The Anti-Media Media

[joecrisp]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

You're right, it's not a professional thing for a sportswriter to do. But they're not sportswriters. Dan Snyder gets to decide who he puts in the pressbox, and if he wants to put biased fans in there, then that's his prerogative..

If they're not sportswriters, they don't belong in the pressbox. That's why it's called the "PRESS" box.

This is particularly irking to me, as I worked my butt off for three years trying to establish myself as a "fan reporter"-- spending my own hard-earned cash and that of TheWarpath faithful, using vacation time away from my wife that could certainly have been spent on more relaxing endeavors, pulling all-nighters trying to get my camp reports published in a timely manner, not to mention the inordinate amount of butt-kissing required to get any assistance from the Redskins media relations staff, and the tremendous amount of composure and self-control required to avoid ruffling the feathers of the folks who make their living as reporters.

How was I rewarded? I was told I was no longer welcome as a fan reporter-- by none other than the very same folks who are now foisting these obnoxious, anti-media, pseudo-reporter fans upon the professional media members.

I was lucky enough to get to spend a day in the pressbox for the Redskins-Ravens scrimmage back in August-- only because I was a reporter for The Daily Progress-- but I conducted myself as professionally as I could, and tried to be as unobtrusive as possible to those who were there trying to earn a living. That's how I always behaved around Redskins Park, because that's how I would want a visitor to behave in my workplace.

How would you like it if you had people running around in your office, jumping up and down, yelling and shouting-- when you're trying to focus and get work done on deadline? Most of us would probably at some point want to grab them and toss them headlong out the nearest window. I'd imagine that's how the professional media members in that pressbox felt when they were confronted with such unwelcome behavior.

I imagine if I had known that all the Redskins wanted out of a "fan reporter" was someone who could be as obnoxious and inconsiderate as possible around the professional reporters, I could have played that role quite naturally, and TheWarpath.net would've become the Redskins' official message board long ago.

Shame on me for trying to do the right thing.