BUCK IS RIGHT ON THE MONEY.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

The scoop on Joe Buck is that, no, he's not a journalist. Not in the pure sense of the word, at least.

And particularly not when he's asked to do game play-by-play, which is where he'll be stationed between Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth on Super Bowl Sunday for the first time in his Emmy-filled broadcasting career, with explicit instructions to describe what happens in this widely-viewed Philadelphia-New England contest in Jacksonville, Fla.

The only reason this bit of semantics must be revisited is because the reputed men of journalism at HBO have put the 35-year-old Buck in a position to defend his code of ethics this week, after one of those ``what if?'' questions that came up during an episode last week of ``Real Sports'' left him dangling like a participle.

The 12-minute piece managed to make its point about Buck's privileged upbringing in the broadcasting world but not so much how he kept it. He only got a shot at the St. Louis Cardinals' play-by-play job because of his dad, Jack Buck, and he only got a job at Fox because his mom, Carol, slipped a tape through to the wife of network sports executive producer Ed Goren.

Reporter Bernard Goldberg decided to use the last bit of interview time to unload this loaded question:

Goldberg: ``If you knew that a player, a Cardinals player, was using steroids ... was cheating ... would you report it?''

Buck: ``Umm ... no ... no.

``I'm not in a position as the Cardinals' announcer to break stories. ... I can't solve the steroid issue with my little headset on calling play-by-play. That's not my job.''

Goldberg: ``I don't think you consider yourself in the world of journalism.''

Buck: ``I'm not a journalist ...''

At that point, the piece cuts away to Goldberg explaining how Buck was taught by his dad to look the other way in locker rooms or on road trips, when players were seen with women who weren't their wives. But that Buck ``I'm not a journalist'' quote was left floating out there, sort of what they wanted viewers to remember as some revealing piece of commentary on his approach to broadcasting - and, in a way, implying that if Buck had ever discovered that Mark McGwire was doing steroids during his playing days with the Cardinals, Buck would have been protecting him by not reporting it.

When asked in a conference call with reporters to put that HBO piece into some context, Buck explained:

``First of all, as you know when they do interview shows like that, you're at the mercy of how they want to cut it up. The question was: if I'm a baseball broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals and I found out in the team hotel, on a bus, talking to a guy, that someone's on steroids, is that something I would tell the fans? My answer to that was no, it's not my job, and I stand by that.''

Asked if the same philosophy applies to his work at Fox, Buck, who has done seven World Series for the network, continued: ``I just don't consider myself in the role of breaking stories along those lines. I'm there to cover a game. If you want me to write a piece or do a round table discussion, sure. But I can't go on hearsay of someone saying someone else is on steroids.

``The way I followed up that question (which didn't get on the air) was that now that there is proof and testimonies and the BALCO situation, now it's a different story, and you can debate it or put it into historical perspective, that's fair game. But to hear something and blurt it out, that flies in the face of self preservation trying to get anything from any player from that point on.''

Asked if there was a place for journalism on a telecast, Buck concluded: ``To dissect (a steroids issue) when a game is going on, that's not the forum. These issues are far too multifaceted to work in between ball one and strike two.''

Goren, also on the conference call, added: ``(Play-by-play) is not the role or the forum for these kind of debates. We don't expect the play- by-play man to be Mike Wallace.''

Fox Sports chief David Hill said: ``There's too much rumor and innuendo today that doesn't stand up to the cold, hard scrutiny of journalism. I won't have that on Fox Sports.''

Gumbel actually opened the ``Real Sports'' show last week with the line: ``Each year at this time we try to lend some reason and perspective to the over-the-top hype and glitz attended to the Super Bowl.''

From our perspective, there's no reason this issue even had to come up.

--Sink or swim: The first step toward another possible revamping of Fox Sports Net is confirmation that ``I, Max'' will cease to exist after Feb. 18, just six months after this experiment in how long viewers could stand to be annoyed in one sitting was proved to be a miserable failure.

Although host Max Kellerman and sidekick Michael Holley will be paid through the summer of 2006, Kellerman's agent has already contacted ESPN about possibly returning there, where he once hosted ``Around The Horn.''

A bigger FSN change could involve ``The Best Damn Sports Show Period,'' which after 3 1/2 years on the air could have hit its expiration date as well.

Sources say those involved with the BDSSP are being told that if it doesn't get some sort of ratings bump in the weeks after all this recent national attention, it may shut down sometime in March.

Much of that speculation comes from rumors about News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch has again been mulling the launch of a new Fox national cable channel to compete with ESPN. But Murdoch told Multichannel News on Thursday he wouldn't do that without more NFL programming - particularly ESPN's Sunday night package, or the Thursday-and-Saturday game packages that the league has said will be created with the new rights contract. ESPN has until October to decide how it wants to renew its deal.

Prematurely knocking out a show like BDSSP, which fills up to one-fourth of a 24-hour cycle on FSN, would mean having to recreate either a national newscast or other chat shows pretty fast to fill that void.

If drawing attention is the goal for BDSSP this week, it got some from Comedy Central's ``The Daily Show'' for changing its name to the ``Best Darn Super Bowl Road Show Period'' for the hour it will air as part of Fox's network Sunday morning eight-hour pregame charade from Jacksonville.

``Daily Show'' host Jon Stewart remarked on the alteration from ``Damn'' to ``Darn'': ``No word yet on what will finally replace the word, 'Best.' Network sources say potential candidates are `the' and `a'.''

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--With the consolidation of Clear Channel's two local all-sports stations Thursday - taking 690-AM and 1150-AM down the dial to 570-AM - there's some minor confusion as to what team's broadcast takes priority. The Lakers, longtime tenants of 570-AM, are No. 1 on the depth chart. The Clippers games will remain on 1150-AM, which now runs a political talk format. UCLA sports will be No. 2 at 570-AM and may move to either 690-AM (as it did Thursday) or 1150-AM depending on if there's a Clippers game. The Avengers are No. 3 at 570-AM, but there's no conflict preventing them for tonight's home game at 7:30. The station says it will continue to be an affiliate for the Raiders and Cal football next fall.

--The battle for soccer viewers seems to have kicked it up a notch with two adjustments on the TV landscape. Los Angeles-based Fox Sports World will change its name to Fox Soccer Channel on Monday, continuing its focus primarily on U.S., British and other European leagues. Launched in 1997, it has close to 20 million cable and dish subscribers. (For more info: foxsoccer.com). Meanwhile, bilingual GolTV, which focuses on Latin American leagues but includes much of Spain and Italy, will be added to DirecTV (channel 614 in English and 426 in Spanish) on Feb. 19. Launched in 2003, it will soon be available in seven million homes. (For more info: www.goltv.tv).

WHAT CHOKES

--Despite all the attention directed to a new ``TurfCam'' that Fox will use for Sunday's Super Bowl coverage, don't expect much in the way of it actually enhancing the broadcast. Cameras the size of a pencil eraser have been embedded into the Alltel Stadium grass, two at the mark where extra points are snapped from and two on the hash marks at the 20-yard line. There are others in the red pylons around the corners of the end zone. ``The TurfCam is a huge gamble; the chances of getting a meaningful shot are probably 100-to-1 against it,'' Fox Sports chief David Hill said. ``But if do get it, it'll be awesome.''

--Instead of trying to find a new play-by-play voice among the masses of college kids and frustrated TV viewers, the third season of ESPN's ``Dream Job'' starting Feb. 28 will pit six former pro basketball players in a contest to see if one can emerge to be an NBA studio analyst. The Tim Legler wannabes - Dee Brown, Dana Barros, Matt Bullard, Darryl Dawkins, J.R. Reid and Gerald Wilkins - could get a one-year contract if they end up not voted off by the end of the five-week show on March 27. Too late, apparently, for Rudy Tomjanovich to add his name to the contestant list.

--``Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search,'' which drew a ``Jeers'' from TV Guide because NBC was ``lowering its standards'' by showing this weekly prime-time reality skin show promoting the magazine's annual bikini gal - not that SI has lowered its standards as well - came down to a vote between loose-cannon Alicia and girl-next-door Shannon after Stacy's weepy firing on Wednesday's last episode. Online and text message voting ended just hours after the show aired and we'll nervously await to find out the winner, who receives a few pages in the annual swimsuit issue that comes out in two weeks and then likely is never heard from again.

BY TOM HOFFARTH

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