Adam Schefter is among those coming under fire. The avid tweeter is being accused of ruining the NFL draft for some of his followers.
John Mitchell at Breakingtackles.com was upset. Mitchell didn’t enjoy that the ESPN reporter revealed upcoming picks to his 1.56 million twitter followers before they were formally announced.
Mitchell writes:
It started innocent and actually kind of cool with Schefter reporting all the trades and who those teams were probably going to take with that pick. But then it got flat out frustrating as pick-by-pick went by with Schefter tweeting out the results for everyone to see. I thought it would stop once the flurry of early trades did, but it did not.
What is the cost of being the first to report the draft picks? 1.5 million followers being robbed of the draft experience. You want Roger Goodell to be the first to announce the draft pick. Not an ESPN reporter who happens to find out the information before anyone else.
The whole Twitter thing has created an interesting dynamic with the draft coverage. On the one hand, reporters like Schefter have clear marching orders: Be first with breaking news everywhere, especially on Twitter. Breaking news includes who the Bears will take with the next pick.
However, as I wrote earlier, that means Schefter is in essence scooping his network. While Chris Berman & Co. speculate on air about who the Bears, or any other team, will select, his followers already know the answer. There goes the suspense.
Much to his critics’ dismay, Schefter intends to keep on tweeting. In an email, he writes:
I approach the draft just like any other NFL news story. When I learn informaton, it’s my job to report it. I didn’t report every pick; I was more interested in the trades, actually. But if someone felt it detracted from their experience, they could have unfollowed me or not paid attention to Twitter. ESPN does a tremendous job presenting and broadcasting the draft, and I work to do my job as effectively as the people around me.
To be fair to Schefter, there were plenty of other outlets disclosing upcoming picks. If you really want to be kept in suspense, don’t look at Twitter during the draft.
Schefter also had a reply to this passage on Breakingtackles:
I’m not sure if Schefter has kids, but if he does Christmas morning must really suck around the Schefter household. “Hey kids, I got you a Tonka Truck.”
(Addendum: I was informed that Schefter is Jewish. And as a friend of mine points out, I guess he can take to ruining eight nights worth of gifts instead.)
Schefter writes:
My children aren’t always happy with me either, but for now, they’re stuck following me. Sadly for now, they can’t unfollow me. Poor kids.