Covering Ohio State athletics is not an easy task for a student newspaper. Fighting off reporters from ESPN and The Associated Press just to get close to OSU football coach Jim Tressel can be a daunting task for reporters who have only two journalism classes as experience to fall back on.
But in this hypothetical example, the reporter was already at the press conference. When a reporter is not invited to a press conference, it makes reporting the news correctly nearly impossible.
This is the situation The Lantern found itself in last week while trying to report on the arrest of OSU place-kicker Jonathan Skeete. All members of the Columbus media received an e-mail from Ohio State Athletics Communications that gave basic information about the situation and a quote from Tressel.
Later that afternoon, a press conference was called for members of the media. All the bigwigs were there including The Columbus Dispatch and local television stations. Notably absent were The Lantern, Buckeye Sports Bulletin, a weekly sports newspaper, and the O-Zone, a sports news Web site.
We were absent because we were not informed of the press conference. What transpired that day was a classic case of the haves versus the have-nots of Columbus media.
A discussion with Steve Snapp, associate director of Athletics Communications, revealed that The Lantern was accidentally left off an e-mail list announcing the press conference. He apologized for the oversight and has made sure we are aware of press conferences that have taken place since the incident.
While this is a positive step that shows promise for the future of communication between The Lantern and the Athletics Communication, the fact that selected members of the sports community were left out of the process raises some red flags.
Freedom of the press is an important tenet of our democratic system. Restricted access to newsworthy sports figures does not fit into this framework of freedom of the press. Athletics Communications should be facilitating media contact with athletes, not blocking it.
The Lantern is not as prestigious as the Dispatch, The New York Times or ESPN. We are a student-run newspaper, not a gigantic news juggernaut on par with major national news outlets.
But our intentions are just as pure, our dedication just as strong and our tenacity is just as great as our counterparts in the mainstream media. All we want is a chance to do our jobs to the best of our ability.
The oversight by Athletics Communications was probably just that, an oversight. It is our hope that oversights will not continue to happen in the future, and the relationship between Athletics Communications and the media will be anchored in balance and equality.
