Woj didn't have his all his bases covered, it turned out that way because Howard was flip-flopping all through out the deadline, hence the "Indecision".
As a friend of Adrian's and a Y! employee, I'm not going to come off as objective in this sense, but I'd bash this piece even it were directed at Marc Stein or even Ric Bucher. OK, maybe not Ric. This has less to do with ESPN as it does Dave Kindred. Outside of Chris Broussard (who apparently stopped caring what journalists thought of him years ago as he passes off "scoops" as his own hours after Woj or Marc Spears publish them; which is a pity because Chris was good at the NYT), ESPN has generally been very respectful at times when Woj or Marc beat them on something. Save for Stein's little dance after beating Spears on the Troy Murphy free agency scoop this time last year (what a scoop!) this isn't as soap opera-y as it sounds. This has more to do with Kindred, and the cowardly way he put this column together. Players are players, they change their minds all the time and they can be swayed by precious little. I'm not Bucher's biggest fan, but when he wrote that Kobe wouldn't play for the Lakers again, it was because Kobe told him so. What was Bucher supposed to write? It's not anyone's fault that players shift in the wind, especially someone as immature as Dwight Howard. Kindred has attempted to make himself sort of the sports journo world's moral compass over the last three years, at Poynter and other places, and he really is unqualified for this role. That's about the nicest thing I can say about him at this point.
Appreciate your take on this. Notwithstanding that "shot" at Woj, I thought the article has some merit on how Twitter has changed the "game". Worthwhile read.
I agree, it should be read. But you also have to understand how much Kindred is kvetching, here. This stuff used to be served up to reporters, from PR guys from teams. The ease in which reporters can serve up new news in 2012 by simply pulling up their Twitter app flies in the exact opposite direction of the work they have to do in order to find sources, beat competitors, and sort out the noise from the real. In Kindred's day, these things were handed to him. I'm not dismissing the work he had to do as a beat guy or eventual columnist, but in terms of actually breaking things? It's changed. As someone I respect pointed out to me earlier tonight, it's a lot different than being told by a team PR guy at 8 pm in time to file for that night's deadline for a newspaper that most won't read for another 12 hours. It's quicker, now. And as fans we're all better for it.
great take Kelly, as fans we are certainly in space where info from players is just out there, journos/reporters then can at times find things out at the same time as the fans for me this is why i love Woj's opinion pieces, they are based on one thing, he builds it up from twitters, his many sources and then throws it out in a full story, of course with a strong opinion but really who enjoys reading something that doesn't have slant, angle or direction.
Off-topic, but I had an interesting interchange with Ric Bucher this morning via twitter after I called him an idiot.
