Free T-shirt? Bring it on!

As a reporter I am dedicated to writing fair and accurate stories on whatever I happen to be covering. And if that happens to be a sports game, I feel no shame in taking a free shirt, keychain, jacket or eating a pregame meal (even if the total of the value is over $25).

Greg Bowers, the sports editor of The Missourian who led a great discussion in class on sports journalism ethics, is definitely shaking his head in disappointment at the above statement. But the thing is – I really, really like free T-shirts. And that’s okay because I can still write a fair, truthful piece regardless if a huge organization gives me a shirt or not.

I can do this in two ways:
1. Always having a second person read over my piece.
2. DON’T WEAR THE SHIRTS IN PUBLIC.

No. 2 may seem like a joke but it’s not. If I enter a press box and take a shirt and a notebook (which every reporter gets as a form of hospitality) and go about my work, no harm is done. None of my potential readers knows of the hospitality, and they will judge the fairness of my work purely on my work. However, if I’m asked to come onto a sports talk show and I wear a logo of a team I’ve been
covering, it’s similar to running out of that press box and waving my free T-shirt
like a flag in front of the home crowd. It comes down to keeping my interests –
and the hospitality I’ve been given – to myself.
But at the end of the day, let’s be realistic. Everyone is taking that shirt.
--Zolan Kanno-Youngs