WHAT DID YOU THINK of today's guest, Phil Jasner, a 1964 Temple alum who has been covering the Sixers for the Philadelphia Daily News since 1981?Here are a few things that stood out for me:
- He never works 9 to 5 hours. He covers his beat 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, including holidays.
- Despite that, he's been devoted to his family and never missed an important event.
- And he loves his job.
- While a hometown guy (Overbrook High), he never roots for teams, especially while working.
- He doesn't become friends with players or coaches (until they retire). It could cloud his objectivity.
- If a player invited him to dinner and tried to pick up the check, he wouldn't let them.
- He follows every lead everyone gives him, no matter how hare-brained it might sound.
- He doesn't care about athletes' off-the-court behavior unless it affects their game.
- His life is essentially this: travel, watch game, write stories, travel, watch game, write stories. Repeat constantly.
- He blogs, follows twitter, talks on the Daily News Live TV show, and writes stories.
- He says there will always be newspapers.
- He's grateful that he has a job he loves.
30 comments:
I learned a great deal about media and sports from Phil Jasner. I can honestly say I have a great deal of respect for this man whom I have only met once. His dedication was inspirational. I also enjoyed his personal stories and his honest responses.
Likewise. I thought it was really interesting what he had to say about separating being a fan from being a sports journalist. I thought it was really inspiring for him to say that he wasn't a 9-5er and that he was a 24 hour 7 days a week 365 days a year journalist. Kudos Phil for your dedication and kudos Geo for having him in class!
I thought it was a great presentation! He was very interesting, and I really enjoyed listening to him. He said a lot of things about journalism that I wasn't too sure about, so I'm glad he brought them up. He made me see that it is important to pursue a career that you truely enjoy, no matter what anyone else tells you.
It was very motivating to hear from a man who truly loves what he does. I appreciated the honesty of his answers and I learned a lot about how to be passionate about your work without ever having to compromise your integrity.
In my opinion, this was the best presentation by far! He went straight to the point on many issues, which I appreciated, especially when he talked about the hard hours and that you should not have aspirations to be rich. Also, I liked how adamant he was about newspapers not dying out, since everyone in the industry likes to talk about how actual papers are a dying race. Overall, it was a great presentation.
I thought it was great. Mr. Jasner really seems like the kind of guy who is genuine about what he does and about he how feels about what he does. I learned alot about the business and some really important information considering the fact that I am interested in working in both newspapers and television like Phil Jasner. I took the time to ask him a question afterwards and emailed him later on. Both times he answered with thoughtful remarks that showed he truly cared about helping someone learning the business.
Phil Jasner was awesome. I really enjoyed his anecdotes and sense of humor. & let me just say that, hearing the success stories of our speakers gives me hope that with enough perseverance I will be offered a job I'll love. Phil was a great example of that.
Phil Jazner was awesome. After watching him all the time on Daily News Live, it was great to actually see hm in person. He was fun and exciting to listen to and he wanted to make you really want to be a journalist. Hopefully future Journalism & Society students will be able to have the same experience. This was definitely the best guest speaker so far. Hope you have more speakers like Phil Jazner Mr. Miller.
I thought he was awesome and really to took time to address all the question thoroughly. It was good to hear about a journalist's lifestyle and how hectic and busy it can be, yet rewarding and exciting. He was a great guest and I enjoyed his stories about the players.
I liked Mr.Jazner's presentation. He came off very easy to relate to and more personable than the other speakers. I found the way he tells his stories to be very heart warming and interesting. I find it fascinating how devoted he is to his career and the ethusiasm of his presetation made it all the more interesting.
I really enjoyed his presentation and his personality. I also really admire how he can juggle family and work so easily. He gave some helpful tips and information that could really be useful to me if I plan to pursue journalism as a career. His stories were very interesting and amusing and he had my full attention throughout the entire lecture.
It was refreshing to hear a man's take on the subject of family obligations and time management. The question of balancing work with family is frequently posed to women with high-commitment careers, but it's not always seen as such a prominent issue among men in the same positions.
I really enjoyed his style. He was engaging and highly informative. He seems to be quite good at what he does. He had many insightful tips for beginning journalists. He really stressed the media's objectivity and how important it was to not be compromised by one's thoughts, emotions, and biases. A man to admire and hope to be someday.
I really enjoyed Phil Jasner's presentation. Not really being interested in basketball, I thought I wouldn't get anything from this presentation but I was wrong--I found myself actually interested on the subject and what he had to say about the sport and the business in general. I thought his presentation was very realistic when he talked about a journalist's life and found it nice that he was so blunt about issues such as not being rich, working 24/7, etc. He didn't sugarcoat because this is serious business. I also really enjoyed his well thought out responses to every question, rather than giving a one-sentence answer. It's great to know that he loves his job, even referencing Glenn Close. Great job on the guest speakers, Prof. Get Meryl Streep!
PS. You mentioned, after Seth William's presentation, that you thought it was rude when people were talking. I also found it rude when everyone started packing up, putting down their desks (while Mr. Jasner was still talking, no less) when you told us that you would take one more question and then we're free to leave. I would imagine it makes the speaker feel like people want to leave ASAP and that they don't really care for what they have to say.
..I really enjoyed this guest, his personality/swagger was great. He was resourceful and I felt that i learned the most from this speaker..When discussing Iverson, i like how he was never deterred from getting the story..good choice.
I might confused but is he still working with the 76ers..or is he retired? But all in all I did like his dedication to his family like he said, and that he made his job second priority to his family...which I think in this particular business family can be put on the back burner most of the time.
If you close your eyes, you would of thought it was Robert de Niro talking. At least that was my opinion on his voice. But I loved the way he answered EVERY question directly without missing a beat. I guess that's what you want to hear when your a journalist. I felt very motivated to continue furthering my pursuit of becoming a journalist. Thank you for arranging our guest, Phil Jasner.
Phil Jasner was great. I've read a lot of Phils work and it was great to hear him in person, and get an idea of of who he is, and how he got o be a journalist. I am very amazed at how he is able to balance his family life and work, being on the road for more than half the season. I also find it interesting how he has trained himself not to root for the hometown teams. I wonder if I would be able to do that. Could I really wirte an unbiased article about the Phillies right now?
I appreciated his honesty on being a journalist and the importance of objectivity.
The man provided a great amount of insight in the life of, and efficiently described the dedication a person needs to be, a successful beat writer.
I thought Phil was the best guest speaker thus far. To be honest he was the only one I listened to begining to end. It was obvious he was really passionate about his woork, and I really appreciated that.
No covering of an athlete's off-court life unless it hurts their game? What a revolutionary idea! Seriously, though, it kind of is.
REALLY liked having him as a guest speaker, please pass along the message. I'd never considered journalism as a career before taking this course, now I am. On the one hand he made me want to be a journalist more, due to all the traveling and getting to know big names behind the scenes. On the other, his lifestyle and words about insecure pay scared me a bit, and I know if I do decide to do a career in journalism it will be challenging. Great lecture!
Why are all of our guest speakers men?
Why are you on anonymous?
It's inspiring to hear someone who does what you want to be say that even though the hours and schedule may not be the best, he wakes up everyday happy to go to work doing what he loves best. That is great
First,I can't believe he interned at the Trentonian because I interned there. I was so shocked because everyone I asked never heard of the newspaper. Second, I found it ironic that he can't wear any type of sport team gear. After all, he is a sports writer. Finally, I learned that people on the top of an arena can be heard 2 plays later. Next time I'll remember not to shout anything.
"With age comes knowledge." That was what I thought of when I learned how long Phil Jasner has been a working journalist. He knows a lot about journalism and how to navigate through the in's and out's with players. I'm glad that he came and I hope to hear from more speakers like him in the future.
I asked Mr. Jasner a question about meeting and interviewing one of my favorite NBA basketball players from the L.A. Lakers team Kobe Bryant. The information that he gave me was very honest, yet helpful.
He was a very understanding man. He unlike other speakers, wanted people to tell him their names. What stood to me is:
"texting, twitter, and e-mail, make my job 10 times harder because you can't tell truth against fantasy."
"For as long as there will be bathrooms there will be newspapers."
"Don't let anyone ever take your dream away from you."
He's a very straight forward person and I respect him for that.
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