"KNOW YOUR ROLE!"  This is a statement I commonly use on my wife when I feel she's getting uppity or a touch big for her britches.  As you can imagine, it is usually replied to with an upraised middle finger or some other form of verbal or physical abuse.  Realistically I don't expect her to do anything I tell her just because, but its fun to mess with her. 

Knowing your role as far as being a media representative is another issue entirely.  The current debacle between the NPPL and PB Nation.Com is a case in point (in my opinion) of a 'media' outlet not knowing their role.  For the sake of this editorial I'll stipulate that PBN is a media outlet.  Detailing how they're not is another editorial altogether, to be taken up at a different time.

According to Ed (aka CS@PBNation.Com) in the original post detailing why PBN will be cutting off the NPPL, he feels that the deal the NPPL made with Fox Sports to televise events, which apparently includes an exclusivity clause for the Centre Court, damages the smaller video/DVD production companies like DerDer, Traumahead, and obviously near and dear to Ed's heart, Monkey With a Gun.  

Come on, now...I dig watching paintball DVD's as much as the next player, but does Ed and Co. really in their heart believe that the various DVD makers do and can do more for the NPPL than Fox Sports, a mainstream media outlet?  This deal with Fox Sports and the NPPL is precisely what players have been screaming for since 1996, when ESPN aired the World Cup.  We all want to mainstream the sport, get out of the 'extreme' niche and take our place with mainstream sports like MLB, NFL, and the NBA.  
I hate to bust everyone's bubble, but media outlets pay and pay large to cover those mainstream events. 
The major networks fight like hell to pay the various leagues HUGE money to televise events like the Superbowl, etc.  With a couple of exceptions, most paintball event promoters will either pay to have their event covered or provide media access at no cost to the media.  In some cases the promoters go to the trouble and expense of giving the media a place to safely store their gear and wireless internet access.   That the sport of paintball hasn't advanced to the level of charging the media to cover them yet is an indicator that we still have a long way to go.

The role of a media outlet is to report the news, not create it.  All too often in the mainstream press reporters are using their positions to advance an agenda, state their political views, and generally straying away from what their role is, to report the news.   A good media outlet is respected not because of whatever power they feel is conferred to them by their size, but because they present the news in a fair and balanced way, and they represent their advertisers in the best way possible.  The old adage, "If you build it, they will come" rings true here.  If you report the news, take care of your advertisers, and do so without advancing agendas, engaging in PR Wars, or trying to punish those who disagree with you.

I'm not so sure that there's not something else going on behind the scenes with the NPPL and PBN.  I mean really,  MWAG, DerDer and others can find plenty else to video at an event.  Covering divisional play, the grassroots of any league, exposing their viewers to new products and services, and showing how much fun it is to play in a particular league are all things that the smaller companies can do, and provide a service to us rank and file players out there.  The Pros are the big boys, and deserve the big time coverage.  These guys devote their lives to the sport, often to the detriment of their bodies and the chance at a regular life, all in the pursuit of the dream.  Rather than seeing Fox Sports' insistence on exclusivity as a way of "The Man" keeping the little guy down, it ought to serve as inspiration for us little guys out there to sac up and earn our way to the big time.  Being covered by MWAG, DerDer, etc. ought to serve as a stepping stone to the big time, being on Fox Sports with the big boys.

What I feel PBN is doing is trying to do is dictate to the sport.  As a media outlet, it's not their place or any of us in the paintball media to dictate to the sport as to how it should be.  Our job as media people is to report the news and serve the sport by reporting it, the good, the bad and the ugly.  If you do that, the respect and the traffic will come.

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