Much has been made about the idea of proximity in media. The two main points in this idea are that mainstream media is too close to its subjects and that independent media is too far. Both are generally correct but both are oversimplifications.
Take for example, Chris Mortensen's report that Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman is in Stage One of the NFL's Drug Policy. Freeman is in a messy divorce with the Buccaneers and their acerbic Head Coach Greg Schiano. It is a situation as ugly as any in sports history with both sides having gone public deriding the other. And it all came to a head once this was leaked to Mortensen.
According to ESPN, Mortensen has covered the NFL for ESPN since 1991 and covered every Super Bowl since 1979. Outside of anyone at the NFL's own television network or website, he is as connected as any football journalist. So it is no surprise that Mortensen would be connected enough to get this information.
That being said, it is important to ask: is Mortensen being manipulated by the Bucs?
Awful Announcing asks this better than I can.
This is a touchy subject because the ideal we journalists have is to report the truth. Mortensen did this. But in order to report something, journalists need sources. Sources are human and have their own opinions and agendas. Too often, journalists can become ventriloquist dummies used to voice whatever their source wanted out there.
I don't think that was the case with Mortensen because I think Mortensen is too experienced to let that happen to him. I am fearful of that happening with reporters with resumes far less extensive as his. To them here's a simple word of advice: don't let that happen, then you'll end up doing just fine –like Chris Mortensen.
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