We've always had this type of sports journalist .
You just had to make a bigger effort to find it listening to radio ,reading newspapers and magazines before the technology boom and ESPN, etc.
We've allowed it to grow because we tune in providing them their platform which has become more entertainment with scripted dialogue and agendas to attract the masses. Who knows anymore if this is even how they really feel?
Yes, we've always had it, but it wasn't as dominant as it is today. Usually, opinionated journalism was relegated to the AM radio band or was given last-minute segments on sports shows - the commentary section at the end of the show, if you will.
Now, it is much more prominent and much more the driving force of news nowadays.
I got sssooo tired of the Colin Kaepernick story. To me, it's not even a story. One quarterback - a backup one at that - decides not to stand for the National Anthem, gives his reason why, and every sports network from CBS, ESPN and Fox (and even the local stations including the one in the city where I live) can't stop talking about day after day after day after day. Why? Because it involves race, patriotism, the military - all the hot-button topics that get people talking and tuning in.
And I'm like, "Why are we giving Kaepernick so much play like he's the President of the United States?"
Yet, this is the kind of "news" that drives sports programming whereas, maybe, 40 years ago, no one would have even cared to ask Kap his opinion. There were a lot of things about players' private/personal lives that the media/reporters concealed.
So, yes, this was always a part of journalism but, no, not to the same degree nor was it given the same exposure.
