EPISODE · Feb 7, 2022 · 34 MIN
Journalism Mistakes: J.A. Adande on the Medill F and Hate Mail
from My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in Business and Leadership · host Mark Graban
Episode page: https://www.markgraban.com/mistake138 My guest for Episode #138 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is J.A. Adande. He is the director of sports journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. He is also the graduate journalism Sports Media Specialization leader. J.A. earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Medill in 1992. During his time in school at Northwestern, he was sports editor of The Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper. J.A. has worked in sports media for over two and a half decades, including multiple roles at ESPN. He continues to appear on ESPN’s “Around The Horn,” where he has been a panelist since the show’s beginning in 2002. He also previously worked for 10 years as a sports columnist at the Los Angeles Times, in addition to jobs at The Washington Post and Chicago Sun-Times. In today's episode, J.A. shares his “favorite mistake” story about applying for a job, to be a sports columnist in Philadelphia, which probably would have been a failure. Why was it a mistake to want that job, then? How would the newspaper have determined if he was a success or a failure? How would that be determined today in the internet age? We also talk about questions and topics including: Angry letters to the editor might not be a bad thing if that means people are reading? Coaching students about handling or bracing for hate mail or flat out hate? Tell us about getting into TV – did that ever feel like a mistake? When that was new to you? Learning to give “hot takes”? Mistakes in reporting — pressure to be first vs. being correct? The “Medill F”? A punishment for mistakes like spelling a name wrong… is this a very real practice? A mistake you only make once? Greg Cote’s story in a bonus episode about being lied to by an interview subject Another mistake story from J.A. — getting a soccer coach's first name wrong in a profile --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/favorite-mistake/support
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What this episode covers
J.A. Adande—director of sports journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School and longtime ESPN contributor—joins My Favorite Mistake to share lessons from a career in sports media. J.A. reflects on a job pursuit that would have gone wrong, the enduring impact of the legendary “Medill F” for factual errors, and how journalists learn to cope with criticism, hate mail, and the pressure to be first without sacrificing accuracy.
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Journalism Mistakes: J.A. Adande on the Medill F and Hate Mail
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