The Sports Illustrated reporter who broke the story about Alex Rodriguez's steroid use is coming out with a book. But now, it's coming out a month earlier than originally planned.Selena Roberts, who has done countless radio and television interviews over the last week, has written a book about Alex Rodriguez entitled "A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez". It was supposed to hit bookstands May 19th. But with all the publicity the A-Rod saga has received in the last seven days, the book will now be out April 14th.
Is this the best idea?
On one hand, with all the scrutiny and attention surrounding Rodriguez and the other players who have admitted or may later be outed for steroid use, there's no better time than now to capitalize on the American public's thurst for more information on the subject. The profit margin for a book of this subject figures to be high.
But to me, the decision to move up the release date comes off as a selfish way to take advantage of the situation by the journalist.
It is unknown whether the choice to release the book a month early was made by Roberts or by publisher Harper Collins. But it shouldn't be so obvious now that she's brought an impactful and highy controversial story to the forefront of the American conscience, she's hoping to make a few bucks off it too.
It's her right to author a book on the subject, and it figures to be an interesting read. So she was going to make some money off it anyway. And it's not like had the book kept its original release date in May that it wouldn't have a similar impact in terms of publicity and potential profit for Roberts.
Still, the decision to move the release date up just seems self serving to me. It brings into question the ethics of whether Roberts obligation to report the news was outweighed by her quest to break a story for personal gain. Now that she's focused the American public on her story, she's capitalizing on a window of opportunity to get all the rest of the A-Rod crazed public to buy her book.
What do you think? As Scott would say, get at us.
i'll go first, so far as getting at "us". i agree, it is a bit self serving, but as a selfish individual myself, i understand that. the thing is, ethics are clearly gone here because she had no issue leaking out the information about his test results which although she wasn't the one to do the original leaking, she was the one that made it public and those tests, as we all know, were never supposed to come out. not that she's a terrible person, but she clearly has her own moral compass.
ReplyDeleteSelf serving journalist capitalizing on the scandal. Also heard that the book is supposed to contain aspects of his personal life including his affairs. Does that cross the journalistic line too?
ReplyDeleteOne should never leak in public
ReplyDeleteThe answer to the above question is no, it does not cross the line, unless the information was obtained unethically. If the information was found using proper methods, she can report whatever she wants.
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