Thanks to my Poynter colleague Annie Aguiar for picking up the lead item of last Friday’s Poynter Report following the death of O.J. Simpson.

I thought this would be the appropriate time to talk about a question I occasionally get having come from a sports and sports media background: What is the best sports documentary you’ve ever seen?

In my opinion, the shortlist would include “When We Were Kings,” “Hoop Dreams,” “The Two Escobars,” “Free Solo” and, if you can overlook that the main subject had a big hand in its content, “The Last Dance” featuring Michael Jordan.

But, by far, my vote would go to 2016’s “O.J.: Made in America.” The five-part, 467-minute doc is a masterpiece, looking back at not only the life and murder trial of Simpson but also a nuanced study of race and celebrity in America.

When it was released, New York Times critic A.O. Scott wrote, “If it were a book, it could sit on the shelf alongside ‘The Executioner’s Song; by Norman Mailer and the great biographical works of Robert Caro.”

Scott added, “It’s very much a film, though, a feat of tireless research, dogged interviewing and skillful editing. Some of the images have an uncanny familiarity, while others land with almost revelatory force.”

Jen Chaney, a TV critic for Vulture and New York magazine, wrote at the time, “Practically every moment of its seven-and-a-half-hour running time is thought-provoking, astonishing, sobering, hilarious, tragic, and sometimes all of those at once.”

Not only is it the best sports documentary ever, it might be as good as any documentary of any genre. Masterfully directed by Ezra Edelman and a part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, “O.J.: Made in America” won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Oscars.

If you have never seen this documentary, I urge you to watch it.

A dozen requests

So the number of news organizations signing on to urge President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to agree to debate before the November election is up to 12, according to Associated Press media writer David Bauder.

ABC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox, NBC, NewsNation, PBS and Univision have all signed on. As I mentioned in The Poynter Report last week, the television networks are particularly interested in hosting debates, which could bring them tens of millions of viewers.

The Associated Press, NPR and USA Today also have signed the letter. Bauder reports The Washington Post declined a request to join the letter.

The joint statement from the news organizations said, “If there is one thing Americans can agree on during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high. Amidst that backdrop, there is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of our nation.”

Down for the right

Good piece in The Atlantic from media reporter Paul Farhi: “Right-Wing Media Are in Trouble.”

Farhi — quoting from The Righting, which tracks right-wing websites — notes that February readership of the 10 largest conservative websites was down 40% compared with the same month in 2020. That’s the last time it was a presidential election year.

Farhi writes, “What’s going on? The obvious culprit is Facebook. For years, Facebook’s mysterious algorithms served up links to news and commentary articles, sending droves of traffic to their publishers. But those days are gone. Amid criticism from elected officials and academics who said the social-media giant was spreading hate speech and harmful misinformation, including Russian propaganda, before the 2016 election, Facebook apparently came to question the value of featuring news on its platform. In early 2018, it began deemphasizing news content, giving greater priority to content posted by friends and family members. In 2021, it tightened the tap a little further. This past February, it announced that it would do the same on Instagram and Threads. All of this monkeying with the internet’s plumbing drastically reduced the referral traffic flowing to news and commentary sites.”

There’s more depth to Farhi’s piece, with good insight into why traffic is down this year compared to the newsy 2020. He does ask this interesting question: “The precipitous decline in traffic to conservative publications raises a larger and possibly unanswerable question: Did these operations ever really hold the political and cultural clout that critics ascribed to them at their peak?”

Best and most embarrassing performance

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, left, campaigning with Nikki Haley, center, in January in New Hampshire. ​​(AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The subhead here points out two different people. The “best” goes to George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s “This Week.” The “most embarrassing” goes to New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu for his performance on “This Week” on Sunday.

Sununu was a staunch supporter of Nikki Haley not long ago as Haley challenged Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee for president. But now that Haley is out, and Trump is the presumptive nominee, Sununu is throwing his support behind Trump. This after Sununu blasted Trump during Haley’s campaign. That included him saying Trump “contributed to an insurrection.”

Sure, this is politics. You support one candidate until that candidate is out and then you endorse whoever is your party’s pick. But Sununu was especially harsh on Trump. And it should be noted that some others who supported Haley, and Haley herself, have stopped short of endorsing Trump.

On Sunday, Stephanopoulos asked Sununu, “You believe that a president who contributed to an insurrection should be president again?”

Sununu said, yes, and that “51% of America” agrees with him. I’m not sure where Sununu is getting that 51% figure, but then Sununu added, “I mean, really, I understand you’re part of the media. I understand you’re in this New York City bubble or whatever it is. But you’ve got to look around at what’s happening across this country. It’s not about just supporting Trump. It’s getting rid of what we have today. It’s about understanding inflation is crushing families. It’s understanding that this border issue is not a Texas issue. It’s a 50-state issue, right? That has to be brought under control. It’s about that type of elitism that the average American is just sick and tired of. And it’s a culture change. That’s what I’m supporting.”

Mediaite wrote that Stephanopoulos’s nine-minute interview “absolutely eviscerates” Sununu. It ended with Stephanopoulos saying, “So just to sum up, you support him for president even if he’s convicted for classified documents. You support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You support him for president even though you believe he’s lying about the last election. You support him for president even if he’s convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say the answer to that is yes, correct?”

“Yeah,” Sununu replied. “Me and 51% of America.”

Again, 51%? Either way, Stephanopoulos closed by simply saying, “Governor, thanks for your time this morning.

Afterward, Sununu was crushed on social media. Check out this story from Mediaite’s Phillip Nieto.

CNN contributor (and former adviser to Barack Obama) David Axelrod tweeted, “This was truly sad.”

Media tidbits

• Jay Cridlin of the Poynter-owned Tampa Bay Times with “Marion Poynter, widow of former Times owner Nelson Poynter, dies at 97.”
• Semafor’s Max Tani with “The Intercept is running out of cash.” Tani writes, “The Intercept, the left-wing U.S. newsroom that’s been a thorn in Joe Biden’s side and a hub for pro-Palestinian coverage, is nearly out of money and facing its own bitter civil war, with multiple feuding factions battling for power and two star journalists trying to take control.”
• Catching up on this from last week. The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz and Meryl Kornfield with “Meet the 25-year-old who TikToked his way onto RFK’s campaign team.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Natalie Andrews with “Powerful Senator Crafts TikTok Crackdown.”
• In case you missed it, University of Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark made a guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” Here’s the clip.
• Deadline’s Valerie Complex reports that ESPN Films will do a “30 for 30” documentary on late ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor Stuart Scott, who died in 2015 from cancer at the age of 49. Andre Gaines, who is directing, told Complex, “Stuart Scott transcended broadcasting, journalism, sports and culture in ways that we’re only beginning to really understand and appreciate now. He made his mark on so many people, especially young black men, and his legend has only grown since his passing.”
• CBS announcer Verne Lundquist called his 40th and final Masters golf tournament on Sunday. The Masters put out this video tribute. And here are Lundquist’s final moments on the air.

Hot type

• The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill with “The O.J. Verdict Reconsidered.”
• And, hey, how about another Jemele Hill story: “Women’s College Basketball Is a Worthy Investment.”
• For The New York Times, Matt Flegenheimer and Joseph Bernstein with “Dana White, Donald Trump and the Rise of Cage-Match Politics.”

More resources for journalists

• Work-Life Chemistry newsletter course: Ditch work-life balance for a more sustainable approach. Sign up for this six-week email course.
• Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative is a fellowship for public media journalists. Applications due April 22.
• Get early-career help with Reporter’s Toolkit. Applications close April 28.
• Hiring? Post jobs on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers.

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