Sports journalists encouraged to build relationships

    At the "Future of Sports Journalism" panel during this year’s Region 2 conference, much of the discussion revolved around the relationships journalists have with players and team managers and how those relationships affect coverage.
    Retired Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor George Solomon, Comcast SportsNet freelance anchor Greg Toland and Washington Redskins radio broadcaster Larry Michael agreed that a reporter with good, established contacts can overcome a team’s effort to control access to, and coverage of, a team. The panelists cited the late George Michael, a longtime local NBC sports anchor and host of "The George Michael Sports Machine," as a matchless reporter and relationship-builder.

       Larry Michael, the senior vice president and executive producer of media for the Redskins, minimized the notion that owner Daniel Snyder censors negative coverage of the team on the sports/talk radio stations Snyder owns.
     D.C. Pro board member Ben Shlesinger moderated the session.
     The panelists encouraged sports journalism students seeking their first jobs to take positions with teams or leagues for the varied experience and possibly take sports reporting jobs later.
     Furthermore, the panelists agreed that competition in sports media makes everybody better. Solomon lamented the death of the Washington Times’ sports section and what it meant for local sports coverage.
     Michael said a reporter from a rival radio station outworked and outperformed the reporter from the station the Redskins own. Michael said the difference was so pronounced, the reporter from his station got fired.