A brief pause for some newsie stuff

(Which means all of you who think sports journalists talking about sports journalism issues is boring are hereby excused.)

(But I expect that paper I assigned last week to be on my desk by the end of class tomorrow.)

(And no "Awww, gee" and "No fair" out of any of you. Also no "Yay! No Critical Sportswriter Theory junk!" until you're out of earshot.)

Now, where was I?

Oh, yeah: The NBA Finals. Specifically, how the NBA is conducting the Finals vis-a-vis media coverage, which involves impaling local media outlets with a giant screw.

This upon seeing a tweet from Kylen Mills of KRON4 News in San Francisco, expressing "disappointment" that the NBA essentially shut out local media for the two Finals teams, the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. Local media outlets that covered the teams all season were barred from floor or interview room access. Instead, parachuting bloggers, podcasters and writers from around the country were basically given their seats.

Me?

I think Mills is showing admirable restraint in calling this disappointing. It's an abomination, is what it is. Also a damn disgrace. Also complete unadulterated bull you-know-what.

Local media that have covered a team all season should be at the front of the credential line, not the back. And they for damn sure should have floor and interview room access before some blogger from Mom's Basement, N.J. 

And, yes, I know, it's 2022, gramps, and the blogger from Mom's Basement probably gets goo-gobs of hits per day. Same with the podcasters. And why don't you teleport back to 1955 and go set some more hot type, old-timer?

Well, harrumph to that, to continue this theme. I don't care if Mom's Basement gets hits/viewers from beyond the grave, he or she is still a guest in the NBA Finals home. And the local media are the homeowners. How do they get assigned to the guest quarters?

Which, based on a photo Mills tweeted, are up in the nosebleeds at the end of the floor. You can almost see the game from up there, if you squint hard enough. Even then it looks like two ant colonies fighting it out.

Reminds me of where my seat was in Indianapolis for the 2000 NBA Finals between the Pacers and the Lakers. I was up in the rafters, too, which was OK because I was Indiana media but not Indy media, and my paper didn't cover the Pacers on a consistent basis. God knows where the NBA would have put reporters like me today.

Somewhere in auxiliary parking, I'm guessing.

In Fort Wayne.