The past couple of weeks there have been stories “leaked” by the media about drivers, sponsors and teams that weren’t really for “prime time”. Most recently was a story about Dale Earnhardt, Jr driving the #3 car at the July 2010 Daytona Race. That story was reported from insider information and it was supposed to be under wraps until the sponsor was ready to announce it.
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Talladega Superspeedway April 23, 2010:
“Well we really ain’t got anything confirmed. DW* sort of blew the lid off of it on Twitter nonetheless but… so that kind of ruined our announcement but we will put together and we will have an announcement real soon and explain what that whole program is all about and how it came about and what is going down with it. And it’s unfortunate that DW uncovered that and the way it went down because we didn’t want to have to announce it like this so we will do it when we had it originally planned and that is all I can tell you about it.”
Sports media people get access to drivers, sponsors and teams and information is sometimes shared in confidence or with the understanding that it isn’t ready to be posted. When media breaks that confidence and breaks a story just to be “first” they ruin the credibility of all media. Especially when the media breaking the story is a major mainstream media reporter that has access to more people than most others, and is expected to honor the confidentiality of the information being shared.
There is a lot of resistance still to “new media” such as websites like Awesome Race Fans and non-print, internet radio, internet tv and podcasts. We need to work together to ensure that access to drivers, teams and sponsors isn’t abused just to “get the story”. That will hurt credibility for all media and will cause us to have less access to the very people we need access too.
So moral of the story is, no matter who you are, no matter who you heard something from, check your sources, check with your source to be sure the timing to break the story is OK, and most of all, don’t abuse the access you get just to make your station, website, etc “look good”. The one time of breaking that one story that wasn’t ready, could end not only your credibility, but the access and credibility of those coming next.
*DW = Darrell Waltrip, three-time former NASCAR Winston Cup champion, winner of the 1989 Daytona 500, current television race commentator with Fox Broadcasting Company and columnist at Foxsports.com.
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