Stephen A Smith accepted a lifetime achievement award from the L.A. Press Club last weekend, and used the opportunity to affirm his journalistic credibility and defend the sanctity of the profession.
Smith called the Joseph Quinn Lifetime Achievement Award “one of the greatest honors” he has received in his career. The First Take host decried the loosening of standards in the modern media environment while talking up his own integrity and professionalism.
“Integrity, professionalism and the tenets upon which we stood and still stand to this very day has gone by the wayside in a lot of people’s eyes, and it’s created a divide in this country,” Smith said.
Smith said too many journalists are concerned more with “currying favor” than “disseminating the truth.”
“Make no mistake about it, I’m not right all the time,” Smith said. “There are plenty of times that I’ve been wrong. I didn’t know it until I was wrong. I didn’t knowingly disseminate something that was false. I didn’t let my personal feelings get in the way of facts.”
Smith said from politics to culture to sports, too much of modern journalism is based in opinion.
“No matter where you turn, it’s become about people’s perspective,” Smith said, “shoving truth aside.”
Unlike others, Smith said when he shares an opinion, it is based in fact. The host and owner of The Stephen A. Smith Show said that while others are making noise, Smith takes his popularity as a symbol of the burden he faces to be honest and truthful.
“It’s why I can take the level of cynicism and criticism and skepticism that would make most people fold,” Smith said. “Because understand something. In this field that we’re in … here’s what people forgot. You’re not supposed to be here to be liked.”
Smith added that it is the responsibility of reporters to embrace the doubt of the audience and a culture of “fake news” and prove their legitimacy to readers and viewers.
“I can promise you that 100 percent of the time, you will not look at me and say I am right,” Smith said. “But what I can also promise you is that you will never look at me and see an individual who knows he wrong and will try to act like I’m right.”
Smith praised past winners like Walter Cronkite, Lester Holt and Andrea Mitchell before owning his moment alongside those luminaries.
“In my heart of hearts, I want to say this without any braggadocios attitude whatsoever. I know I deserve it, because of this one reason,” Smith said. “What was taught to me by this industry is what I never, ever, ever let go of. Other people are on the air trying to get sizzle, I’m on the air to bring sizzle. With facts, with perspective, and with the kind of content that makes you stop, pause, listen, inhale, before you disseminate a perspective. Why? Because if you’re a provocateur of conversation and dialogue, that’s where real change begins.”
Many sports media veterans including Dan Le Batard and Jeff Pearlman believe Smith’s shtick as a debater and New York sports fan has worsened the industry . Just this week, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia called out a report from Smith about the team shopping star player Kevin Durant, one of numerous examples in which Smith’s reporting has been challenged by sports figures .
So while Smith’s accomplishments and success starting from his time as a beat reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer make him worthy of a prestigious honor, the virtues he descried in his acceptance speech are not ones that everyone would agree he has.
Perhaps that is where the truth of Smith’s words becomes clear. His mission, as laid out in this speech, is to find facts, provoke and instigate, and apologize later.
[ Stephen A. Smith on LinkedIn ]
The post Stephen A. Smith: ‘I have to be in tireless pursuit of the truth’ as sports journalist appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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