Honest Question - Majority of T&F journalists seemed like fanboys. Was letsrun the only ones asking serious questions?

Which journalists were getting the best answers?

If it's not the Olympics, the big papers and wire services send ONE unpaid intern, stockroom clerk, delivery truck driver, or teen daughter/son of a journalist to WA, DL, NCAA, and USATF meets. They don't send Sean Hannity or Don Lemon unless it's the Olympics.

Can you imagine Ato Boldon asking Allyson Felix why she ran so poorly?

It's almost all journalists, I call it 'half journalism". The only ones that don't do for the most part are smaller regional independents/alternative press, which fits Letsrun.

Yes. Most of them are not journalists. They're media members. They don't and won't ask uncomfortable questions for the most part. If they get the courage to, they certainly won't ask any follow up questions to the response received. LetsRun has an actual journalist (Jonathan Gault) who asks these things, and I'm glad track has someone willing to do it, despite the crybabies who criticize him for asking totally reasonable, fair things.

If a journalist is doing their job, they're going to get some athletes disliking them. It is what it is.

It struck me at Pre that many of the journalists don't really technically need to be credentialed for the event. They aren't actually working journalists covering the event - they are simply looking for access to athletes.

But the sponsors probably don't care - they just want stuff to go out there with their athletes in it - and maybe it's the same with World Athletics.

If your sole goal is to get someone to come on to your podcast so you can lob them softballs, then you aren't going to even ask remotely anything difficult in the mixed zone. If you are looking to write the definitive recap of a race, you are going to ask those questions.

But there was more media there than people realize. The AP guys where there. NY Times. Washington Post was there. And the Brits had 5-6 people asking some hard-hitting questions but you don't see those on our youtube videos as the written press was 90% of the time in a different area where filming wasn't allowed.

The Brits definitely view their job as to investigate. They were really into the Rana Reider story, Nijel Amos, etc.

Eugene paper was hard hitting. Not.

On the contrary, LR are wealthy, self-financed enthusiasts, same for Track and Field News, and a thousands others.

The press applies for credentials years ahead of the competitions. The meeting officials examine the articles, blogs, tweets and determines whether a press agency is a added plus for the meeting. If the press agency is too critical they are denied.

Press conferences by Vladamir Putin, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Seb Coe, Mitch McConnell, Max Siegel, etc. are thus essentially orchestrated and pre-rehearsed by filtering the press and choosing only press members who will ask flattering questions.

I don’t care for Citius Mag because they’re in it for social media exposure and soft ball ‘journalism’ clicks on Twitter and YouTube.

Real journalism is not what takes place in those types of public settings where athletes (and politicians) just put out canned answers. It takes place behind the scenes with reporters working sources that require persistence and skill to cultivate. When was the last time a breaking story came from a post-game interview?

I guess you missed the boys form LR defending Shelby on multiple occasions. Same goes for Paula. They LR aren't journalist and don't know how to ask any real questions..they were just going to YouTube shock value.

Gault is about as far from a journalist as you can get. Just because he asks dumb shock value questions doesn't make him a real journalist. I guess you forgot how he kissed up to Shelby's team. His "tough' questions made zero sense in context. He can barely speak, he was routinely mocked by the runners. Gault has never had a real journalism job to speak of.

Citius Mag is most certainly not real journalism, though it is good entertainment. Their goal is clicks and to tell stories, but none of the important stories. They do a good job of making the sport entertaining, but COMPLETELY IGNORE any important issues or just take the most liberal view they can on a subject. I’m extremely liberal but even I know that certain athletes shouldn’t compete in women’s events.

I like Citius, I really do. They get clicks for our sport. I do sometimes wish that they wouldn’t also throw shade when some of the LRC team try to do actual journalism. There are questions that need to be asked, and the athletes should be asked them. Athletes in any other pro sport know this. If you want to get paid like other sports, start answering the press like other sports.

There are several dozen Nike public relations operations that are at these meetings. They don't say they are funded by Nike but it appears from their twist on the facts and their repeated diatribe on certain legacy personalities they are controlled by Nike Marketing. Unconfirmed, many suspect the list includes Citius Magazine, Track Town USA, Oregonian, KVAL, Register-Guard, Portland Track, and many other websites, blogs, newspapers, TV stations, social media influencers, and so on.

Citius Mag's interviews over the course of the week during Citius Mag Live was some of the best stuff I've seen in a long time. Michael Johnson talking forever about remaking the sport? Trevor Bassitt on his story and development? RG3 on improving the sport, and helping athletes succeed in other parts of life? Great stuff.

I do agree that they had some great content. You don't typically see interviews with everyone like that. They are doing some real good and need to continue. I guess it's just different than actual journalism or what I viewed as athletic media. They are strictly a content creator for the love of T&F? I suppose that is the way I'm seeing it. I will say though, Citius was actually a bit of who I was speaking about with this post. It was sometimes cringe with the non-stop fanboy stuff that I noticed. I even think one of them tweeted about crying or shedding tears.

I don't know, just seems a bit like fans doing cool podcasts. I enjoy that, but I'm also looking for actual reporting with good questions, honest feedback, and sometimes tough conversations. This is also super important for the success of the sport. For example, if we want to grow, we have to push hard on the uncomfortable topics of what needs to change and who needs to change it.

People on the track beat are inexperienced. It's not worth it for most daily newspapers to hire someone in their sports section for that sport.

I have some connections as a freelancer to Richmond Times Dispatch, Santa Barbara Independent, Savannah Connect, etc. Those newspapers' sports sections don't have a track expert on staff.

I'm still a freelance reporter, albeit to a lesser degree, so it's good to try to fill that need.

I agree that a good sports press can keep the show good. I would not be as into it if it weren't for the FloTrack guys, and LetsRun reporting is really good, too.

I've participated in media press calls with Arles Merritt, Jason Richardson and Allison Felix put on by the USATF.

It's pretty standard in my experience but the questions were pretty boring. Then again, most of sports reporting is.

I also wrote an expose for a branch of ESPN and interviewed the Army WC program in Colorado and they were pretty heavily pushing a narrative.

Citius, and the people who work for it, aren't journalists, they're more like a PR firm. Its role isn't to tell difficult stories, it's to write fluff pieces and build benign interest. FWIW, I think it does that fine. Merber is surprisingly good as an interviewer and analyst. I'd like them to be more respectful of international athletes instead of focussing 90% of the time on US athletes but they are good at what they do. Just don't expect journalism from Citius as that's not its purpose, they're cheerleaders