Again, I was trying to be professional and acting like I’d been there before (I decidedly hadn’t; to this day, that might be the most hyped thing I’ve ever been personally witness to, with that goofy chick fil a indoor blimp flying all around and the confetti and cheers (we traveled well, for us, but like… once it became a celebration and not a competition, the gathering immediately felt and got much more intimate lol. But still epic! A huge stadium 1/4-1/3 full of people who cared that we won, whether or not they’d been fans coming in.
You may have forgotten the media buzz and sports radio discourse surrounding the game leading up, but I was part of it and worked with most of the folks who got paid to talk about sports in Houston, and we all listen to each other because - and you won’t hear this from many other sports reporters or former sports editors - but we are all of us - to a person (and usually, to a man) - the gossipiest cunts in the whole world 😆 it’s true. And like, of offense, but sports isn’t real news, it’s basically community-facing PR (no shade, we need and love it, too, but it’s not as vital to saving our democracy which badly needs doing, and so no offense, but that’s the way of it.
Anyway, sports media people are like the worst grown up versions of the student in hs who tells people and maybe believes that they’re so good with secrets and it’s weird when people are up in people’s business, BUT… 😆 and once you’ve done it a while, the answer is, “I’m asking bc it’s my job.” True. But if that reporter is being brutally honest, they’re asking bc they’re a nosy cunt that can’t help themselves, just like me.
Ever see the reporter side of a big press conference? Quite possibly not, even if you’re a lifelong sports fan. But believe me when I say that it makes the bouquet toss at a big, drunk wedding seem sedate and modest. MEMEMME and if you have any shame (you won’t) you tell yourself, “it’s because I have to in order to effectively do my job.” Uh huh. It’s adorkable, and it’s 1,000% true of 100% of them/us. Honestly, if it isn’t the case, you kind of lose your taste for the beat/coverage, especially when journalism of substance and defiance is urgently, desperately needed and - in some corners - called for.
Journalism needs to not be beholden to really anyone, and in capitalism, that’s hard to do. HCN couldn’t not get bought. We weren’t publicly traded, but Chron had enough money to make it a nondiscussion, regardless. I can’t remember the number, but it was reported and I knew it at the time. It felt small and insulting to ME, but I can’t resent any owner for making the financial decision of “uh uh, get me and what money I have left the fuck out of print media/journalism.” Totally understandable. Owners aren’t reporters, they’re bad capitalists and they got in way over their heads or they think they’re God and ought to control what everyone sees and reads.
Both are bad, but I only have any sympathy for the one. Journalism must not be done - in fact, cannot be done - under the unilateral golden-fist of an oligarch, not only because it’s not good or right, but because media & enterprise-level broadcasting/communications are actually too powerful and dangerous a tool to be wielded in bad faith, or worse. Actually, your harmless beat or editorial position can be used to do deceive and control and bully in a real way.
If that sounds alarmist, then either you’ve never been in a newsroom (which is fine; it’s the job of people like me to find out what’s going on and tell people like you, no harm done) or you haven’t been paying attention. Probably bc it benefits you financially (you think, and maybe you’re right, but it’s irrelevant) to not pay attention.
But the sand isn’t deep enough for heads anymore, I think, and billionaire tech oligarchs owning and controlling all media is a bad, End Times kind of play, and we’re so not far from that.
