Sports journalism is in a precarious position. A little less than a decade and a half ago, the entire industry gave Twitter more power than nearly any other online platform. Now Twitter is changing in a big way, and a lot of news breakers need to figure out how they are going to adjust.
Elon Musk’s crusade to piss away $44 billion has created a catch-22 for our industry. How do we respond to the elimination of legitimate verification? Losing that blue check is going to cost some trust.
How is the audience going to know if it is the real Adam Schefter reporting that the Buccaneers are trading Baker Mayfield to Baltimore straight up for Lamar Jackson (I’m trying to manifest it) or if it is some troll that has just copied Schefter’s profile page and left out the c in his handle?
Going forward, the only way to verify that you are who you say you are is to pay the monthly fee to subscribe to Twitter Blue. Is paid verification any better than not being verified at all? We’ve already seen the chaos it causes.
Plus, let’s be real. Once we all know you paid for a special shape, why should we take you seriously? Personally, I’m going to call you a thirsty dork and never stop making fun of you.
On a more serious note, you’re going to be compromised. If you’re willing to pay $8 to cut corners for visibility and notoriety, why would I not assume you are doing the same with your information? Vetting takes time. Typing “I’m hearing” or “sources say” in front of a rumor you heard from a waiter who may or may not have served Kyrie Irving last night gets you to those likes and RTs a lot faster.
“But Demetri,” you say, “that’s what most reporters do anyway! I know because Aaron Rodgers said so.”
Yeah, Aaron Rodgers is a boring dweeb with no personality of his own. He just copies whoever he is with or whatever he sees gets attention. He’s exactly the kind of guy that would pay for Twitter verification.
So is Elon Musk and that is what got us here.
Ian Casselberry wrote a great piece for us last week that perfectly explained why reliable identity verification is so important for Twitter to function the way it was meant to. The blue check is about credibility. It is for the public’s peace of mind, not the verified’s ego.
When you turn on SportsCenter and hear that Pete Thamel is reporting that USC is suspending a star receiver, you can trust the information is really being reported by Thamel, because you can see him on the screen. When you read in The Athletic a reports from Shams Charania that Jaylen Brown wants out of Boston, you can reasonably expect that The Athletic would not let someone else publish information under its NBA insider’s name.
Those assurances don’t exist on social media platforms. Twitter needs guard rails the public can trust so that the public can trust the news that is reported on Twitter.
The fact that someone like Elon Musk doesn’t get that isn’t a surprise. As you read this, there are probably people explaining that to him and are telling him that damaging the credibility of information on Twitter will damage its value. Yet, he continues to plow ahead with his paid verification model.
He is not a serious person. Unfortunately, because he has the ability to completely tear down a tool that has been invaluable to the industry, the sports media does have to take him seriously.
By the way, I reached out to Schefter before I started writing. He said that because so much was still unknown when we connected (Friday afternoon), he didn’t want to say anything. That seems fair enough, right?
Elon Musk bought Twitter because he wanted chaos. I don’t think he ever really had a plan to make things better. I don’t think he really had a passion for social media or democracy. He’s rich. He got made fun of a lot on the platform, so he was going to buy it and destroy it.
Want to know a really good way to accomplish that goal? Change Twitter in a way that forces it’s most reliable user base to choose between two options, both of which will damage the user’s credibility.
Demetri Ravanos is a former columnist and editor for Barrett Media. He is the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host of the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
