What you say as a podcaster matters. You know what also matters? Who you work for.
Evan Lazar is an employee of my New England Patriots, who much to the delight of most football fans, have crashed back down to earth, hard, and are one of the worst teams in the league. (Hey, no complaints here – we got 6 rings when I was young enough to follow sports more religiously).
Anyway, Evan is a co-host of the Patriots Catch 22 podcast, produced by the team. And by and large, the show can be critical of the team when warranted. But following a bad loss in San Francisco last week, Evan said there was a “mutiny” in the Pats’ locker room. THIS did not sit well with his employer in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The episode has since been taken down from YouTube, and Lazar has walked back the comments, essentially saying he got riled up in the moment, according to Boston media.
Are podcasts journalists?Well, depends on who you work for.Lazar is an employee of the team, and while they give him a long leash, they ultimately have veto power over the content. What if he worked for the radio station that has the contract to carry the team’s games?Well, that’s a little murkier.But unless he’s either employed by a news organization, or completely independent, he doesn’t have the freedom to say whatever he wants.
There are two lessons here.1) if you’re recording a podcast, always be mindful of WHO you are producing that content for, especially if it’s your employer. And 2) While the beauty of podcasting is that it’s meant to be a free-flowing natural conversation, be wary of getting carried away and saying something that might come back to bite you.
Also of note here:The usually media-savvy New England Patriots have removed the podcast from YouTube. However, as of 9:15am on Friday, they have NOT removed it from Apple or Spotify. This supports the argument that YouTube is now the biggest platform for podcasting. If your show isn’t on YouTube, it NEEDS to be – even if it’s an audio only show. If you need help, feel free to reach out to me.
Finally, I recorded this episode in the new Descript Rooms feature on Descript, a web-based studio that will eventually replace Squadcast. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. Lata!
Find jag on social media @JAGinDetroit or online at JAGinDetroit.com
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