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Most ham-handed critiques regarding the state of journalism usually go like this:
“I remember the days when the media reported the news and never gave any opinions.”
And, my personal favorite:
“Here’s what the media won’t show you.”
The thing is that the leadership of newsrooms across the country often get together to tell the masses what they believe we should know.
Opinions take on many forms.
Read my words:
If you’ve read my Defender columns — or any of my award-winning, critically acclaimed writing over time — know that I made the decision to make the masses aware of whatever I believe is important with the cosign of an editor.
And, perhaps most importantly, for the cheap seats, it’s okay to say that you may not have the depth — nor the bandwidth— for a larger conversation regarding what to make of the state of journalism.
Recently, I observed a local high school basketball coach criticize a young reporter for not putting his daughter on the publication’s girls’ all-area team. The critiques devolved into name-calling and blatant disrespect.
Full disclosure: I know the parties involved.
I understand the frustration to an extent.
As a dad, I’d crash out if I felt that my child was wronged somehow. However, this, as they say, ain’t it.
The coach, like many people, is unaware of how the sausage is made.
The reporter isn’t a full-time high school hoops beat person. He’s a young scribe figuring it out who also happens to be highly regarded by his peers and industry veterans.
Reporters can’t get to every game. Full-time high school sports reporters are in short supply, so large swaths of games, players and coaches will not be covered.
Full stop.
And in the event a reporter can cover a game and get to know the folks involved, one thing needs to be made clear:
Journalists are not public relations representatives for coaches, families, or players. It’s not their job to make you look good; just documenting whatever’s going on.
The Bigs, a locally-based Black-owned media company owned by Eugene McIntosh and Terrence Tomlin, covers professional and high school sports, including baseball and softball.
The Bigs, who’ve added reporters and photographers over time, are aware they can’t cover every game. They utilize a request-based model in order to maximize their coverage area.
“We always circle the standout games of the season and classic matchups that we know will be popular, but when we’re not covering games like that, we prioritize covering the schools that don’t usually get media coverage,” said Tomlin. “So, when someone jumps in our DM’s and requests coverage for a school we haven’t been to yet, we’ll most likely put an emphasis on going there at some point in the season.”
Eugene McIntosh and Terrence Tomlin of The Bigs.
Despite Tomlin and his comrades’ best efforts, like in most instances, someone will find something to complain about. Some believe their methods aren’t enough.
“Most parents or coaches that reach out to us come correct, though. They’ll say: ‘We appreciate your work. If you have time, here’s a big game on our schedule that we’d love to have you guys come to,’” said Tomlin. “Some will mention a player that they think deserves more coverage and say that we should keep our eyes on them.
“Others have told us that we’re bogus for not covering certain players or teams, but we never take that personally. We try our best to cover every game we’re asked to cover regardless of the perceived level of competition. We believe everybody deserves a share of the spotlight.”
Tomlin knows that the general public is unaware of the lack of staffing in newsrooms. All these folks know is that the media isn’t covering their kid’s game, and they believe something’s personal behind the matter.
“I can understand how easy it is for folks not to recognize how short-staffed newsrooms are and how many hours go into covering the high school beat. There is so little legit coverage of high school sports in its totality that a little bit goes a long way,” said Tomlin. “At most major outlets that cover high school sports, there are one or two people at most that are tasked with covering all the Chicago and Chicagoland teams, and that just isn’t a recipe for thorough quality coverage of the landscape.
“The gap between boys and girls sports media coverage on this level is huge right now. And I believe that’s one of the biggest reasons for it.”
Some folks will read this column and will not be able to contemplate the connection I’m making.
Let me spell it out for you.
Do you work for free at your job?
Of course not.
Why are we expecting someone to do something we’re staunchly against?
Folks, emotion and vibes have overtaken factual information.
Case in point, a police officer whom I’d see at a former employer, a conservative Latino male, posted a meme on Facebook about Detroit. The meme explains that Detroit’s “decline” over time was the fault of democratic policies.
The meme showed specific time periods leading to the city’s economic decay.
I looked up the dates and cross-referenced them with the political party in charge — from city hall to Congress — at the time.
Spoiler alert: It was mostly Republicans.
When I presented the information to the officer, he said I was wrong. I shot back with, “I’m not wrong. You can look this up yourself. You want to believe this meme because it aligns with your political beliefs.”
Sometimes, based on our individual political and social beliefs, we tend to think memes and others like them are accurate when they appear to be in lockstep with our thoughts — facts be damned.
This man’s racial demographic — Male Latino — is the most susceptible to misinformation, according to the 2024 book, “Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What it Means for America,” written by journalist Paola Ramos.
Ramos states:
Experts confirm that Latinos in the U.S. are more likely to consume, spread, and receive fake news and misinformation online compared to the average population.
Unfortunately, if you’ve seen a social media clip from a podcast, hung out at a barbershop, or read a Facebook post that made no sense in the last several years, Black folks aren’t too far behind our Latino brethren in matters regarding vibes and misinformation.
Popular podcasters like Joe Rogan, Shannon Sharpe, N.O.R.E., Corey Holcomb, Joe Budden Podcast contributor Ish, and Pat McAfee often cast aside factual information and accountability for vibes.
After all, it’s their prerogative to discuss whatever they like. They’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that they aren’t journalists. However, when someone wants to prove a point, they’ll share a clip of something discussed on the aforementioned podcasts as proof.
Studies often show the lack of diversity, which creates news deserts, leaving parents, coaches and the public starving for information, wondering why newsrooms have decided to decline news coverage.
Northeastern University professor Meredith Clark, the lead researcher regarding the News Leaders Association’s annual diversity survey, told the Neiman Lab this:
“…It feels like supreme hypocrisy on the part of the journalism industry. Transparency and doing the digging and the reporting — all of that is so germane to what we understand journalism to be. And we are absolutely unwilling to do it among ourselves.”
Clark’s research also pointed out that some newsrooms declined to post their diversity numbers.
Knowing this information, some newsrooms openly encourage candidates of color to apply for jobs and eventually hire a white woman — the true beneficiary of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts — to check the diversity box.
That’s not diversity.
That woman is still white.
The reason I left the Sun-Times was mostly an economic issue. I loved what I was doing even though my salary and life demands never aligned.
Once newsrooms realize that inflation and cost of living increases ought to be figured into a reporter’s salary, the profession will be in a much better place.
As a friend quipped during my social media lament over the layoffs some of my former Sun-Times colleagues endured — and the ongoing narrative among journalists that folks like me, former full-time reporters, have gone to the “other side” by moving into PR — it’s easy to be an ideologue when you have a trust fund or a spouse or partner who supplements your income.
Y’all not ready for that conversation.
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