{"id":237,"date":"2013-09-29T10:02:18","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T14:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=237"},"modified":"2013-09-29T10:02:18","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T14:02:18","slug":"committing-this-crime-wont-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2013\/09\/29\/committing-this-crime-wont-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Committing This Crime Won’t Pay…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Hernandez is accused of murder…Von Miller allegedly tries to bribe a drug tester…Bob Hewitt is charged with raping those he’s teaching to play tennis…<\/p>\n

When you signed on to become a sports journalist, you probably never thought someday you’d have to report on stories like these but more and more, it’s become part of the process…Crime reporting isn’t taught anywhere but if you’re in the business of sports, perhaps it should be…<\/p>\n

Bob Hohler<\/a> from \u00a0The Boston Globe<\/em> and Professor Michael McCann<\/a> of the University of New Hampshire Law School joined students at a recent Boston University Sports Journalism Seminar Series and \u00a0shed some light on covering the very public and often seedy \u00a0side of sports…”I just wanted to cover games”, said Hohler…It wouldn’t turn out to be that easy…And for McCann it started with an anti-trust paper written in law school …<\/p>\n

As much dedication as they both brought to their early professions, Hohler and McCann both found themselves lacking in the other ones strength…For Hohler, it was legal training…”I learned on the job, I covered a lot of news early on, some in the courts. \u00a0I was probably a little timid. \u00a0I learned to go in with an authoritative voice, an authoritative approach and you’ll be surprised how much you can succeed at.”<\/p>\n

McCann never had any reporting background but when a law school classmate started Sports Law Blog<\/a>, McCann saw an opportunity…”That was a way I got noticed for some of my writing, I developed a niche. \u00a0If you can tie in some investigative aspect to your work, all the better”…Sounds like the beginnings of a great TV series…Lawyer partners with newspaper reporter…<\/span><\/p>\n

Since joining us at the Seminar, McCann has gone to write about Lane Kiffin’s firing at USC and the now settled lawsuit between EA Sports and the NCAA, among other things, while appearing on outlets such as WNST in Baltimore and National Public Radio…He’s made himself noticed establishing his credentials…<\/span><\/p>\n

Crime reporting is sometimes very glamorous, very public, but it brings with it obstacles as well…”If you’re going to make accusations about someone, it’s so important you have it right. \u00a0You do have to know your limits and know when you’re not only putting someone else at risk but also putting yourself and in a lot of ways your newspaper at risk and your reputation. \u00a0All it takes is one bad story and you’ll ruin your career”<\/span><\/p>\n

Hohler and McCann exhibit a great passion or what they do but they recognize the landmines along the way…Good advice all around…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Hernandez is accused of murder…Von Miller allegedly tries to bribe a drug tester…Bob Hewitt is charged with raping those he’s teaching to play tennis… When you signed on to become a sports journalist, you probably never thought someday you’d have to report on stories like these but more and more, it’s become part of […]<\/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\/237"}],"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=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}