The Jewish Broadcaster

This year, I started broadcasting online for the Yeshiva University basketball team. Before my first broadcast, I was very nervous, as I had never taken part in any form of mass communication before, either verbally or in print. Broadcasting is just as much a form of journalism as written reporting, particularly with respect to the responsibilities of the reporter to the public regarding accuracy and fairness, and I felt the weight of these responsibilities without being sure that I was equipped to handle them adequately.

So what could have gone wrong? Well, one obvious obstacle to any form of journalism is simply inadequate knowledge of the material being reported. If, for instance, I had never watched a YU game before, I would not have been capable of delivering the commentary in the smooth manner that was expected - my lack of knowledge of the names and roles of the various players on both teams would have made it inevitable for me to stutter through the broadcast, looking down at the roster constantly to make my points. Fortunately, I knew that my familiarity with YU basketball gave me the requisite knowledge, but I was nevertheless apprehensive that my inexperience would still result in stuttering, and (as you will see) justifiably so! Any skill requires practice to develop.

Additionally, there was the responsibility which comes from announcing as a Jew for a Jewish university like YU. Following the principles of Torah Judaism seems even more crucial to me in this kind of public role than in my personal life because the content of my broadcast affects all of the listeners rather than just me. This responsibility manifests itself in various ways, some of which you may not have considered.

The first thing that comes to mind with any speaking role is the halakhic injunction against Lashon Hara, slanderous talk. This one seems fairly simple, except that it is extremely difficult to limit the commentary to the positive. Very rarely is a play in basketball play purely positive for one player or team without reflecting negatively on some aspect of the performance of the opposition. For example, the success of good anticipation or good positioning by a defensive player is often aided by poor execution or a questionable decision on the part of one of the offensive players. This may create a conflict between the journalistic duty to inform the listeners about both aspects of the play, and the halakhic requirements regarding Lashon Hara. The way that I attempted to balance these factors was sometimes not easy to pull off, but I found it very rewarding as both a broadcaster and a Jew. Specifically, I attempted to announce exactly what I saw occurring while nonetheless focusing only on the particular play at hand without letting my comments speak negatively of any player's more general weaknesses as illustrated by that play. This I feel is a fair compromise between these two issues.

Another issue which may present itself is maintaining self control, which is necessary for implementing the above strategy to avoid Lashon Hara. While it is not absolutely essential to avoid occasional episodes of overexcitement or slight exaggeration, attempting to exhibit complete self control is a positive trait we can take from broadcasting and apply to our everyday lives. A Jewish broadcaster must not be like members of the modern mass media, sensationalists always taking outrageous stances just to gain fame or get a rise out of the public. Jewish broadcasters must always take rational approaches, weigh their words carefully, and always think out what they are about to say before they say it. This will help to avoid any speech-based halakhic transgressions, while also helping the broadcast maintain an even keel and giving the broadcaster time to consider his points more clearly. Thus, producing a good broadcast and maintaining Jewish principles are by no means inconsistent with each other and can be achieved simultaneously with careful enough thought.

Another lesson we can take from broadcasting is to just keep trying. Shlomo HaMelech, who is acknowledged to be the wisest man of all time, wrote in Mishlei (Proverbs) 24:16, "Sheva Yipol Tzaddik Vekam", which translates as, "A righteous man falls seven times and gets up." This lesson applies to every aspect of our lives. If we are trying to do something good but fail in our initial efforts, or even, according to the pasuk, our seventh effort, we must nonetheless pick ourselves up and try again in order to achieve spiritual growth.

Thankfully, it did not take me seven broadcasts to get it right in my mind, but after my first broadcast, in which I was "just" the color commentator, I was pretty shaken from the pressure I had felt. Then, when I did play-by-play commentary for the first time at a game a few weeks later, the large amount of talking and memorization required proved too much for me - I did not associate the players with their names quickly enough, causing me to do far too much stuttering and making me so dissatisfied with my performance that I switched with my color commentator at halftime. But like any good Jew, I was not deterred for long. Heeding the advice of Shlomo HaMelech, I researched my next game with even more dedication than I had put into the previous game, went over my previous game's mistakes, and came back ready to go. I still made some mistakes, but a limited number of them is almost unavoidable without many years of experience when one has to talk for almost two hours straight, and I derived a great deal of satisfaction from the fact that the overall broadcast went very well. Since then, I have further honed my skills, each time learning from my mistakes of the previous time and adding at least one new twist to my broadcasting repertoire. Perseverance like this is usually necessary for us to realize our full potential both as Jews and in secular pursuits.

In the end, as I look back on my experience as a broadcaster so far, I feel that it has made me even more in tune with the values of Torah Judaism by making me so acutely aware of the constant need to choose my words very carefully. Not only that, but broadcasting is a good way to learn valuable lessons like maintaining self control and never giving up. With the Red Sarachek high school basketball tournament coming up, and a shortage of broadcasters going in, I strongly urge you to sign up to do some games if you have an interest in sports. I think that the experience might very well make you a better and more insightful person in the long run.

Adam Roth is the media broadcaster for the Yeshiva Maccabees