Another day, another ESPN sourcing controversy
Like sand through the hourglass, so comes another sourcing controversy at ESPN. It seems like reporters being upset with Bristol for swiping their stories and attaching "SOURCES" is becoming a weekly thing. The latest reporter to be caught in the sourcing crossfire is someone that has his own history with ESPN - Bruce Feldman.
The man at the center of #FreeBruce, who left ESPN under spectacular circumstances, broke a big story last night. Feldman reported the news of Florida State All-ACC DE Brandon Jenkins missing the rest of the NCAA season with a left foot injury.
That's when ESPN's sources stepped in...
At halftime of last night's ESPN Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech broadcast, Bristol reported the news using "sources" to relay the information, knowing full well that Feldman had the story much earlier. This led Feldman to publicly respond on Twitter. Everyone knew who he was talking about...
C'mon...Sources?!? You guys are better than that, aren't you? Are you going to keep doing me like that?!? Weak.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) September 4, 2012
Immediately, others came to Feldman's defense, starting a mini-#FreeBruce movement.
— Brent Ray (@t_brent_ray) September 4, 2012
@bfeldmancbs you were just mentioned by@espn_recedavis during an update on Brandon Jenkins. He mispronounced Bruce. Sounded like "sources"
Didn't know
— Nolan Mullins (@nm084) September 4, 2012@bfeldmancbs name was changed to Sources.
It's easy to criticize ESPN when you don't know that
— sir broosk (@celebrityhottub) September 4, 2012@bfeldmancbs is Beetlejuice.
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) September 4, 2012
Hey,
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) September 4, 2012@bfeldmancbs, since they're calling you "sources" now, maybe they'll hire you like they did@mcmurphyespn. Oh, wait.
Online, ESPN has a report from their FSU affiliate site Nole Nation that gives credit to CBS Sports for earlier reporting the story. If an ESPN collegiate site can credit CBS Sports, why can't the TV side do it at halftime when there are millions watching?
At some point, even the most strident ESPN supporter has to recognize there's too much smoke to not have a raging fire concerning Bristol's alleged stealing of scoops. Imagine this kind of trend happening in the real, hard news world. Imagine NBC News taking ABC or CBS reports and attaching their own "sources" almost immediately after an original report is filed at a rival network. Imagine the New York Times taking Washington Post and Chicago Tribune and LA Times stories for their own. It would be the journalistic scandal of the century.
And yet, time after time, ESPN just happens to report all these stories using their own "sources" that have been broken minutes earlier by other outlets. If you believe that, there's a bridge I want to sell you. Sources tell me it's a great deal.
its dumb by espn, but the reporters need to get over it. No one cares that they reported it. Ppl just want the news.
@bradford.allen0830 Wrong Allen. Dead wrong. Get a clue. "People" expect fairness and competence in a free press society.
I find most journalists to be self important blow hards but this really does reek. People should get credit for their work.
@bradford.allen0830 It's one of those unspoken rules of journalism. You don't swipe someone else's work and claim it as your own, especially if you can't cite exactly who told you the information. To make a sports analogy, it's like someone stealing a base when they're up by 10 runs in the seventh inning. The general public may not really care, but those involved do and will almost always get upset.
That's actually not an unspoken rule--it's common sense. Also sounds similar to a concept they used to teach in school called plagiarism. Wonder if they still teach that?
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I have my own personal experience with this phenomenon. When I was just a lowly college writer in Oklahoma, I broke a story about Barry J. Sanders saying Nick Saban told him Mark Ingram would be leaving college a year early and would make his intentions known Friday.The story got picked up by most of the national outlets, with Fox Sports, CBS College Sports, Pro Football Talk, College Football Talk and CNNSI all crediting and linking to our original story. Then ESPN reported it during a "SportsCenter Right Now" bit, labeled it as "Breaking News" and added "Sources" to it without even mentioning that anyone else was involved in reporting the story. It makes it even worse when everyone else is properly giving credit where it's due, and ESPN only cites the shadowy "Sources."
