My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana:

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In 1999, Ed Hinton of Sports Illustrated was denied a credential to cover the Indianapolis 500. The Indy Racing League was upset after Hinton wrote an article critical of racing safety.

The IRL’s decision created a firestorm, given Hinton’s stature as one of the top auto racing writers in the country. There were threats of a mass media protest of the race in support of Hinton.

My former boss, John Cherwa, the Chicago Tribune’s associated managing editor for sports, actually returned his paper’s credentials to the race. He wrote:

“We can’t allow the people we cover to pick the reporters they want to cover them. How can you, as readers, have confidence that the reporting we give you is unbiased if the people running an event are picking the people who write about them?”

IRL didn’t want an empty press box and eventually gave Hinton a credential to the race.

There you go, power of the press.

The Hinton story came to mind in light of what happened to Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beadle last weekend. Twitter blew up Saturday following their tweets about being banned from the big fight in Las Vegas.

Apparently, Floyd Mayweather and his camp didn’t like that Nichols and Beadle dared to point out that the boxer has a rather extensive history of domestic violence. Nichols grilled Mayweather during a remarkable interview last year on CNN.

Throughout the day, there were questions about whether Nichols and Beadlewere denied credentials. Finally, near fight time, Nichols wrote a long tweetexplaining what happened to her. She clearly was denied.

Bottom line: It was an incredibly stupid move by the Mayweather camp. The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins said in a tweet: “Woman-hater#FloydMayweather just made domestic violence and Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beadle the chief topic for the next 12 hours.”

Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times also was outraged:

“The decision by Mayweather’s camp to deny credentials to Nichols, Beadle and others who challenged this corporate-mandated sanitization of things marked a new low in coercion by an athlete among the world’s wealthiest.

“Imagine how (Roger) Goodell or the Ravens would have been crucified by public opinion had they banned critical reporters during the Rice scandal. Even the NFL, wielding greater power than most sports in controlling the news narrative, figured that line couldn’t be crossed.”

The larger issue from a media perspective came from Christine Brennan of USA Today. She actually was in Louisville for Kentucky Derby Saturday. However, after hearing of the flap about Nichols and Beadle, she said she wished she was in Las Vegas so she could stand with her colleagues. Brennan wrote:

“Every journalist who is credentialed to cover the fight at the MGM Grand Arena should stand with Nichols and Beadle and not go into that fight. When Mayweather bans two, he bans all of us.”

Indeed, I had the same reaction when I heard the news Saturday. I did tweets saying reporters should refuse to cover the fight in support of Nichols and Beadle.

As far as I could tell, nothing materialized in regards to a formal protest. The Mayweather camp tried to insist that the reporters were credentialed, and some of the details regarding Beadle were murky. It wasn’t as clear-cut as the Hinton case at Indy.

Hopefully, though, a protest was considered in the press room, even if only for a few moments. Brennan is right: The media needs to be united in these situations.

If it means actually a reporter pulling out on covering a big event like the fight, so be it. You can’t have reporters thinking twice about asking tough questions or writing critical stories out of fear they won’t be credentialed for an event. As Cherwa wrote in 1999, sometimes taking a stand on principle is more important than covering the story.

Power of the press is dwindling commodity these days. But the power still is there if the media comes together when their fellow reporters are treated unfairly.

The last thing these entities want is an empty press box.

Paul Konerko won many honors during his baseball career, but he probably never thought about winning a Sports Emmy.

Konerko’s “PK Thanks Chicago” farewell video is nominated for a Sports Emmy in the category of Outstanding New Approaches-Sports Programming Short Format. The Sports Emmys are Tuesday in New York.

The video, produced by 312 Media and aired on MLB.com, mixes images of Konerko packing up balls in the indoor batting cage at U.S. Cellular Field along with highlights of his career.

Tad Hathaway of 312 Media said Konerko wanted to do a video as a way to thank Sox fans for their support.

“We wanted to show all the hours he spent in the batting cage,” Hathaway said.

Hathaway said Konerko was actively involving in planning the video. The former Sox star even assisted on the production side. After seeing the edited version of the video, he suggested that the images of him picking up the ball in the cage should run in black-and-white. It helped give the piece a different feel.

“Paul has a good eye for concepts,” Hathaway said. “It was a good suggestion.”

Konerko’s video will be up against some strong competition at the Sports Emmys. The other nominees are Fox Sports for “Captain’s Curtain Call” on Derek Jeter; “NFL Up!” by NFL Digital Media; and “Putt Putt Perfection” by Grantland.

When you reach a milestone birthday and receive a big lifetime achievement honor at the same time, the finish line to a career comes into clearer focus.

Chris Berman definitely will have reason to be reflective this week. Tuesday, the long-time ESPN anchor will be among this year’s inductees into the Cable Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Navy Pier. Sunday, he turns 60.

Berman, an avid golfer, put the current stage of his career in golf terms.

“I’m putting on the 14^th hole,” Berman said. “I still have a few more holes to affect the overall score. There’s no other way to look at it.”

When told many prominent sports announcers are working well into their 70s, Berman said, “I won’t go that long.” However, he also stressed he isn’t making any plans to retire just yet.

“Sixty is an eye-opener,” Berman said. “The belly’s bigger and you have less hair. But I still enjoy what I’m doing and I still think I’m good at it. I think people like getting their football from us.”

The Cable Hall of Fame honor also has Berman taking stock in his career. He was an unknown 24-year-old broadcaster when he joined ESPN in Oct., 1979, one month after the new network launched. The six-time National Sportscaster of the Year helped put ESPN on the map.

“Cable has been around for about 40 years, and I’ve been around for almost all of that,” Berman said. “I realize people are appreciative of what ESPN has done. Me being the quarterback, I get a little more credit than I deserve, or a little more blame than I deserve. They’re honoring the network.

“I think of all the people whose names you’ll never know. A piece of them shares in this award.”

Northwestern Medill School of Journalism hosted a session with the NFL commissioner while he was in town for the NFL Draft.

Medill alum Christine Brennan served as the moderator. The Daily Northwestern report included this passage.

Goodell told the audience he wanted to speak with Medill students because of the important role the media plays in the NFL.

“I enjoy the opportunity to have these kinds of exchanges. … It was something we thought would be a great opportunity for us to be able to share our perspective,” he said. “Journalism is very important to our business. We want the facts out there.”

Think I’ll just leave that last line alone.

Reprising an old favorite. There’s always so many good stories on the beat worth sharing.

Ryan Glasspiegel of Big Lead did an interesting two-part series on Howard Cosell. Part 1 dealt with why he became disillusioned with sports. Part 2 examines what kind of work he would do if he existed today.

I asked Kornheiser if he saw similarities between Cosell and Keith Olbermann. “I agree with you on Keith — I think he’s the logical connect-the-dots guy,” he said. “I’m a big fan of Keith Olbermann. The thing that Howard valued most was brains, and Keith’s got brains.”

Dave Kindred, who wrote a dual biography of Cosell and Muhammad Ali entitled Sound and Fury, concurred. “Howard would have to be the star of anything he did today — there’s no doubt about that,” Kindred said. “His ego would demand that, and almost nothing else. That was one of the things that enabled him to be a star in his time. There was nobody else. He was everything. Everything that he did, he did by himself. Everything that broadcast media has grown into, he did in one version or another. Olbermann is a direct descendant. He’s smart and can connect the dots between cultural events and sports events. He’s the closest to Cosell. Cosell wanted out of the sports box — for a stretch, Olbermann was out of the sports box.”

There was a panel that created fireworks at the Blogs With Ball convention. Andrew Bucholtz of Awful Announcing reports reports.

Kluwe also made a passionate case for letting athletes speak out, saying  “We are human beings as well. We would like to use that voice the way everyone else gets to use that voice. We’re gladiators. Go forth and bleed in the arena. And then shut your f**king mouth. That’s bullshit.” Harison responded by saying Kluwe being cut by the Vikings was his own fault for being such an activist. “You did create a circus around yourself and played a position that’s replaceable.” (It’s notable that Kluwe also said later he believes he was cut for his views, saying “”If you speak up, and you’re not a Tom Brady or a LeBron James, teams can find reasons to replace you.” His interpretation of the “circus” is rather different, though.) Kluwe then brought this around to Floyd Mayweather, saying that Harison’s “sports should be sports” stance would completely ignore Mayweather’s domestic abuse record. “You’re saying that we don’t have to care that Floyd Mayweather is a serial abuser of women because he can box really well.” He followed that up with perhaps the line of the day, blasting noted Mayweather enabler Stephen A. Smith: “First Take is huge, it makes a ton of money, it’s dragging us straight towards Idiocracy.”

Tim Kurkjian is the latest subject in the “Still No Cheering in the Press Box” series by the Povich Center for Sports Journalism at Maryland.

Transitioning from writing to broadcast was difficult at first. I spent a fortune on clothes. I wear more makeup than my wife. I spend a lot of time walking around talking to myself. I finally figured out in a short amount of time that broadcast is just like presenting a story in the newspaper, but you just have to present it in another way.

The newspaper business and magazine business taught me how to tell a story. Being a reporter, I knew how to report the story; I just had to do it in a slightly different way for television. The newspaper training I got trained me to be on TV, and I’m sure it could work the other way, but I think it’s a whole lot easier to go in the other direction, the way I did it.

I’ll always love writing the most. But I must say, I love doing television because I can talk about something right now. With the newspaper, I’d have to wait ’til the next morning. With the magazine, I’d have to wait an entire week. Now, if I need to say something, I can say it now and not have to wait. The spontaneity of TV I really like.

Matt Zemek of Awful Announcing details why Google might affect Twitter’s ability to break news.

An excerpt from my latest Chicago Tribune column:

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Both networks will have broadcast positions in Grant Park along with their traditional sets inside the Auditorium Theatre. Bears legend Dick Butkus will be featured on the voiceover for NFL Network’s open Thursday.

“Chicago is going to be a main character in our coverage of the draft,” NFL Network producer Charlie Yook said. “This thing is bigger than just football this year.”

Both networks praised the NFL for moving the draft out of New York. While ESPN producer Seth Markman believes Radio City Music Hall is a fine venue, he said it had reached the point “where we could do a draft there in a our sleep.”

Markman admitted he was nervous when he first toured the Auditorium Theatre, noting “it’s really small.” But he and the rest of the crew became invigorated with the prospect of airing the draft for the first time with an outside component.

“Being in Chicago is going to provide a jolt of energy that we feel is needed,” Markman said. “It’ll look great. It’s the right city to be in. When the Bears are on the clock, it’s going to be some kind of moment.”

John Wildhack, ESPN executive vice-president of production and programming, is counting on Bears fans to put on a good show.

“Chicago is an amazing sports town,” Wildhack said. “The scene and the environment are going to be spectacular.”

For the first time, E:60 will profile someone from a competing network. Then again, Ernie Johnson is more than worthy. Tonight at 7 p.m.

You may know him as a lead play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball games or one of the broadcasters during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. More likely, you have seen his studio work covering the NBA for TNT – the affable host trying to keep the outsize and outspoken personalities of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith in line. But chances are you have never seen Ernie Johnson like this. E:60’s Jeremy Schaap spends time Johnson – from the studio, to his home in suburban Atlanta, to everywhere in between – and uncovers so much more to Johnson’s story. They talk about his famous father, his battle with cancer and balancing his roles as television personality and family man. As much success as he has had in front of the camera, he considers his biggest accomplishment to be what he does away from the spotlight. Johnson and his wife Cheryl have four adopted children, including Michael who was born with a progressive form of muscular dystrophy and lives on a ventilator in his parents’ home. E:60 explores a very personal and revealing profile of a man that has, as Charles Barkley puts it, “uncommon courage and a pure heart.”