKevin Johnson is an absolute disgusting piece of trash that should be disposed of properly (in a toxic waste dump).
DeleteThat doesn't mean that Christine isn't a general pain in the ass who is quite good at the self-aggrandizement.
So, in this thread about the quality of reporting, if you point out an extremely well-sourced bit of enterprise reporting, that's an example of "self-aggrandizement"? How, exactly does that work? As for people using press releases as templates, that's nothing new. The Deadspin pieces on Kevin Johnson are an example of real and very gutsy reporting, not rip and read. They chronicle a series of encounters of Mr. Johnson and his johnson and underage girls, the enablers and profiteers who have tried to cover up the stories, as Dr. Bill used to say, like a cat unsuccessfully trying to cover a tootsie roll in a catbox.
DeleteYou'd think a lawyer would believe in the justice system rather than deadspin.
DeleteBoy are you naive. Lawyers are probably the last people to be all in awe of the "justice system". I was a journalist, long before I was a lawyer. When lawyers are involved in calling a fifteen year old girl a "sick slut" and paying her 230,000 dollars to be quiet about her molestation from a basketball player, they should know(being lawyers and everything)that you can't consent to a contract until you are eighteen. The original victim that we know of, and there are several in Sacramento as well with similar stories,has now decided she doesn't care if his lawyers call her a slut. He wasn't prosecuted because he was a famous athlete, valuable to the Phoenix franchise. There were recent, other girls whose families were paid off in Sacramento(see Sac Bee and Deadspin reporting on both).. He shouldn't be a mayor, unless it's the mayor of a prison. The Deadspin reporting is rock solid, bolstered by many transcripts, including one from a phone call the girl, now woman(MandiKoba.com) with Johnson which was bugged by detectives, in which he admits showering with an underage girl. So,it is okay with you if da's don't prosecute pedophiles if they are sport's stars? The forbidden sex with children part is just a scintilla of what Kevin Johnson has done to others, including ripping off the entire public treasury of podunk and screwing the taxpayers to make billionaires and millionaire developers very rich....all for "world-class" bouncy-ball. Well, Sacramento, always bedeviled by not being "world-class" now has a world-class pedophile for a mayor. There you go.
DeleteOh my God Christine, you sound like one of those crazy, homeless people ranting on a street corner. Your tirades are insane. Can't you control those voices in your head? Get help.
DeleteYou do many things very average Christine we know
DeleteHang in there Christine. You are sharp and always have an interesting, often out of the box, take on things (except when I disagree with you). I do very much appreciate. The comment to Mr. Hearst was spot on. Yes, you get people stirred up. Thank you for that.
DeleteFigures Tardnich, FatBoy & the Box Turtle wouldn't say anything to rock the boat of whom asses they kiss.
ReplyDeleteAs someone where PR has always been part of my job, that is perhaps the best PR you can have - one that goes directly into whatever press almost exactly how you wrote it. But then I'm not the journalist nor editor and that would strike me as pretty lazy, and perhaps unethical journalism. Especially in the case of the land purchase where the details could've been fleshed out and there is some controversy as to the location. On the other stories, the journalist or editor could've added to the player stories, or at the very least, rearranged the sentences and paragraphs so it wasn't so blatant.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the big deal? The copy/paste has become an acceptable practice of the millennials. Besides all the people that can actually write...have been cut.
ReplyDeleteYou're half right. It's not the millennials' place to decide policy. That's managers' domain, and they have been doing it for years and it's to save money. Back when I worked at KGO we had a millennial who produced certain segments for one of their beat reporters. She was told by management to use video supplied by the people doing the story as it saves both time and money. Some newspaper--the Wall St. Journal I think--somehow found out. Management--the very people who'd told her to do this--hung her out to dry, fired her, and acted like they didn't know. The sad thing is, the really dedicated people then leave the industry because of crap like this. She now works in another field, and it's journalism's loss. This is why things keep getting worse and worse.
DeleteIt is a fundamental principle of journalism that stories need to be fact checked and you need to strive for multiple sources. Any story that relies on a single source is at best weak journalism. Note I keep using the word "journalism," which is distinct from blogs and opinion pieces. The Chronicle (unlike some of its' competitors) is trying to remain a top-tier daily newspaper, and as such strives to the higher standards of actual journalism.
ReplyDeleteIf there was not time or budget or interest in doing the reporting, the paper could simply have prefaced the item with, "according to a press release," e.g., attribution of the single source. They did not, and therefore it is plagiarism, and the Chronicle is correct in "taking this seriously."
No surprise that KNBR has remained silent.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest cheer leaders in American reside at KNBR.
When in doubt, practice censorship. KNBR's mantra.
Hell the Chronicle writer (Rusty Simmons) has more credibility than KNBR.
Since when is a sports reporter expected to be an expert in land deals? Maybe the Chron should have assigned John King or M&R to write the story and let Simmons do his regular job of reporting on the team instead of their business deals.
ReplyDeleteKNBR prides itself on protecting their friends.
ReplyDeleteAnd who is the best example of this abhorrent behavior you ask?
Well Gary Radnich that's who.
He's trained as a journalist isn't he? Curiosity on all subject relating to your beat should be a natural attitude for a professional journalist. That kinda thing was drummed into our heads by our SJSU journalism professors.
ReplyDelete