As a journalist, you’re not allowed to have a rooting interest, specific team-wise, when you’re covering games or writing features or enduring presidential elections, or whatever else.
It’s kind of like rule number 1 and basically not to be messed with under any given circumstance.
The reasoning behind this, I guess, is so that journalists report on the actual facts instead of their own personal and unavoidably subjective interpretation of those facts, which seems like a pretty good rule, considering.
I mean, can you imagine if CNN or Fox News filtered and skewed the news stories of their choosing to further their own personal agendas? The mainstream media would be a complete joke…
But despite such “1984”-type cautionary tales, it was tough not to feel good for the Indian River High School field hockey team when Madi McGee scored with five minutes left to tie Tuesday’s game against Cape Henlopen in their first playoff game since 2006.
It was also tough not to feel pretty robbed when, not only did a certain pink-jersey’ed official whistle the play dead despite the other signaling “goal,” but then went on to allow Cape to take off with the ball without the Indians setting back up on defense or even realizing that the whistle had been blown in the first place.
With that being the case, maybe take it with a grain of salt when I say that from what I can gather, that certain pink jersey’ed official made the wrong call. Like, Monday Night Football replacement-refs made the wrong call.
The basic post-game explanation was that when IR senior forward Lexi Haden sent a pass to McGee on the far post that it hit off another IR player before getting there, which I guess isn’t allowed according to the rules and everything (field hockey has a lot of rules).
But here’s the thing though — is the consensus after the game was that it didn’t.
It was tough to tell through the camera lens despite a parallel view on the sideline but in checking out the photo sequence, there’s not even another green jersey around for the ball to have hit off of in the first place. It just bounces right on down to McGee, who knocks it home like Happy Gilmore on a Par 7.
There’s even a video posted by ABC-47 that indicates the same thing, although, admittedly, doesn’t provide the best angle to tell for sure.
Speaking of angles, then there’s angle of the certain pink jersey’ed official to consider.
Not to get all JFK-conspiracy theory here, but it was the other official that signaled goal that actually had the better view — not the one on the grassy knoll further down the field with her line of sight blocked by Cape defenders that made the call.
The long and the short of it is this: conspiracy theory or no, it shouldn’t be an official that ultimately decides the outcome of any game — especially one showing no signs of being ready to be decided.
But I guess, just like journalists, referees are people beneath the pinstripes. And even when it’s a person’s job to remain impartial, sometimes they just might not be able to help it.Maybe that’s why they invented the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics and Instant Replay.