I have grown up to the voice of Bob Costas. As a sports fan, he holds the 2nd most recognizable voice (to the master of sports microphoning, Marv Albert) in the business and has successfully covered almost every sport in the book for decades. Yet last night during halftime of the Dallas Cowboys/Philadelphia Eagles Sunday Night Football game on NBC, Costas decided to step out the “journalist box” and rant subjectively on gun-control while relaying the painful news from the Kansas City Chiefs camp.
Saturday morning, Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher committed suicide outside Arrowhead Stadium after murdering his girlfriend and mother of their 3-month-old child just minutes before. This tragedy has shocked the sports world, and makes one realize how much more there is to life than what we focus on day-to-day. While the story of Belcher will be pieced together in the days to come as we try to grasp understanding of why something like this could happen. But journalist must remember to follow their basic guidelines,ethics, and beliefs that make journalists relevant.
Sports journalism offers a slightly wider path than other fields of reporting. While the idea is to remain objective (report what you see…the facts), sports reporting asks for a bit of personal input and subjectiveness. Yes, Marv/Bob…we want the objective play-by-play and news, but fans also look up to these perceived “experts in their fields” and enjoy some commentary. This is what makes sports reporting so fun! If the numbers say the quarterback stinks, you give them the facts…then have a chance to tell the viewers and listeners WHY! Your personal take, from experience. Still, a smart sports reporter must know what waters to wade into, and which are simply too dangerous or outside of your focus.
Picking and representing a side for the gun-control debate during halftime of your football program is not right. Costas could have given us the sad news and let us ponder the reasons. So many aspects come in to play with this story, that his rant almost feels like a snatched opportunity to voice a personal vendetta. So according to Bob, if handguns are banned, the Belcher family would still be living happily ever after, and society would be much less violent and orderly. Aren’t you glad you learned that from a sports reporter while you were waiting for your Cowboys to comeback and get a win, Cowboys fans?! Picking side of a political tipping-point as a sportscaster is a losing battle. No matter which side you choose, you will have angered (and persuaded to channel-switch) a large percentage of the population….during a football game.
There is a time and place for voicing your personal political opinions (or for a journalist, maybe there shouldn’t EVER be), but Mr. Costas chose a poor location for his 2 minutes. Funny enough, right as Costas is speaking about restricting what seems to be American 2nd Amendment rights….”God Bless America” plays at the stadium in the background. Wow, Bob…..really?
alaskasportsnerd 