National Sports Journalism Center

It’s always a little odd when the biggest sports story in the country has little to do with actually playing a sport.

But there were few places in media to hide from the exploding tale that former NBA star Glen Rice may have had a one-night stand with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin back in 1987, before she was married and when he was playing college basketball.

Besides the expected tittering in media – from former NBA star and self-professed Palin groupie Charles Barkley pronouncing Rice his new hero to Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, having fun with Palin’s conservative image – there were serious journalism questions at hand when the story emerged.

The decision by editors to place the story on the front page of the Miami Herald website (Rice, retired from the NBA since 2004 lives there) caused an email argument among staffers, which eventually became public. Sports reporter Armando Salguero, noting that the newspaper was repeating a National Enquirer report based on a revelation in author Joe McGinniss’ unreleased new book, arguing that the Herald probably hadn’t checked the allegations with Rice, Palin or McGuiness.

Others at the paper, including political reporter Marc Caputo, countered that argument, noting that newspapers often publish reports based mostly on the fact that another news organization broke a story, crediting that organization so readers can judge the piece for themselves.

Hanging in the background, was the allegation that the Herald glommed onto the story because it opposes Palin’s politics; several emails on this issue were of course, leaked to a blogger who made the whole conflict public.

As I have often noted about other tabloid-drenched stories – Tiger Woods, anyone? – such events challenge traditional news organizations most. They are the toughest to verify, they are often broken by outlets with spotty ethical track records and live on the edge between what is news and what is just entertaining, button-pushing gossip.

But I’m taking this space to argue, as a card-carrying member of the lamestream media, that this story about Rice and Palin is worth covering, for news organizations which choose to do so. Here’s why:

There is a bit of real news embedded in this scandal: If the account presented in McGinniss’ book is true – and he’s repeated the story on NBC’s Today show, so we know he says it is – the woman known then as Sarah Heath slept with a college basketball player while she was covering sports as a journalist for KTUU-TV in Anchorage. That’s a serious ethical no-no from a woman who would become a politician looking very closely at the scruples of opponents.

In 2008 and since, Palin has often questioned the character and abilities of President Obama, referencing long ago associations with controversial figures such as Rev. Jeremiah Wright and former Weather underground member Bill Ayres.

Certainly, a one night stand 24 years ago (Palin/Rice) is different than moving in the same political/charitable circles 15 years ago as a man accused of domestic terrorism in the 1960s (Obama/Ayres) or attending a controversial preacher’s church for 20 years.

But Palin has often urged the public to judge politicians in the present on their past, putting the issue on the table for other to consider in her own case.

Indeed, the biggest issue the Palins have faced as a political couple, reaching back to the beginning of her failed vice presidential run, is the question of whether their public image as an embodiment of conservative family values is genuine. Tawdry as McGinniss’ book sounds, its goal of exploring that issue makes some journalism sense.

And there is the political dimension. Palin has advocated curbing unwanted pregnancies through abstinence – declining to have sex before you are married – while acknowledging her daughter Bristol had premarital sex, got pregnant, had a child and now estranged from the father. But if the Rice story is true, we now also know she didn’t follow that path herself, either. So is it fair for her to demand it of others?

One more issue, involves accuracy. McGinniss made headlines last year when he moved next door to the Palins while researching his book. While the author tried to downplay the significance of his move, it also created news value for the book he would eventually produce. Did he use any material gleaned from his close proximity? If not, was it an empty publicity stunt?

Todd Palin released a statement to the media, which said in part: “This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us. He traffics in innuendo and falsehoods. A few years ago he interviewed members of Sarah’s administration for a magazine article, and afterwards they said that he was the most disingenuous and intellectual dishonest writer they’d ever dealt with. He’s spent the last year interviewing marginal figures with an axe to grind in order to churn out a hit piece to satisfy his own creepy obsession with my wife. I’d ask that people consider these facts when evaluating his latest lies.”

If the item about Rice and Palin were to be exposed as untrue – neither has specifically denied it yet—that could tell us all a lot about the value of other allegations in the book, including reports of cocaine use and an extramarital affair by Palin.

It’s all distasteful, uncomfortable stuff – the kind of gossipy scandal many serious journalists spend their careers trying to avoid covering.

But its also the kind of story traditional journalists are forced to pay attention to; if only to point out the story’s potential flaws and try injecting more journalism rigor into the conversation

This, in the end, may be the ultimate lesson about such stories: Often, the line between proper journalism and not is found in the details of how you research and report the event in your own corner of journalism.

For some of us on the sports media beat, it’s like a pop quiz you dread taking. And the grade you care most about comes from your own conscience.