Sports Reporters Need To Recognize and Understand “Conflict of Interest”

Since the dawn of professional sports in America, there have been sportswriters and analysts covering teams and athletes. These media representatives have to spend an incredible amount of time hovering around their subjects – in clubhouses, locker rooms, hotels, bars, etc. – and working hard to score that elusive scoop or obscure fact.

So, of course, it’s natural for friendships to sometimes form between a reporter and athlete. It’s not unusual for a member of the media and an athlete or coach to have a drink together or even meet for dinner. When people work around each other for long periods of time relationships of a social nature can occur. And the business of sports is no different.

But what is different in sports is the extreme importance of a reporter to keep quite or at least downplay any friendship or off-the-field relationship he or she might have with an athlete.

Regardless of the type of the journalistic field you work in (sports, politics, crime, etc.), credibility is your lifeblood. If the integrity of your reporting is questioned or not immediately accepted by your audience, you’re finished as a media representative – or at least you should be.

So publicly palling around with the same people you’re paid to objectively write about, which includes often being critical, is a major conflict of interest and can really destroy your journalistic credibility.

So it would behoove media members to keep a tight lid on any personal relationship they have with an athlete.

So what in the world is Jay Glazer of Fox Sports doing not only training Arizona Cardinals QB Matt Leinart in mixed martial arts (MMA), but openly and freely acknowledging this relationship like there’s nothing wrong with it.

Glazer, whose specific area of sports coverage for Fox is the NFL, works out with Leinart a reported three to four times a week and has allowed photos and videos of the training sessions to exist. Glazer even discusses his non-football relationship with Leinart with the media.

Does Glazer, a once respected reporter who has broken some very high profile stories, not recognize this conflict of interest?

Apparently not: “Some people have criticized me for getting close (with players), but my job is to get the fans scoops and information and the real inside story, and that comes from relationships.” Glazer said.

“My entire career has been built on relationships. I have done mixed martial arts for a while, and guys are coming to me now. … My job is not to say whether I think Matt Leinart will be a bust or not; that’s for columnist and analysts. My job is to find out what is going on inside each locker room.”

I respectfully disagree with Mr. Glazer.

A journalist does not get to pick and choose which areas of reporting his integrity gets applied to. You’re either a member of the media or you’re not.

And if you are a sports writer and reporter, regardless of the specific type of stories you produce (investigative, features, game analysis, etc.), your audience has to trust, one hundred percent, the purity of your motives. A good and fair reporter can not allow even a hint of a hidden agenda, which Glazer has clearly done.

In the 1990’s, Ahmad Rashad, an NBC Sports studio analyst and NBA game reporter, damaged his image and forever hurt his reputation as a sports media personality as a result of his very open friendship with Michael Jordan.

Rashad and Jordan were frequently seen together in public, hanging out and socializing. There was at least one instance where the two travelled in the same car together to one of Jordan’s playoff games. Now how is anyone supposed to believe a single word of analysis out of Rashad’s mouth after that?

Even to a lesser degree, WFAN sports talk radio show host Mike Francesa has taken a lot of heat for his friendship and business relationship with former New York Giants and New York Jets head coach Bill Parcells.

Francesa has probably been the most well-known sports radio host in the country for the last 20 years – analyzing and, often times, slicing apart elements of the sports world like a skilled surgeon.

But his thoughts and opinions on issues surrounding the legendary coach will forever be scrutinized and never fully accepted by his audience because of the openly social relationship between the two (although, these days, the they are no longer friends).

A journalist or analyst can only be affective if their allegiance to their audience is pure – with no connection to an athlete, sponsor or even their bosses.

To be open and casual about a friendship with an athlete is reckless and can very easily distort or dissolve the trust and integrity a reporter or analyst has built with the audience.