THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

"journalist”.

I have no idea what constitutes a credible source. I suppose it depends on the person purveying the information and whom they work for or represent and whether they care about being labeled a “wolf cryer.” The guy had a source. It just so happens that he was playing a ruse. If you have to confirm these types of transactions with the teams then they would never be scooped right? If the teams wanted the public to know they would release the information themselves. I assume if this guy called the teams they would deny or say, “No comment.”

That being said, I never understood why anyone should care who breaks a story or not. If you work for a web site or newspaper or magazine, you might get extra traffic for a blurb or article that is a “first.” And if you are looking for a job I suppose that goes toward your qualifications. But other than those two things should anyone give a hoot who “breaks” a story?  Especially about a Billy Butler trade?  Is that some sort of badge of honor being the first one to report a trade or signing? If it is count me as someone who is not the leadt impressed. What am I missing?

Common Man is now on BPro:

http://www.platoonadvantage.com/2012/01/new-beginning.html

That page has been taken down, but, it’s available on Google Reader.  Presumably, it’s going to come back up in the morning.

What do I get for breaking the story?

MGL/2:  A good journalist would have relationships with people inside the organization whom he could trust to give him the truth even though they weren’t authorized to speak about it.

This is a much larger problem, though.  Journalists are so focused on the scoop rather than the truth that they deform public discourse.  It happened in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, when the networks were slobbering all over each other to report a winner in Florida, even when it was patently clear that there was nowhere near enough evidence to do so.  At the end of that evening they had gone back and forth before finally settling on Bush as the presumptive winner, which had the effect of shaping public perception in that direction, for no justifiable reason.  An honest approach, in which they admitted they did not know and did not push the public one way or the other, could have altered the course of events.