ESPN Used to Have a '5 Minute' Twitter Policy, But that's Melted Away, Adam Schefter Says

Anyway, on to twitter. Said Schefter:

"Q: Does ESPN have a policy that encourages or discourages you from breaking news on Twitter? A: What’s interesting is that they had a policy, when this first got going, about waiting five minutes. Like you had to file it to the news desk and wait five minutes before you put anything on Twitter. Over time that has just gradually melted away. Because I have waited five minutes and five minutes have cost me. You wait five minutes and somebody else is going to put that story out in a lot of cases. . . . So it really doesn’t work. The rules in this crazy day and age of journalism that we are living in have kind of been adjusted and updated as we continue to try and figure them out, because it’s just a little crazy out there."

That policy must have been in what, 2009? The way agents/teams talk now, not even a 1-minute policy would be sufficient.

I’m curious to see how the draft works in a few weeks. If you remember last year, there was a significant outcry (not from me, though) about reporters tweeting draft picks before they happened on TV. (This happened during the NBA draft, too.) Why people complained, I do not know. Want suspense? Get off twitter. [Journal Sentinel]