The Anti-Media Media

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by joecrisp

If they're not sportswriters, they don't belong in the pressbox. That's why it's called the "PRESS" box.

This is particularly irking to me, as I worked my butt off for three years trying to establish myself as a "fan reporter"-- spending my own hard-earned cash and that of TheWarpath faithful, using vacation time away from my wife that could certainly have been spent on more relaxing endeavors, pulling all-nighters trying to get my camp reports published in a timely manner, not to mention the inordinate amount of butt-kissing required to get any assistance from the Redskins media relations staff, and the tremendous amount of composure and self-control required to avoid ruffling the feathers of the folks who make their living as reporters.

How was I rewarded? I was told I was no longer welcome as a fan reporter-- by none other than the very same folks who are now foisting these obnoxious, anti-media, pseudo-reporter fans upon the professional media members.

I was lucky enough to get to spend a day in the pressbox for the Redskins-Ravens scrimmage back in August-- only because I was a reporter for The Daily Progress-- but I conducted myself as professionally as I could, and tried to be as unobtrusive as possible to those who were there trying to earn a living. That's how I always behaved around Redskins Park, because that's how I would want a visitor to behave in my workplace.

How would you like it if you had people running around in your office, jumping up and down, yelling and shouting-- when you're trying to focus and get work done on deadline? Most of us would probably at some point want to grab them and toss them headlong out the nearest window. I'd imagine that's how the professional media members in that pressbox felt when they were confronted with such unwelcome behavior.

I imagine if I had known that all the Redskins wanted out of a "fan reporter" was someone who could be as obnoxious and inconsiderate as possible around the professional reporters, I could have played that role quite naturally, and TheWarpath.net would've become the Redskins' official message board long ago.

Shame on me for trying to do the right thing.

Forgive me, Joe. I don't mean to step on your toes and I understand your aspirations for becoming a journalist covering the Redskins. And you're right, traditionally the press box is there for journalists to get their work done.

All I'm saying is that Dan Snyder is entirely within his rights to allocate press box space in his stadium to whoever he chooses. First off, he doesn't owe the press anything, it's his press box, he can put 25 chimpanzees up there if he wants. I can't blame him for giving press box space to those guys, after a lot of the inaccuaracies the Post has published in recent years. And I also thought that taking the ticket spat public by reporting on it was a pretty bush-league move by the Post.

I certainly do not wish for the biased opinions of the ExtremeSkins staff to replace objective reporting by any means. For the most part, I think the Post has been relatively objective save for the ticket spat. And I still enjoy Wilbon and Kornheiser more than any biased column that ExtremeSkins could ever write. There will always be a place for objective journalism. But I'm on Snyder's side here, if he wants to provide fans with access to a column that actually exhibits the same enthusiasm that it's readers have for the team, then I applaud that. It's different, and it sure is ruffling some feathers amongst the press, but fans love it. And that's just smart business.

There will always be a demand for the objective reporting that you personally strive to bring to us, I think it will always be the preferred source of information for Redskins fans (including me). But I see no reason why enthusiasts can't be a part of the picture as well. There's room for both in my mind.