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Hel lo, everyone and welcome back to the Huddle where today we are talking about another favorite movie of mine titled, September 5.
It’s one of my favorites because it is a true story about the terrorist attack and hostage situation at the Munich Olympics on September 5, 1972.
The movie shows a different perspective of this entire situation and instead of Hollywood taking their normal approach of getting us inside the dorm room where nine Israeli hostages were held were held and dramatizing the events.
They gave us the point of view of the media team covering it, specifically the sports broadcasting team.
Naturally since these were the Olympic games, the ABC sports broadcasting team was tasked with covering the event. But when the hostages were taken, ABC told their sports team to stand down and wait until the News team arrived to cover the unfolding events.
ABC’s sports broadcasting team never backed down and told their bosses that this was their story and their coverage, and they were not going to allow the News team to come in and take it from them.
It is something that resonates with me as a sports journalist because too often sports journalists are overlooked. We are often seen as insignificant or not as important as the reporters covering hard news events/ Always seen as “just a sports guy”.
As a journalist I am trained to cover murder cases, shooting and government meetings jsut like everyone else that enters this field. In fact, my college professor made me exclusively cover government meetings while in school because he knew that I wanted to cover sports when I finished school.
He wanted me to be well rounded so when I do get in the field, I can handle any situation thrown at me.
While I was and still am appreciative of him making me do that, I chose to cover sports because I love sports with passion and while they may not be as big as some stories, there are still some amazing and beautiful stories to tell within sports.
I do agree that hard news should always take precedent over sports because a murder story is obviously more important than a blowout victory on Friday night.
But when something like a terrorist attack happens at a sporting event. We as sports journalists should never be put on the back burner and let someone else come in and take a story that is rightfully ours.
In the movie ABC’s Sports Broadcasting team did exactly what we were trained to do. They moved cameras up on a hill to get a direct shot of the dorm where the hostages were held, they were able to get a phone call with one of the terrorists, and they broadcasted it on live television.
When another news station wanted to pick up their live feed, they watermarked their material, so they got all the credit for being on top of this story. They even verified all the information they received with two sources so they could ensure accuracy before getting it out to the public.
In those moments this team was not just a sports broadcasting group. They proved that they were not just “some sports guys” that gather results from a track meet or a football game. But they showed not just ABC but the world, that they were journalists that could deliver hard hitting and breaking news with accuracy and efficiency.
