I’m a little annoyed with journalists today.

On the same day Joe Matthews pens a column for TNR about the loss of watchdog journalism, we get this Alex Rodriguez spectacle in Tampa. In bemoaning the cuts at the Los Angeles Times, Matthews toes the line according to the standard argument of the day, we need journalists to investigate, uncover wrongdoing, and ask tough questions.

Cut to the A-Rod news conference this afternoon and you see a bunch of journalists either afraid or unwilling to challenge a guy who’s being pretty evasive. Every answer is “mistakes of my youth” or “I was naive” and not enough insight. Read more

Whether you’re a sports fan or not, chances are you at least saw a headline that New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted today on ESPN that he used performance-enhancing drugs. This is the latest update in a story that started on Saturday, when Sports Illustrated broke the news using anonymous sources that A-Rod had tested positive for steroids back in 2003.

On the surface this is a classic news turf war. SI broke the story on Saturday and ESPN played catchup, but ESPN got the big snag today because this is the first time the story was relying on something other than off-the-record information. So, a classic news war at work. One-upsmanship at its finest.

The interesting subtext for me comes with the following question: how did you hear the news today? SI leveraged their status in Time Warner to break the story on several TW properties, including CNN.com. But when ESPN got the big “get” today, the first place I heard about it? . I subscribe to , and so the fact that I’m plugged into that feed all day via my Flock browser meant that’s how they captured my eyeballs. Read more