https://www.thedailybeast.com/espn-reporter-adam-schefter-has-history-of-sketchy-unethical-behavior

In a statement released Wednesday, ESPN NFL insider Schefter admitted he went "a step too far" (https://twitter.com/ESPNPR/status/1448392120893640706) in allowing the then-Washington Redskins general manager Bruce Allen to check out an entire story (https://twitter.com/kevinmdraper/status/1448139296859299841) 10 years ago before it was published (a journalistic no-no), referring to him as "Mr. Editor." As The Daily Beast's Robert Silverman points out, Schefter -- a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism -- has a history of unethical behavior. "Over the past decade, while serving as ESPN’s most influential football reporter, Schefter has engaged in other forms of behavior considered anathema to most reporters," says Silverman. "He’s appeared in commercials, invested in gambling concerns alongside an NFL owner, joined the board of a fledgling NFL developmental league, and for a hot minute in 2013, anyone with $3,000 burning a hole in their pocket could have paid to hang out and watch a game with Schefter. After all, Schefter’s job is to crank out NFL-approved gossip and carry water for the multi-billion dollar entertainment enterprise he’s ostensibly charged with covering. Excelling at this kind of access journalism often isn’t pretty. Schefter and others of his ilk have to maintain and properly nurture chummy, transactional relationships with the NFL’s power brokers and agents, doling out choice bits of information and hip-pocketing others. In exchange for their clever horse trading, they’re rewarded with tidy exclusives about looming trades and ongoing contract negotiations. Fans, the type of fans who enjoy placing a wager or who dig fantasy football, eat this stuff up. As such, Schefter has been granted a lofty perch at ESPN. If putting this much-prized product out means Schefter will on occasion defend a domestic abuser or push the NFL’s preferred politics while claiming to be apolitical, well, that’s the at-times grim cost of doing business."

ESPN's Adam Schefter is in hot water again over "pretty embarrassing" report on NFL player's alleged domestic violence (https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/adam-schefters-handling-of-the-dalvin-cook-lawsuit-deserves-all-the-criticism-it-received.html)

Schefter told one side of the story -- the agent's -- in tweeting out pending domestic violence lawsuit against the agent's client, Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, from his ex-girlfriend on Tuesday night. The agent's version of the story painted Cook as the victim in the dispute. But when photos of the ex-girlfriend's injuries surfaced in a Minneapolis Star-Tribune story, Schefter was accused of committing journalistic malpractice by telling a one-sided story. Schefter sort of apologized (https://twitter.com/kevinmdraper/status/1458579112231116801) Wednesday on SportsCenter, saying he should've reached out to all sides. But the latest Schefter incident -- coming a month after it was revealed he let the then-Washington Redskins GM see his story before publications -- raises another problem with Schefter's role at ESPN. In tweeting out the version of events from Cook's agent, Schefter was essentially paying him back for past scoops. As Laura Wagner put it, "Schefter’s willingness to be a mouthpiece for various agents, lawyers, and owners has always been a core piece of his version of journalism, but what he did last night was downright insidious, and goes beyond all his previous transgressions (https://defector.com/seriously-what-the-****-is-wrong-with-adam-schefter/)."