Back during my sportswriting days, it was pretty easy to complain about some of the job’s annoyances.

Such as the lousy media meals, like the kind I used to have covering the Florida-Georgia college football game in Jacksonville every year.

Or the crummy sightlines of certain press boxes, such as where the Washington Commanders play.

Or how hard it was to get to the NHL arena outside of Ottawa or the long lines for buses at the Olympics or the cramped work spaces at old Yankee Stadium.

Whenever I said such things out loud, I usually got the same response from readers:

Shut up, will ya?

I understand that. Truth is, no one wants to hear anyone bellyaching about what they have to do when they do their jobs, especially when that job is covering something fun, interesting and/or relevant.

Which brings me to this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Semafor’s Max Tani wrote, “The Democratic National Convention — off to a smooth start by all outward metrics — has also featured logistical headaches, like long lines, bad internet connections, expensive price tags, and limited access to the floor, leaving many of the 15,000 credentialed media grumbling, and their representatives openly battling convention organizers.”

Tani reports that the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which represents most major American news organizations, has expressed concerns to the DNC for months about press access, including reduced workspace, and has advocated for more room for print journalists.

Tani went through some of the specifics, but then astutely wrote, “Is there any lamer story than the media whining about access? No description of waiting in lines or searching for a spot on the ground to file a story is as annoying as it feels to do those things.”

For the record, Tani notes, “Democratic National Convention officials emphasized that the event is no cost to press, and that there is plenty of workspace for journalists in areas adjacent to the arena. They also noted that the number of credentials are in line with past conventions.”

Also, for the record, I checked in with Louis Jacobson from Poynter’s PolitiFact, who is in Chicago for the DNC. He told me the lines to get in through the media entrance weren’t too bad (about 45 minutes on Tuesday), and added, “As far as access, I’m not sure I’ve noticed anything. You can still talk to whoever you want on the floor.”

However, Tani gets to a deeper point, which is the relationship between the press and the Democratic party. Tani writes, “The old school news media that Democrats used to need to get their message out is no longer their only option. The DNC has made a serious, deliberate effort to make room for hundreds of content creators and influencers. These newcomers have gotten coveted passes to the convention floor and workspace in the DNC’s new creator lounge and creator platform.”

Ultimately, as Tani notes, the conventions are television events. Democrats and Republicans both are more concerned about how the speeches, the performances, the show are coming off to a national audience watching from the comfort of their homes — whether it be on their TVs, laptops or phones. What the audience sees of the convention is more critical than what they don’t see behind the scenes from those covering it.

In the end, journalists, no matter how annoyed and frustrated they might be at times, are professional enough to do their jobs well and fairly regardless of how long they stand in line and how far away they are from the stage.

But …

Tani does leave his readers with this point: “… the last days of the Biden administration — when carefully-managed access concealed a president’s waning capacity to campaign — served as a reminder that whiny-sounding complaints are one line of the defense of a free press, if a particularly grating one.”

Notable pieces as the Democratic National Convention continues in Chicago this week …

• The New York Times’ Katie Rogers with “Behind the Obama-Harris Friendship: A Key Endorsement and a Kindred Spirit.”
• Politico’s Jonathan Martin with “How Democrats Reversed the Script on the GOP.”
• The Los Angeles Times editorial board with “Harris’ nomination marks an extraordinary moment in American history.”
• The Atlantic’s ​​Yair Rosenberg writes about New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in “The New AOC.”
• This is a fun one: The Washington Post’s Shelly Tan with “Hype music: Candidate picks for their DNC and RNC entrances.”

More layoff news

The latest media company to have layoffs: Time magazine. It is cutting 22 jobs across various departments, including editorial, technology, sales and marketing, as well as Time Studios.

In a memo to staff, Time CEO Jessica Sibley said, “Like our peers, we continue to face significant challenges — from heightened competition for decreased advertising budgets to drastic shifts in consumer behavior, changes to search and social algorithms, and overall economic uncertainty. We are making changes now across our business to protect against this period of transformation and unpredictability in the media industry.”

Sibley did add hope that the company will continue to have good journalism, writing, “We will guide our work to elevate and cover leaders at every level; holding up and holding accountable the leaders who are transforming our world; inspiring aspiring leaders. We will also provide journalism that serves these present and future leaders. We will focus especially on the areas of leadership where we are having success today: Climate, AI and Health.”

More tributes

More tributes are coming in for talk show host Phil Donahue, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 88.

Geraldo Rivera, who had his own television talk show from 1987 to 1998, called Donahue the most important talk show host ever. He told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” “He invented the genre. … He was the first one to recognize that the home audience, the audience at home during the day, the caregivers, the homemakers, were interested in the world, that they had very serious notions.”

Rivera said that because of Donahue, talk shows hosted by Rivera, Oprah Winfrey, Regis Philbin and Sally Jessy Raphael were possible.

Raphael told Vargas that Donahue tapped into the female audience and respected them, adding, “The thing about it was he liked women, and that was at a time when there weren’t many men that we thought liked us.”

Another job for Greeny

(Courtesy: ESPN)

Just days after ESPN announced that Sam Ponder, host of the “Sunday NFL Countdown” pregame show, was being let go, the network announced who will be filling that chair.

Mike Greenberg, one of ESPN’s highest-profile personalities, will take over as host, adding another duty to his workweek. Greenberg also hosts the daily weekday morning show “Get Up,” as well as the two-hour daily radio show for ESPN Radio called “Greeny.”

Greenberg will be joined on the “Sunday NFL Countdown” set by analysts Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan and Alex Smith, in addition to NFL insider Adam Schefter. The show airs for three hours on Sunday from 10 a.m. Eastern right up until NFL action begins across the league at 1 p.m.

Greenberg becomes the fourth-ever host for “Countdown,” which is beginning its 40th season on the air. He takes over for Ponder, who was dumped for cost-cutting measures last week along with football analyst Robert Griffin III. Ponder had a year and a million dollars left on her contract, which will be paid out by ESPN.

Laura Rutledge, host of the daily “NFL Live,” was thought to be a strong candidate to replace Ponder, but ESPN went with the network’s most experienced and reliable host. That’s too bad, even though Greenberg is more than solid. Rutledge is a strong host and it would have been good to see her in that role instead of yet another platform for Greenberg.

Rutledge was also passed up last year for a high-profile position. When ESPN had a big round of layoffs, “Monday Night Countdown” host Suzy Kolber was let go. But instead of giving the job to Rutledge, ESPN went with another well-known ESPN personality: Scott Van Pelt.

Just one final thought: Greenberg’s role as the host of “Get Up” and his own radio show have allowed him to openly express his fandom of the New York Jets. While I get that being an obsessed Jets fan is part of his schtick and meant to lighten the mood and spark conversation on those other shows, it’s not exactly a great look for a pregame show.

More and more TV sports personalities, especially on ESPN, openly talk about being fans of certain teams. Most fans are used to it and probably don’t care anymore.

But I’m a bit old school and preferred when sports broadcasters, especially in hosting positions like Greenberg, didn’t have favorite teams — or at least kept it to themselves.

Return of ‘The Sports Reporters?’

One of my favorite all-time ESPN shows, and I bet I’m hardly alone in this, was “The Sports Reporters.” The half-hour show aired on Sunday mornings from 1988 to 2017, and featured a host along with, usually, four sportswriters. Regulars included columnists such as Mike Lupica (New York Daily News), Mitch Albom (Detroit Free Press), William Rhoden (The New York Times) and Bob Ryan (The Boston Globe). It also included former Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon, who went on to host “Pardon the Interruption.” In fact, shows such as “PTI” were spawned from the kind of smart debate talk found on “The Sports Reporters.”

Even though the show had a devoted following, the once-a-week format during a 24/7 news cycle often made for topics that were stale by Sunday morning. So the show was canceled.

But it might have a comeback.

Puck’s John Ourand writes that he is hearing “rumblings” that the show could return. Ourand added, “ESPN had hoped to have an episode ready within the next few weeks, hosted by Jeremy Schaap and featuring NFL play-by-play announcers, like Joe Buck and Al Michaels. There’s a lot that’s still in the air with this — nothing has been confirmed. The show won’t have a regular daily or weekly time slot, I’m told.”

Instead, Ourand reports, the show would be “produced for ESPN’s YouTube channel with segments available via linear, digital, social.”

Media tidbits

• The Wall Street Journal’s Alexander Saeedy and Dana Mattioli with “Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Now the Worst Buyout for Banks Since the Financial Crisis.”
• My colleague Rick Edmonds, Poynter’s media business analyst, with “When faced with an audience problem, cut or spend? A lesson from Disney.”
• Axios’ Sara Fischer with “New Washington Post AI tool sifts massive data sets.”
• The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio with “How Vladimir Duthiers went from 40-year-old journalism school intern to success at ‘CBS Mornings.’”
• My favorite headline of the day from The Conversation: “Does Democratic VP candidate Walz swear too damn much?”
• PolitiFact and Capital B have announced an election-year partnership to counter political misinformation aimed at Black audiences. Here are the details.
• NBC Sports has named Leigh Diffey its lead play-by-play voice for its NASCAR Cup Series coverage. NBC’s coverage starts this weekend with the Coke Zero Sugar 400  Daytona International Speedway and continues through the playoffs and season championship at Phoenix on November 10. Here’s a Q&A that Diffey did with The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi.

Hot type

• Another powerful piece from The Washington Post’s “The Concussion Files” project about head injuries in the NFL. This one is from Will Hobson: “As denials pile up, NFL settlement ignores ‘critical’ tests.”

More resources for journalists

• Lead With Influence is for leaders who manage big responsibilities but have no direct reports.
• Try our dynamic, in-person, five-day workshop for new newsroom managers.
• Find compelling climate change stories on any beat at Beat Academy.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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