But for all the attention paid to the Sox during the season, there wasn’t much reporting that foreshadowed the problems between Epstein and team CEO Larry Lucchino, which apparently triggered the rupture that seemed to catch everyone by surprise.
Among the analysts interviewed for this story, there was broad agreement that such a front-office rift — even if the parties want to hush it up — is legitimate fodder for sports departments.
“You have to [cover it] because it affects the way [the general manager] does his job,” says Frank Shorr, a former Channel 7 sports veteran who teaches sports journalism at Boston University.
“That’s an absolute story,” says Padwe. “That’s a business story. It’s a baseball story. It’s everything.”
A more sensitive question is when and if an athlete’s off-the-field issues become worthy news subjects. In this town, for example, rumors have long swirled that one player’s trade demands may have something to do with domestic issues.
That, of course, raises the thorny issue of when sports journalism should cross that public-private demarcation zone.
Five years ago, the editor of the gay-and-lesbian magazine Out announced that he had had an affair with a well-known but unnamed East Coast–based player, triggering a frenzy of rumors and gossip about the man’s identity. The editor raised the important issue of homophobia in sports, but sports journalism has been loath to go there.
And while some of Red Sox reliever Keith Foulke’s poor performance last year was widely attributed to personal problems, the media didn’t conduct the kind of thorough excavation of those problems that might have occurred with another public figure whose work was being monitored by millions of people daily.
And with hindsight, could more open coverage of Yankee great Mickey Mantle’s proclivity for very hard partying have been justified by its connection to his injury-plagued career?
Poynter’s Steele says that when it comes to sports coverage, the presumption of privacy should no longer be a given.
“If an athlete’s [private life] is having an impact on that athlete’s professional performance, that to me is a legitimate story,” he says. “By choosing to be a performer in the athletic arena, you give up that zone of privacy.”
Sports writing is Fun; News Breaking is Hard
The biggest impediment to more-aggressive sports coverage may be the idea that at a time when many media outlets are tightening belts and losing audience, sports certainly seems to sell.
A 2000 readership survey by Mediamark Research found that 43 percent of adults (including 58 percent of men) read the sports section of their daily papers, making it the most popular attraction behind the main news section. In Boston, the ongoing battle between the Globe and Herald sports sections is now the most competitive battlefield between the two rival dailies.
