C'MON! INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

I'm going to issue a GOB-style "C'MON!" to Investor's Business Daily for pointing out that "ESPN even assigned a reporter, full-time, to The Bonds Beat -- a full-court press that no athlete has ever received, not Ali or Gretzky or Jordan or Tiger." Now, back when I was in school, my journalism prof would always tell us to be wary of "ever/never" assertions. Never covers a long time. To say that "no athlete has ever received" the scrutiny of having a reporter cover him or her full-time is a bold statement that would require a great amount of research to verify. You'd have to examine the coverage given to every major athlete in at least the past 100 years. But let's not bother with that... let's just look at the the examples given. To save time, I'll start with Jordan -- largely because I know that, in 2001, the Washington Post assigned a reporter, full-time, to cover The Jordan Beat when he joined the Wizards. Whoops. What's so-best is that Investor's Business Daily used the clever term "full-court press" to describe ESPN's unprecedented coverage... a term that CNNSI used to describe the Post's unprecedented coverage. CNNSI also asked (back in 2001) if "this only the beginning? Will the San Francisco Chronicle now assign a reporter to follow Barry Bonds every day, all the time?" Well, no. Cutbacks and whatnot. But still. Good prediction.