By Howard Sinker The news reporting class I teach probably isn’t what you’d expect. The college where I teach doesn’t offer a journalism degree — and I’m good with that. My hope is that students learn a little about … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski It was a favorite diversion of mine, when I was teaching at the Missouri School of Journalism, to wander down the hall from my office to the newsroom of the Columbia Missourian. I would plug into … Read more
If there is such a thing as the perfect summer read, this might be it. First, it’s about baseball. Even if you’re not seduced by the sport, the writing it has inspired through the years can be superb … Read more
Atlantic editor and writer Jacob Stern can sum up in a single word, as flickering as a blurred jab, what he knew about boxing: “Nothing.” But when Stern embarked on a story about a boxer returning … Read more
Oh, the nut graf. I had to mentally brace myself to write about it. After all these years, it’s still the hardest thing I write. I tell students that all the time. I want them to know it’s not … Read more
Olympic athletes toil years to earn spots in competitions so dramatic some are judged by the snick of a shutter. The patience required for journalists is less heightened but very real. Writers at the Games have to wade through … Read more
You love the games and the writing and become a sports journalist. You devote a career to that passion and the craft, writing for some of the best mastheads in the country. You write several books, most about sports … Read more
A lame inside joke in many of the newsrooms of America: The sports department is also referred to as “the toy department.” After all, the coverage focuses on games. Until you read more closely. Sports is about so much … Read more
Most 20-something sports journalists don’t find themselves covering something as raw and emotional as the aftermath of one of the deadliest natural disasters in American history. But here was Benjamin Hochman, sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree hotel in Dallas with the quarterback of Tulane University, who broke down in … Read more
The thing about being the first pick in the NBA draft – especially if you’re 19-year-old Kwame Brown, the youngest No. 1 pick ever – is that you become the subject of a lot of newspaper stories. By April 2002, the end … Read more
