--(Cont'd From Front Page)-- Covering real world news is a hoot. I’m constantly on the go and I get up every morning looking forward to going to ‘work’, although I hesitate to call it that. I spend 10 hours a day chasing down stories, reacting to breaking news and wondering what comes next. And loving every second of it.

Sure I miss covering the sport, the travel, the camaraderie, but I’ve learned a valuable lesson or two in the short time I’ve been away from NASCAR full time: the world doesn’t revolve around NASCAR and if it isn’t the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, it probably isn’t worth reporting.

One area of the news that leaves a bad taste in my mouth though is celebrity news. Not the fluff or the so and so is making a new movie, but the kind of things that would go unnoticed if the person wasn’t a celeb. If a breaking news story comes down concerning Brittany Spears for example, our entire world stops. If she crashes her car, then god help us if that’s not out there right away. I sometimes joke that if a school bus full of elementary school kids were to crash and Brittany runs over someone’s foot, we will cover the foot first.

I’ve wondered if it’s a paradox of sorts. Are we covering what the people really want, or are we feeding the masses what we think they want to see in order to boost ratings or pageviews on a website?

At one time news about Spears sent ratings through the roof. In her case it started with her much-reported break down and subsequent child custody case. Yes that was news when it happened, but the ratings were such that news directors everywhere began to want more and more. It’s a sad fact of life that ratings are what keep a news operation afloat. Bad ratings can equal lost revenue and that starts the heads rolling.

Now this is simply my observation as a whole, the particular news organization I work for still has a great deal of integrity left. But I look around the news landscape and see those ships that are sinking desperately reaching for something, anything, to keep them afloat. At that point desperate times call for desperate measures and sources start to say and rumors begin to have it.

In fact what is being reported when ’sources have it’ or ‘rumor says’ is only right about a tenth of the time and when you get down to it, it’s not really all that important to begin with. If you or I ran over someone’s foot, no one would really care.

There are now TV shows that cater to celebrity gossip. Who’s doing what to whom and where. One has to wonder if it weren’t there would people rally care? Or is it just a vehicle to boost ratings. It makes you feel sorry though for the celebs that are constantly hounded by the paparazzi for every little tid bit of info. It’s gotten to the point in Los Angeles that the city is considering a law banning the paparazzi from coming near a celeb.

So what the hell does this have to do with the sport of NASCAR?

I’ve begun to notice that the sport is becoming less and less about what goes on at the track and more about what is happening away from it. Sure there have been some big doin’s in the past two years, Earnhardt Junior’s move and more recently Tony Stewart buying his own team. In between though the rumors and the ‘sources have it’, have been flying. Which driver is going where and which sponsor is going to what team. The problem with all this is that, especially in the recent past, most of is isn’t true.

There have been several examples of large, respected NASCAR sites that have reported erroneous information on ‘sources say’ or ‘rumors have it’. When all was said done the report turned out not to be true, but no doubt the sites pageviews put some smiles on some faces.

Smaller fan sites are just as guilty of this too. One in particular has been throwing out rumor after rumor as fact in the past three weeks, none of which turned out to be anywhere near the truth.

Just last week a small fan site reported that Dale Earnhardt Incorporated had secured the services of a brokerage house and was being put up for sale. A few hours after that a larger, real news, site reported the same thing as ‘fact’. That morning I made two phone calls; one was to the brokerage house where someone confirmed what I already knew; that while they wouldn’t talk about a particular client they weren’t in the business of selling other businesses. I next contacted a friend at DEI who laughed and told me no way. DEI president Max Siegel then spent the day issuing statements to squelch the ‘report’ after it snowballed.

This past weekend a ‘report’ from one of the largest and most respected sports media organizations reported that presidential candidate Barack Obama would sponsor a Sprint Cup car for BAM Racing at Pocono on August 3rd. That report lived for only a few hours before the team set the record straight. I have to point out that in both of the examples above the Associated Press did what a respected news organization should and checked facts before they reported. When they did report it was to set the record straight and tell people the truth and nothing but the truth.

Have we here at Cup Scene been guilty of this in the past? Absolutely. But I make a promise here and now; if we report it, it’s because it’s the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t comment on, or analyze or speculate (Who will drive for Tony Stewart at shi news team, or should a presidential candidate sponsor a race car).

But we won’t write a story that hasn’t been checked out just for the sake of pageviews.

That might hurt our bottom line pageview wise, but I guarantee you we’ll sleep better at night.

It’s also about respect. If I ever reported some of the ‘secrets’ I learned while covering the NASCAR beat you’d be amazed. But I didn’t because I tried to give drivers, owners and team members some respect.

While NASCAR drivers don’t get hoarded by a bunch a paparazzi like a Hollywood celeb, they should have some privacy and freedom to conduct their business affairs away from prying eyes.

We can comment, analyze and speculate until the cows come home but when we start reporting some rumor as ‘fact’ just to get pageviews we are doing everyone a disservice.

Not that drivers moving to different teams or buying teams for that matter isn’t news, but until its been checked, rechecked and confirmed and really is news, you won’t see it here.

My biggest fear is that NASCAR will degrade to the point that drivers will have paparazzi following them everywhere; guys with cameras will be staked out in Dale Juniors bushes hoping for the ‘money shot’.

Is that really where we want NASCAR to go? I hope not.

Let’s let the racing be the news, and while we can comment on or speculate let’s report only the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

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