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Writing a recap is pretty fucking far from journalism, especially professional journalism.
This is actually one of the biggest issues in the industry, too many people think the job consists of putting words on a screen and that you can have enthusiastic amateurs do the whole thing for free.
One of the more shocking aspects of the ESPN layoffs is that they axed people who got actual scoops, reporters who regularly broke exclusive stories. That's worrying, because it suggests a premium on opinion and a lesser emphasis on reporting. But what are all those talking heads going to opine about if there's no news?
Amateur writing doesn't have to be just opinion. It can be based on actually watching the games, statistical analysis, etc. What is missing from amateur articles are the behind the scenes stuff that can only be gotten with a press pass, such as the "scoops" you mentioned. But the truth is that an awful lot of professional journalists really don't offer much in the way of "scoops" anyway.
I don't mean to pick on the guy, but when was the last time Tony Grossi got an actual "scoop"?
The point is that while I'd agree there is a difference in quality between what the truly good professional journalists produce, and what amateurs can do, there are a lot of professional journalists out there who just aren't very good.
I've been a fan of Terry Pluto's for a long time, and I really like the stuff @Chris Parker writes as well. But after them, I really like a lot of the in-depth amateur stuff that someone like @priceFTW produces. Sometimes, his recap/write-up is more interesting that what many of the professional journalists are reporting at the time. And I'll bet I'm not the only one here who thinks that.
Again, I'm not trying to minimize the contributions/ability of all professional journalists. I'm just saying that there are a fair number of those professionals out there whose work is not any better than that produced by interested "amateurs".