Does Fox Sports Lose Journalistic Integrity by Posting Drunk Athlete Photos?
Fox Sports decided to run with a story on the popular Matt Leinart Drunk Pictures floating around the internet that originated at The Dirty. Here is the article that Fox Sports has on the subject.
It seems like they should have just reported on the story and linked to the pictures or not put the pictures up at all. We all know there are blogs all over the internet that use photos like this to get attention. In the early days pictures like these propelled Deadspin to the number one blog on the internet. I think its real interesting that there is not an author on the Fox Sports article. It’s almost like some editor desperate for page views wanted to do a story but none of his writers wanted to do it. Probably because they have integrity.
Based on your argument, a site like Fox shouldn’t cover a story with no real news value, right? I don’t have a problem with your point, and it was interesting to see no one authored the post.
But something else to consider. With the growing popularity of blogs to contend with, Fox and other major news outlets are seeking readers by imitating what bloggers are doing.
Just my $0.02.
MoonDog
April 16, 2008