Rich Couthino of CBS New York wrote today’s best thing I’ve read and as usual is a voice of reason.
We live in an age of instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. We are inundated with rumors about players, trades, free agency signings and personnel movement. I understand all that because the sports media is a competitive playground. But when you have a week where two New York baseball stars — Ike Davis and Robinson Cano need to defend themselves needlessly, I say enough is enough. Where is the accountability?
Throwing unconfirmed information out into the twitter world is so damaging to individuals and is needless because an unsubstantiated story can be perceived as true to some. You never can eradicate that because some bozo will bring it up when a player is slumping or under-performing. To me, it is the worst form of cowardice that there is and puts the player in a terrible situation. If he denies the rumor, people will question it. If he ignores the rumor, people will question it even more.
I would love to see the reaction of these rumor-slingers if their credibility was to be questioned in a public venue like Twitter and how they would react to it. Today’s media has the need to be first whether it is right or wrong, but to me being second and correct is the far better route to take. Fortunately, I work for people that believe in that philosophy.
Couthino is by no means suggesting to ignore everything, but to read everything through a prism that separates realism from fantasy and to consider the source you are reading and more importantly their track record for getting the story correct.
Bravo, Rich… Well said..
Keep this in mind especially as we enter the hot stove season where truth and professionalism take a back seat to attention-grabbing headlines and the outrageous.
