Does reading a tweet count as an interview?

This week, the Twittersphere was thick with reporters and pundits trying to one up each other in what may have been the most buzzed about week in the history of the NBA. Of course most of that talk centered around the Holy Triumvirate of Bosh, James and Wade, but other guys managed to make a few headlines as well.

Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports jumped into the fray and dropped the following tweet about Kevin Durant on Wednesday, pay attention to the time stamp:

That’s a heckuva scoop (and Goodman’s a guy who’s always quick to take credit for a scoop), but it came a full hour after this tweet from Durant himself:

Uh, call me silly, but when a person broadcasts specific information to all of civilized society, there’s no need to call him up to confirm that information. You see, it came straight from the source and went directly to the masses. There’s no middle man required.

That’s if Goodman ever talked to Durant at all. If in fact no such conversation actually took place, then reading a guy’s tweet history can now count as an interview. I guess this means that journalism schools everywhere have some tinkering to do in their textbooks.

On the other hand, if reading Durant’s tweet prompted Goodman to call him and then tweet about the chat, then the guy’s definitely vying for a spot in the Peter King Name Dropper Hall of Fame. “Everyone, look at me, Kevin Durant’s in the contact list on my phone!!!”

Hell, there’s no need to tweet about someone else’s tweet. Just retweet the damn thing like a normal person. I’m sure Goodman’s came across that functionality after generating 5,000+ tweets of his own.

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