Director of the Writing Center Tony Reid ’75 sat down for a conversation with Dave Kindred, newspaper sports columnist and author, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2009. Kindred was the third speaker in The Hill’s “Writers at Work” series sponsored by the Writing Center.
Kindred is the author of “Sound and Fury” and “Around the World in 18 Holes.” He currently is the director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University, for which he writes a weekly on-line column. He has covered 40 Super Bowls and 10 Olympic Games; his first Olympics were the 1972 Munich Games, about which he said, “It [the attacks on Israeli athletes] changed the world and it changed the sports world.” Read more about Dave Kindred’s career in journalism.
Both Reid and Kindred worked for the Washington Post, so naturally they talked about their newspaper connection. They also shared their respect for Red Smith, considered by Reid to be the “greatest sports writer who ever lived”; the intriguing life of sports columnists; the difference between journalism and much of today's entertainment-based "reporting"; and the future of journalism in print and on-line.
“I’ve been a sports writer for over 40 years now,” remarked Kindred. “It is a privilege to work in the world of sports writing.”
He spoke about his first job at a newspaper and how he started out doing every conceivable assignment, a "drudgery" that made him a better writer and newspaperman. Despite the popularity of papers 40 years ago, “10 years from now, newspapers might not even be here," he lamented.
"I believe in trying to be objective," he said regarding the assertion that reporters always must be objective. "Being a columnist is the easiest job there is; it’s also the hardest job when you run out of ideas,” he said.
A former editor at the Post, Reid is featured in Kindred’s newest book, “Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post -- The Fight to Keep a Great Newspaper Alive,” which will be released in July 2010. Kindred admitted this book is not the book he started out writing. He said, “I wanted to write a ‘romance’ about working there and then I realized the newspaper was dying…Eventually I told the right story.”
Reid made a point to his journalism students who were in the audience by saying, “There’s a lesson to this. Sometimes the story you find is not the story you set out to write.” Kindred reiterated, saying, “You can’t go for the preconceived notion.”
In talking about journalism vs. entertainment in today’s media, Kindred spoke about the controversy surrounding golf pro Tiger Woods and how most of what is on TV or in newspapers is speculation. He asked, “Whatever happened to journalism and getting the facts first? It really disturbs me that people want to get something in print without really knowing anything about it.”
Kindred and Reid also agreed that “TV is not journalism.” Kindred commented, “It’s entertaining, but just don’t tell me it’s journalism.”
When a faculty member asked Kindred if he thought Tiger Woods and other professional athletes are role models, Kindred replied, “He [Woods] doesn’t have a choice. He has made billions [in endorsements] and has sold himself as a role model.”
While Kindred is best known as a sports writer, that's not how he sells himself.
"I never thought of myself as a sports writer," he said. "I always thought of myself as a writer who loves sports. I’m not a fan [of one team over another]; I root for the column I’m writing.”
Kindred spoke about high profile coaches he has come to know well over the years including Bobby Knight and Lee Corso. He said, “Great coaches are great teachers.” Implying that not all athletes make good coaches, he said, “Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you can teach it.”
At the conclusion of his visit, Reid asked Kindred if he could offer advice to aspiring journalists. Kindred pointedly said, “Read everything and write all the time.” He also stressed that the basic five Ws of journalism still are the most important skills to master -- finding and telling the "who, what, where, when, and why."