Interesting articles on the Sports Journalism business

Chris Harmon · Sep 5, 2020

Berry Tramel wrote a piece in The Oklahoman yesterday (linked below) about Mike Gundy not allowing the Pistols Firing website to have credentials any longer. Pistols Firing also wrote about it (linked below). The article also talks about when Carey Murdock started Sooner Scoop back in 2004, which is when I moved over to Rivals from Tulsa SportsWeb. Murdock struggled for three years to get credentials from OU.

I struggled about 3 or 4 years to get credentials solely for Inside Tulsa Sports. During those years, despite the efforts of Catbird and others, I had to also write for the Moore American and McAlester News to keep credentials with TU. What's weird is that I had already carried credentials at TU prior to that through Tulsa SportsWeb. But because we were "online media", we had to jump through tons of hoops.

We finally got credentials solely for ITS, and it's been that way about 12 years now. Judy MacLeod helped in that regard. I've always had a good professional relationship with TU Media Relations, but we've just had to work a lot harder for our access than most.

Tramel wrote this, which I found refreshing...

Truthfully, Pistols Firing is in some ways a competitor. We’re all fighting for eyeballs. There’s only so much time in the day; The Oklahoman and Pistols Firing both want a share of the OSU audience.

But the business has changed. The Oklahoman and the World don’t have the monopolies they had 40 years ago, when Gundy was growing up in Midwest City. We’re out there hustling just like gopokes.com and Pistols Firing and si.com.

And university officials know that. I don’t understand why they allow Gundy to decree who’s in and who’s out.

My pal Carey Murdock of Sports Animal fame went through this 15 years ago. He started the OU Rivals site in 2004, and OU wouldn’t credential websites. It took three years before Murdock convinced the Sooner brass to grant him legitimacy.

Despite being competitors in a sense, Tramel is sticking up for an online media company. I had that type of mutual respect with Jimmie Tramel, John Kline, Eric Bailey, Mike Brown, etc. It should always be that way.

Anyway, here are the articles for anyone interested:

Tramel: OSU feud with Pistols Firing should end

OSU's ban on credentials for Pistols Firing needs to end

oklahoman.com