...with Tom Oates.

Journalists or Jock-sniffers?

My Mom tells me I work in 'entertainment'.

I defend myself by hoisting the red-white-and-blue shield of the First Amendment, journalistic ethics, and objective news coverage. Local sports is just my beat, like crime or politics is to other reporters. Our little game ends when Mom mentions my specific shade of make-up.

Mom: 1, Tom: 0.

Is local sportscasting going soft? Has ESPN's influence turned our offices into the television station rumpus room, cluttered with catch-phrases and wanna-be stand-up comics?

(Raise your hand if you could actually avoid showing the stalled Viagra-sponsored car in your NASCAR highlights? I thought so.) We do love good material.

I'm not saying local sports anchors and reporters don't work. High School Football on a Friday night rivals election coverage. Most of us put our foot in the sportscasting door by putting a camera on our shoulder, breaking speed limits, editing and writing until deadline (all while not smearing our recently applied 'Natural Beige #3').

But let's be honest, Edward R. Murrow didn't do sports.

There are scant times when sportscasters don the newshound hat and hunt for stories or ask tough questions. But its only sports!

We're at the bottom of the newscast for two reasons:
1. Nobody lives or dies if Joe College Coach quits to go to Rival U.
2. More viewers care about the weather than 3rd down percentage.

Network affiliates are squeezing sportscasts like they were Charmin.
Breaking news...Sports is cut.
Series package goes long...Sports is cut.
A Thunderstorm Warning in Cracker's Neck County...Sports is cut.

Even when sports makes the 'real' news, it becomes a tug-of-war with the assignment desk to actually let the sports staff cover it (I guess Mom would have been a good News Director).

Putting up the shield again, I pull my trump-card... we cover culture.

Gender, religion, race and age divide us, but after any game you'll hear the uniting phrases: "We won!" "We suck!" Its' not life and death, but sports contains the people's pulse.

Is there a doctor in the newsroom?' Not anymore. Station managers in markets such as Phoenix and Las Vegas have pulled a 'Mr. Whipple', choking off sportscasts altogether. 'Why compete with ESPN?'

Are we that different?
Are we even trying to be?
After all, the 'E' in ESPN actually stands for (gulp)...entertainment.

Mom's got the lead, and I don't want to play anymore. I have to powder my nose.

Tom Oates is a sports anchor / reporter for WKRN-TV in Nashville, TN. Tom started his career as a Sports Producer/Anchor at Sports Radio WTEM in Washington D.C. He then moved to News Channel 8, a 24-hour news television station in Washington D.C., where he was Sports Producer. He became the Sports Director at KJCT-TV in Grand Junction, Colorado and then moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin where he was the Weekend Sports Anchor for WLUK-TV.

In 1997, Tom won The Colorado Associated Press Award for Best Sportscast and the Associated Press Award for Best Sports Special.

React to this week's commentary in THE ENDZONE!

Back to Round the Horn >