It’s called access journalism. It’s really more of a PR agreement than it is actual journalism.

Actual sports journalism is guys like Pablo Torre.

as a journalist myself

(dumps an AI slop post on us)

As a former Journalism student myself, you should know what access journalism is versus traditional journalism.

Pablo Torre and other best reporters do traditional journalism. Shams, Woj and Windy are newsbreakers and talking heads. There’s a very big difference. Too often people conflate being a talking head with a journalist.

And tbh, I’d rather have guys like Shams and Woj breaking accurate stories than having state run media from teams.

You know, I’m a bit of a journalist myself.

As a journalist myself

Which elementary school are you at?

Honestly nowadays I feel like a lot of sources particularly in the daily talking heads style sport journalism is not that different from a “trust me bro” source…😂

I mean that’s not even a new thing, the problem isn’t that they do this, they’re paid to generate discussion - and some, like you mentioned, have good track records - the problem is that people believe everything they say.

That’s an audience problem, not a journalism problem.

People seem to have this idea that if we push back against anonymous sources all of a sudden we’ll get the who behind every story. The actual truth is if they don’t get anonymity we just won’t get any stories instead. Does that mean we have to deal with trust me bro stuff at the same time? Yes

I’ve generally found The Athletic reporters to consistently be reliable and correct, and they always specifically mention team and personal sources are kept confidential and anonymous on their own request, usually to protect work and personal relationships. I don’t think that’s all that surprising, or there is anything incorrect about it

I can’t imagine an actual journalist would ever call Shams a journalist. He’s an information broker and is very specific about what he shares to make his sources look good.

Windy is a little bit ambiguous but he isn’t a journalist either.

Neither Shams nor Windy is an actual journalist and I don’t think anyone really sees them that way. They’re entertainment, like many other media personalities.

Granting anonymity to report facts is cool, granting anonymity to share opinion is absolutely rotten and needs to stop. Not only does anonymity influence someone’s opinion but it becomes an excuse to simply talk shit without consequences.

You just trust the reporter or you don’t. If they’re wrong a lot I stop listening to them. I listen to windhorst cause he’s usually on top of everything. I ignore anything sas says

I’ve been thinking about this as of late. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was thinking that in the world outside of sports journalism, anonymous tips can still somewhat be scrutinized without compromising any identities by investigating the claims. There’s absolutely nothing to investigate when an anonymous GM calls Jaylen Brown the 7th best player on his team

What do you want to change about it?

Honestly, the trade rumors stuff is literally just content generation for the summer when the NFL is gone and sports media needs something to fill the time. I personally have only used this stuff as background noise because I recognize that none of it matters until a trade actually happens. The media is talking about LeBron every single day, and it’s all just to fill air time.

The only people I feel bad for are the players who find themselves being discussed over and over as if a trade to another team isn’t a major impact to their families and personal lives.

Your main problem is considering them journalists. They’re not, they’re gossipers. 

These mistake is calling what they do journalism. It’s more akin to a celebrity gossip column.

As a Reddit user myself, one thing that has bothered me about modern Reddit is how people think they know everything, and it’s gotten much worse in recent years……..

In the most recent case, Bobby Marks’ anonymous source was named Tayson Jatum.

These guys are the worst journalists ever.. Random trade rumours, half of them aren’t even true just engagement bait.. Spoiling draft picks, they just cant wait 5 mins for nba to announce it.. 

A joke

it feels like NBA journalists are just using “anonymous source” as a “say anything I want” button

Agreee. It’s trash

Just ignore it tbh. The NBA isn’t supposed to be a ²⁴⁄₇ reality tv show. Y’all watching and following these clowns is what makes them keep doing

You are right. The only thing I’d disagree with is “we as fans are expected to accept claims without knowing… what their motives are”

Most of these anonymous sources could not be more obvious in their goal to just affect perception in a way that benefits their team!

As a journalist yourself you should never use LLM outputs in any capacity you expect to be taken seriously.

I suspect this post has heavy LLM influence. 

This has definitely gotten out of hand. Though my biggest issue is when media voices who aren’t journalists, like Stephen A Smith, use anonymous sources to create rumors, spread gossip, and talk down on players or his peers. It’s disgusting behavior and it allows him to get away with talking shit on people while pretending like it’s someone else’s words. There are no words for how much I hate that sleazy POS. ESPN truly did so much damage by making him the face of everything they do.

If you’re a journalist you should realize that sports journalism has played by its own rules for decades and shouldn’t be judged by and isn’t held to the same standards as journalism at large. At the end of the day sports is entertainment and these guys have played by different rules for a long time. It’s closer to a soap opera than it is to news and the journalists are pawns of the teams to get their edge in trade negotiations most of the time. It’s access journalism on crack. Savvy readers know this and can read between the lines.

No one would give up any information if it couldn’t be anonymous, so idk what ur really suggesting here…

When they say sources they mean Agents

I say this as someone who works with journalists and writes about journalism, knowing fully what I’m saying and knowing some people I respect will disagree: sports journalism is not real journalism.

That’s not saying that there isn’t real journalism about sports, or that none of the people who do “sports journalism” are capable of doing real journalism, or that people like Windhorst don’t have real journalist skills that they use to do sports journalism.

But people should understand people like Shams to be closer to outside spokespeople for the league—or entertainer participants—than journalists.

The vast majority of NBA journalism isn’t really journalism, it’s just entertainment writing. I don’t get too fussed about ethics when it’s reporting on what player is signing there.

But I also look for other voices on actual newsworthy stories - like when Donald Sterling was being ousted, or Dolan’s panopticon targeting trans people at MSG. I want to read journalists with higher ethical standards on those stories

What field do you report on? Lazy morons who use ai?

I’d like to thank former Jets beat “journalist” Manish Mehta and the New York Daily News for my early education into this topic.

Jets coverage (local and national) was typically always worse than the Knicks, especially during the 2010’s. But he somehow made it even more of a spectacle.

hmm OP you seem to have forgotten that corruption rules the land now?

an “anonymous team source” getting their narrative out in a Shams post is potentially a new car when their predictive market bet hits.

Love how Jaylen Brown pointed out this exact dynamic describing the abuse of anonymous sources as a means to further certain narratives, and every redditor decided they wanted to punk him down for acting too smart for his own good

Anonymous sources, unite!

Who cares? Anonymous sources are here to stay no matter what fans or players say.

We as fans are expected to accept claims

Just stop listening to them. There done, have a good day. 

That’s not specific to American sports journalism. That’s everywhere and everything now. From BBC to CNN to Fox. When people use anonymous sources they’re trying to push a narrative, not provide useful imformation.

Another post accussing others of putting too much weight on media, insiders, etc, while just admitting is the one doing so. It’s a game. Even if lies or filler those leaks fill the gap of information in the offseason. If instantly see as true or place so much weight on whether it is, thats a you problem. Where LeBron goes has zero affect on my life doesnt change interest in updates. “Motivation behind the story” when a game and not those meaningful topics just threw in at the end like it covers tracks when it in fact doesnt matter if not those things. The motivation is entertainment as an entertainment company and they’re doing that.

When releasing reports about being an abuser that journalist ran through every legal team before posting and gets first response from implicated parties than that access journalism doesn’t. Cause they switch to news and how deliver it, that I can see. The reporter can see. The one accused can see by responding. Why can’t you?

Jaylen brown is that you?

Journalism has literally always been a prufession of mostly snakes, liars, and monsters. That’s what happens when there are no standards for a profession. Anyone can claim to be a journalist, and no one can tell them they aren’t. It’s not like being a doctor or a lawyer.

Also, Columbia University, the most influential journalist school in the world, flushed journalistic standards down the toilet when they adopted biased reporting as the norm.

I’m not a journalist… but for everyone, keep in mind that when Journalist mention “Public Interest” it goes after “My own benefit”

If journalists have to choose between his job, reputation or income, or the public interest. Will be the first one 100% of the times.

They do serve the broad audience, but they are not heroes.