And the “longform” debate rages on—kind of: While We’re Waiting…

Hey hey—whatdya say, WFNYers? Happy Monday. Hell of a win on Sunday, eh? That Kevin Love guy might have a future in this league.

Before we dig in to everything for this week, I wanted to make sure to point out the excellent work that WFNY produced over the weekend. Traditionally, we go pretty silent on weekends due to schedules and such, but this past 48 hours have been a chock full of news with Browns rumors, Johnny news, Indians updates and rumors, and the latest on Anderson Varejao heading to Golden State. Make sure you pop in to the respective pieces in the event you need to a) get caught up on the latest, or b) voice your opinion on the various matters.

The best way to keep weekend content coming is to engage with it when it hits. Makes us feel nice and warm inside, you know?

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The last week in journalism—or more specifically, new-age, digital journalism—has been an interesting one to say the least. The quick story: SB Nation’s ambitious and terrific Longform vertical published a 12,000-word story about a former policeman who has (or had) aspirations of becoming an NFL football player. A profile in nature, the entire story—from opening paragraph to kicker–was sympathetic toward the dreams of a man that would go unfulfilled. The catch: Said former policeman was recently sentenced to 263 years in prison on 18 counts of sexual assault.

The story was penned by a freelance journalist who covered the convicted cop during his playing days at Eastern Michigan. But rather than exuding an ounce of sensitivity toward the topic or those who were victimized, the author used the failed football career as an excuse for what transpired and discussed the convictions as “alleged” while documenting the rap sheets of the other parties. Though the piece was pitched, edited, published, and promoted by countless folks with SB Nation ties (we’ll get to this part in a bit), it was later deleted from the site and replaced by a letter from SB Nation Editorial Director (and EDSBS genius) Spencer Hall that said the following:

The publication of this story represents a complete breakdown of a part of the editorial process at SB Nation. There were objections by senior editorial staff that went unheeded. It was tone-deaf, insensitive to the victims of sexual assault and rape, and wrongheaded in approach and execution. There is no qualification: it was a complete failure.

The situation ultimately went much higher than SB Nation mastheads, moving up to parent company Vox and the head honchos behind all of that venture capital that has been poured in over the years. Vox media director Lockhart Steele went on to mention the inception of an “internal peer review” that included ties being severed with the freelancer in question and a suspension of the entire Longform vertical, one that had been publishing several, well-told stories per month (including this gem)¹ and has had countless stories make a slew of year-end lists and even the coveted confines of the Best American Sports Writing series.

While the resume of successes runs long, this massive story has sent reverberations across the journalism community, providing plenty of ammunition for those who wish to blame the style of narrative (or “longform”) journalism for the shortcomings of ultimate errors that led to its publication. Deadspin theorizes that the pitched story was not what was ultimately produced, but it was cloaked in the glow of “longform” so it was given the green light. The Awl posted a purposely short snippet that led with “most longform is bad.” These takes went all the way from high-level and thoughtful to those that make Billy Madison’s “chlorophyll-borophyll” pun look intelligent.

None of this is new, of course. Any time an issue like this occurs, regardless of the outlet, there is some consternation around what is effectively the jam band of journalism’s rock. The Atlantic has rallied against the term itself. The New York Times dove in to this very topic following the publication of “Dr. V’s Magical Putter” over at Grantland. To say that “most longform” is bad is ignoring the fact that most everything is bad, pinning a straw man against a wall for the sake of snark. Look at the landscape of every restaurant in the world and suddenly most food is bad. Most music is bad when you take into account noise that emanates from plastic recorders. Most basketball is bad when you take in to account the 5-year-olds playing in rec leagues across the country.

The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. Every week around these parts, I share pieces of #ActualSportswriting, most of which tends to be in the several-thousand-word range. Some are shorter, maybe 900 words or so, but to report out and set the scene of a story, it takes time. It takes careful word choice. But mostly, it takes words. If we ignore the uneducated tweets regarding the topic and look mostly at those who trade in journalism, you have an outlet like Deadspin that frequently publishes longform stories², but also the asinine belief that any story can be told in 600 words or less. Could the Manti Te’o story be told in 600 words? What about Don Van Natta’s story on Deflategate? Could Wright Thompson have been able to tell his story about New Orleans in fewer than 17,000 words? Maybe. But you could damn well believe that the first draft of that story was much, much longer.

The root of the issue appears to be this: To celebrate longform for simply being long is disingenuous and something that happens all too often. This is undoubtedly true. That so many SB Nation folks re-tweeted the since-pulled piece comes off as something that is forced from the top down, no different than when every piece of talent at ESPN had to tweet the “scoop” on Jim Boeheim in the wake of their missed efforts on the story surrounding Manti Te’o. The issue here: There is no way that every individual who promoted said story was able to get through all 12,000 words before doing so. Having plenty of resources poured into an endeavor and needing all of the discussion you can get in order to justify the existence of said endeavor can be a tricky proposition. Narrative journalism is expensive. A company can only pay writers if folks then read the piece, and when it comes to the use of social media, sharing is caring.

Judging by some of the tone used in criticism, both the well-written and inane, there’s a perception that longform writers have a false sense of importance when compared to their more ephemeral, headline-generating or curating brethren. That “long” is somehow conflated with “better.” As if word count is viewed as a home run trot and narrative folks are out there just taking their good old time. Truth of the matter is that every home run is important, it’s just that the longform folks have a few more bases to touch before they can head home. Storytelling—the “who” and the “how”—is and will always be more important than the “what.” It’s why they live on in best-of lists and books and other forms of chronicling while yesterday’s news remains just that. (This all ignores the fact that how those who tell stories carry themselves—let alone the perception of such³—should not be a variable considered when discussing the importance of a medium or style. If levels of enjoyment were a function of egos involved, few would watch professional sports, enjoy television or films, or listen to music.)⁴

How the story at SB Nation fell through the editorial cracks is undoubtedly astounding. But to borrow from that NYT piece above, “even a group of smart people is capable of doing something dumb.” There is a reason why Sports Illustrated made it a point to mention that they have produced “longform since 1954.” There are reasons why otherwise attention-grabbing sites like Buzzfeed and Politico have dumped resources into narrative journalism. There is nothing literary to be had in a transaction or rumor or mock draft. There is something literary about a story told with the utmost attention and care. That 12,000 words were used to tell the story about a convicted rapist doesn’t mean that the words used were the issue. If anything, there should have been several thousand more which reported out both sides of the case.

If there was any learning to be had in this SB Nation debacle, it’s not in the style or form or egos involved. It’s in the care that was—or in this case, wasn’t—placed into a topic rife with sensitive material. As it wasn’t with Dr. V, this isn’t an issue with narrative journalism (or “longform”). It’s an issue with the constant wrestling match taking place between management, budgets, resources, and time. We may never know how the story in question saw the light of day, but we can reasonably estimate that if additional care was financially feasible—be it in additional editorial layers or internal meetings on a topic of sensitive nature—we may not be having this discussion.⁵ What I do know is that for every mistold story about transgender individuals or sexual assault, there are those on topics like domestic violence told with incredible levels of reporting, but more importantly, incredible levels of care. And if we are going to dig into sensitive topics that are becoming a larger and larger part of sports in today’s landscape, we’re going to need a hell of a lot more than 600 words.

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Now that we got that out of the way, here’s this week’s edition of #ActualSportswriting:

“The Digital Dirt” by Nicholas Schmidle (The New Yorker): “According to a former security supervisor at the Revel, nearly eighteen hundred cameras streamed video to a pair of monitoring rooms on the mezzanine floor. After guards responded to the incident in the lobby, several surveillance officers gathered and wondered aloud if a tape of [Ray] Rice and Palmer could be sold to TMZ—the Web site that, since its inception, in 2005, has taken a merciless approach to celebrity news.”⁶

“The FBI vs. FIFA” by Shaun Assael and Brett Forrest (ESPN The Magazine): “Chuck Blazer looked out the window of his $18,000-a-month Trump Tower apartment, with its view of New York’s Central Park. Most tourists on Fifth Avenue below could only dream of his kind of high-rise life. But after years of lavish excess, he was no longer fixated on the trappings of his success. On this day, standing only in an adult diaper as a small team of FBI agents prepared to wire him with a recording device, Blazer just wanted to stay out of prison.” ⁷

“The Promise Rio Couldn’t Keep” by Bonnie D. Ford (ESPN OTL): “In August, barriers installed across more than a dozen of Rio’s dying rivers will hold back garbage that otherwise might drift into the paths of Olympic sailors. A fleet of boats will patrol to keep debris from snagging on a rudder or centerboard and costing someone a medal. Some of the untreated human waste that has long fouled Rio’s beaches and docks and picturesque lagoon will be diverted from competitive venues so the athletes who have to navigate them need not worry. This is what has been promised, anyway. This is the latest stopgap wave of promises made when it was clear the first wave wouldn’t be kept.”⁸

“Cowboy Way: Dirk Nowitzki is loving the ride:” by Chris Ballard (Sports Illustrated): “Former nemesis Kevin Garnett, 39, is now essentially an assistant coach in Minnesota. Paul Pierce, 38, slowly withers in Los Angeles. Tim Duncan, 39, and Manu Ginóbili, 38, are fellow outliers in San Antonio, though neither is asked to carry an offense. And then there’s Dirk. He remains the focal point for Dallas, averaging 17.6 points and 6.6 rebounds through Sunday while lifting an overachieving squad into playoff position. He is, in many respects, the same player as ever.”⁹

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This tweet made the rounds this weekend, and I felt it was more than worthy of sharing in this setting.

MUST READ: Pop was asked what kind of qualities the Spurs look for when bringing people into their organization: pic.twitter.com/0ZiucGoN4T

— PHS Academy Post Grad & AAU (@_PHSAcademy) February 21, 2016

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And finally, Khloe Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez playing “password” with Jimmy Fallon.

Questlove is the best and if you disagree you’re wrong. We all could use a Jif bowtie in our lives.

Have a great Monday, you guys. Chill.

1. Assuming that a portion of you did not click on this link, I want to disclose that I have had a piece published on SB Nation’s Longform vertical and have worked directly with the editor on the piece in question. [↩]
2. This does not even include Alex Belth’s The Stacks which republishes legendary works of sports journalism. [↩]
3. Because let’s remember: We don’t know these people. [↩]
4. Not to mention, if I, having worked alongside many of these folks, were to make a list of the biggest egos in media, longform writers wouldn’t even crack the first draft. [↩]
5. Editors are important. They save writers from themselves more than the everyday reader will ever know. [↩]
6. Not exactly sports writing, but this piece on how (see?) TMZ gets their videos and images is terrific work. Between the storytelling, reporting, writing and the fact that I haven’t had a chance to link to The New Yorker in a while, it’s this week’s lead-off hitter. [↩]
7. You want culture? Whooooo boy. And how about that lede? Straight fire. [↩]
8. As bad as the FIFA thing has been, Olympic bids feel like the next politically fueled-turned-corrupt shoe to fall. Think Flint, MI is bad? Read this story. [↩]
9. I figured I’d end with something less heady. A great profile an a very under-appreciated star and soon-to-be Hall of Famer. [↩]