Media Savvy
It's My Job To Ask
By Andrew Stockey

My business card says Sports anchor/reporter, WTAE-TV. But did you know I also walk through fields filled with landmines on a daily basis and I often put on kid gloves when I go about my daily work?

Yes, while my job is to be an unbiased journalist covering the wide world of Pittsburgh sports, I must go about with tact and caution. That's because I deal with the most unpredictable of our kind—today's sensitive athlete and coach.

Sensitive. It's a word that best describes the modern day figure in sports. We see this creature rear its head everywhere. There was last month's CBS live post-game interview with Roy Williams in which the ex-Kansas coach blasted a reporter for even asking about his possible move to North Carolina. We all know how that turned out. Closer to home—and back in history—the Steelers lost the 1995 AFC Championship game and then-linebacker Kevin Greene threatened to decapitate any reporter who dare ask him a "stupid" question.

My most recent collision with the sensitive man in sports happened when Ben Howland held his last press conference on Oakland soil—before his Panthers trip to the Sweet 16. I asked him about the rumors regarding his "possible" interest in the UCLA job­an interest he made clear to the Los Angeles Times. Howland obviously was not happy with my question and rambled on with a recording about how happy he was at Pittsburgh and he was not "planning" to leave.

So why is everyone in sports so sensitive now that it's a major offense to even ask a basic question?

I think its part of a monster we in the media created. The media is more all consuming and unrelenting. We want the story now and we want our answers yesterday. We're in constant competition for viewers and readers. In 1990, there were three television stations, two newspapers and radio sports talk was reserved for a couple of hours after dinner. Now, there are six TV stations doing sports on a nightly basis and one dedicated sports cable channel. Plus, we have not one, but two all sports radio stations. The hunger to fill their product with the latest in sports news can create a feeding frenzy, which is often too much for the average athlete to bear.

Now, I'm not without compassion. I understand the raw emotion exposed moments after falling short of a goal that you have worked a whole year to achieve. Believe me, if you have covered a team all season long, the last thing you want to do is jam a microphone in their face moments after they have failed in their championship chase and ask the question, "How do you feel?"

But that is what we are asked to do in the media, and, in recent years, there has not been as much accommodation by some athletes and coaches to fulfill their half of the bargain. Yes, the media is always there when said-athlete or coach has a fund raiser or wants to promote their new brand of peanut butter. But when the same athlete or coach drops the ball in a game, they act as if the media never existed.

Since there is little I can do to change the mindset of the current star athletes, let me address the next generation of athletic heroes—those young people still in high school (by the time you have become a college star, you've already worked with consultants and agents, and there is little that can be changed in your on-air personality).

Kids, we will ask the tough questions and that's just a fact of life. We are not going to shy away from asking who, what, where, when and why. We promise to ask in a respectful way, realizing the game has just ended and your emotions are raw. But, at the same time, meet us halfway. Show the toughness you display on the field in the post-game interview room. If there is a question you do not want to answer, say "no comment." Don't yell back at us as if we insulted your choice of shirt and tie for the post-game party.

Sensitivity is cool in your relationships, but not in your daily dealings with the press.

Andrew Stockey is sports anchor for WTAE-TV.