{"id":217,"date":"2012-12-08T13:49:43","date_gmt":"2012-12-08T18:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=217"},"modified":"2012-12-08T13:49:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-08T18:49:43","slug":"dont-let-the-big-story-be-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2012\/12\/08\/dont-let-the-big-story-be-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Let the Big Story Be You…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reporters live for the big story…It’s a change of pace and often times, a chance to shine…But sometimes that very same reporter becomes part of that story and that turns everything upside down…Bob Ryan<\/a> of the Boston Globe and independent filmmaker Sean Pamphilon <\/a>visited the Boston University sports journalism seminar series recently and both have first hand knowledge…<\/p>\n

Ryan was a guest on WBZ-TV’s Sports Final<\/a> one night in 2003 when he let his emotions get the best of him declaring, “She (Joumana Kidd) needs someone to smack her”…Host Bob Lobel immediately called Ryan out but the Globe columnist didn’t waiver,\u00a0“Why should I say anything different than I said all playoffs last year?” Ryan said…He would subsequently apologize but to this day if you ask him about it, \u00a0he’ll tell you his biggest regret was becoming the story itself…<\/p>\n

As for Pamphilon, don’t even think of mentioning his name in the state of Louisiana let alone New Orleans….When he released the audio tape of Saints Assistant Coach Gregg Williams bounty speech, Pamphilon’s world turned upside down, “I knew there would be some criticism but I didn’t expect it to come from the people I was working with. \u00a0That was very different and it honestly was hurtful. \u00a0I had death threats. \u00a0Life changing for sure. \u00a0Before that people would say, oh, man I just saw Run Ricky Run<\/a> and then suddenly you become “Bountygate” guy. \u00a0I don’t want to be that guy.”<\/p>\n

Covering any story puts the reporter in a unique position but when the story has larger implications, an intense pressure to perform, often times leads to hasty choices…The rush to be first can override the rush to be accurate…And it’s a lesson young reporters, just starting out can learn from the veteran Ryan…When he was handed his very first “beat”, covering the Boston Celtics at an early age, he jumped into the fire…”I was twenty three when they handed this to me. \u00a0I was utterly unprepared to cover a basketball team (let alone the Boston Celtics). \u00a0They don’t teach you, there’s no course, nobody teaches you, you \u00a0have to figure it out for yourself!”… \u00a0Seven years later Ryan was still trying to figure it out and it almost cost him his job after a rocky relationship with then Celtics Head Coach Tommy Heinsohn…<\/p>\n

Sometimes it’s not enough to know how to cover the big story, you have to stay out of its way…The urge for that “nugget” now, that piece of information that might put you on the map can cost you a relationship , or worse, a reputation later…Ryan had a terrific answer for the students in the class, many of whom will graduate soon and face their first real job, “How do you build trust? \u00a0You learn the difference between what’s printable and what’s not printable and (maybe) you hold onto it and then float it down a little later. \u00a0There’s a central balance. \u00a0How close do you want to get, how close can you get? \u00a0And you have to balance that off, you don’t know how to protect yourself sometimes.”<\/p>\n

It’s a lesson you’ll never learn in the classroom, one I hope we’ve started you thinking about as you go forward…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reporters live for the big story…It’s a change of pace and often times, a chance to shine…But sometimes that very same reporter becomes part of that story and that turns everything upside down…Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe and independent filmmaker Sean Pamphilon visited the Boston University sports journalism seminar series recently and both have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}