There use to be a trend in the journalism community. You pay your dues a low rate, unpopular journalist doing the scrub stories. Eventually, you get your big break and maybe scoot up a couple spots. Hopefully at the end of this process you can become a renowned Stuart Scott of sorts and be featured on ESPN as a lead anchor. This is a sports journalist’s dream. But something has changed as of late and it is angering aspiring sports broadcasters and journalists.
After retiring from the sports world many coaches and players are beginning to sharpen there speaking skills and moving to the broadcast world. All one has to do is watch a morning, evening or night sports broadcast and see that at least fifty percent or more of the broadcasters are retired coaches or players.
Networks such as ESPN and FOX are training these athletes to conduct themselves in a broadcast safe manor in order to put them on these shows. Not only does this attract a higher audience due to the athlete’s solid popularity but also it allows the audience to see a report from a different perspective. But this is hurting the broadcast industry for people who go to school to do exactly what these athletes get to do in only a months training. Looking at it from the outside in =, I feel sorry for these men and women who dedicate their lives to a profession only to have it snatched away by a retired athletes who’s already reached their goals and aspirations. I think it is not only unfair but also unprofessional for these athletes to be announcing and broadcasting on a subject they know about but with little to no experience in how to say it.