In case you didn"t notice, Yahoo! is now a full participant in the journalism profession. The portal has a scoop. Earlier this week, Yahoo! reporters Charles Robinson and Jason Coles broke a story alleging that star footballer Reggie Bush and his family received financial perks while the running-back was still in school at USC. That"s a no-no in the "amateur" world of college athletics where the performers must parade around in costumes labeled by Nike or Adidas for free, while the schools earn hundreds of millions of dollars. The Yahoo! story took eight months to research, and the reporters have some very specific evidence to back up their allegations.
As a result of Yahoo!"s scoop, publications such as the AP, the Houston Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune have pointed the portal"s story in their own coverage of the incident. This is the first really big news story Yahoo! has broken since it started hiring reporters a couple of years ago.