ExWNYer Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Its absolutely amazing that these "respected" NFL writers are wrong as often as they are and still deemed "respected". The age of twitter has turned these guys from journalists into rumor mongers trying to scoop the other writers by throwing every guess they have at the wall (twitter wall) as a guarantee or near guarantee. Jason La Canfora, and Adam Shefter really take the cake. I'll give ONE example and you guys can fill in some others. The big report 2 days ago was Reid to the Cards- Done Deal! Yesterday- Talking to Chiefs first, Today- Going to Chiefs, Count on it! I have ABSOLUTELY NO faith in reports that Wisenhut is the Bills first choice and is the "leading candidate". Its just another guess so that someone can say "I said it first". I want to separate John Warrow and Tim Graham from this conversation. They have avoided making ridiculous guesses have only reported what they know to be true. I'm glad to see they still take their roles seriously. After Whisenhunt's interview with the Bills yesterday, WFAN's '20/20 Sports' update said that "Ken Whisenhunt is reportedly close to being named the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills."
theesir Posted January 3, 2013 Author Posted January 3, 2013 After Whisenhunt's interview with the Bills yesterday, WFAN's '20/20 Sports' update said that "Ken Whisenhunt is reportedly close to being named the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills." This is where this all becomes such a joke. One person tweets something. 10 people report that "reports say" based on that tweet and now we're up to 11 people are reporting it and it seems more credible.
Just in Atlanta Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 It's not just NFL writers. Two rules of journalism: Be accurate and impartial. Journalism as a whole, and I was a reporter, has been sullied by political and social bias for decades. 90 percent of my last newsroom was dominated by one particular political ideology. It's even higher when you get to the top. Some might disagree here, but frankly the bias is palpable, provable and not even debatable to any news consumer capable of looking at things rationally. Now, thanks to social media, it's sullied by not being accurate. There were nine major errors in that Sandy Hook shooting, all stemming from a drive to be first in the real-time media world of Twitter. And forget about reporters actually developing sources anymore and getting real scoops--like Reid's next stop. It's all rumor mongering. Rumors are simply repeated. Half are true. Half are false. And all of us learn to take what the media say with a grain of salt. Sad. Tim Graham, btw, seems to be a rare exception.
The Wiz Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 (edited) This is where this all becomes such a joke. One person tweets something. 10 people report that "reports say" based on that tweet and now we're up to 11 people are reporting it and it seems more credible. And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on. Reporting stuff like head coaching jobs is just as easy as putting 2 dartboards next to each other. One with teams needing a coach, one with coaches available. Edited January 3, 2013 by The Wiz
KollegeStudnet Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 (edited) I think the internet forces them to be more speculative. After all when people pay attention to the likes of Incarcerated Bob, you have to do something to win back attention. ESPN is not run by Edward R. Murrow. They want buzz. What do you expect from the network that reports how many chunks of corn were found in Tim Tebows BMs? PTR Exactly! I was about to write about the medias love affair with Tim Tebow as a pointer/example to what is wrong with the media. George Carlin in a radio interview pointed out that the human society is doomed...based on todays society of viewing life of not being fair. Example: the media toys with us to view it as NOT FAIR that Tebow is NOT starting...and the truth is Tebow is a backup QB and is not good Edited January 3, 2013 by KollegeStudnet
theesir Posted January 3, 2013 Author Posted January 3, 2013 Exactly! I was about to write about the medias love affair with Tim Tebow as a pointer/example to what is wrong with the media. George Carlin in a radio interview pointed out that the human society is doomed...based on todays society of viewing life of not being fair. Example: the media toys with us to view it as NOT FAIR that Tebow is NOT starting...and the truth is Tebow is a backup QB and is not good After every tackle (I may be exaggerating a bit) during the Sugar Bowl last night they kept cutting to Tebow to show his reaction. I was sick of it after the 3rd time. Yet there's a director in a truck yelling "Cut to Tebow!" after every play, and some unlucky camera schmuck who had to spend the entire game with his lens trained on Tebow.
GG Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Journalism as a whole, and I was a reporter, has been sullied by political and social bias for decades. 90 percent of my last newsroom was dominated by one particular political ideology. It's even higher when you get to the top. Some might disagree here, but frankly the bias is palpable, provable and not even debatable to any news consumer capable of looking at things rationally. PPP, here we come
NoSaint Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Tim Graham, btw, seems to be a rare exception. just this week tim had the "nix meeting with ralph" followed minutes later with "actually brandon meeting with ralph, impending doom for nix" followed minutes later by "conflicting reports" hes not without issue
zow2 Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Twitter is very bizarre the way some media people cling to it. Some who i respected very much, i just hate now...not so much because of rumor mongering but some opinions and negativity are just way over the top.
NoSaint Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Twitter is very bizarre the way some media people cling to it. Some who i respected very much, i just hate now...not so much because of rumor mongering but some opinions and negativity are just way over the top. heres where i think the problem lies - number of followers equates to success. its a public measure of their "brand value." twitter followers grasp on to anything noteworthy/controversial, even if inaccurate or unfounded. theres no public measure of accuracy or such, just who gets the most attention. you report about qbs, and coaches even if you dont have the scoop and people will listen. how many people do you think clicked to follow that random dude that posted a screen shot of a text about the kelly/thomas group? i know he wasnt a media member but... essentially the same idea.
silvermike Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 What saves the schlocky, sensationalistic, rumormongering nature of sports journalism is that the subject is really not that important. This isn't a matter of life and death or national policy, it's entertainment. I want strong analysis of schemes and strategies, absolutely, and I get that all over the web now. But that's neutral: anyone can do it, and it doesn't require inside sources. Before the next coach gets to the podium, nothing said matters. We'll forget it within minutes. The process isn't really linked to anything bigger than itself. So I'm at least content to let it unfold in this shady, unreliable manner in the media. This part is a game for the fans. The FO staff has a real job to do. The rest of us are limited to reading tea leaves and going off hunches, suspicions, and anonymous sources. If this mattered more than it did, I'd say the reporters were letting us down. But this is entertainment. And rumors are entertaining.
Delete This Account Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 I am long been a slammer of all things media here but one of the few to hit Wawrow and these other honks like Graham and Sullen(ivan). Exempting these local guys smacks of favoritism and the mods "no one can criticize" them approach. Lets be honest, the AP is where sports reporters with limited talent and respectability go. It's the minor leagues of the media and the fact that a guy trolls here, pointing out when his stories hit he wire is pretty telling, and desperate. His work relies heavily on regurgitation. Graham has been around the block enough and never made a name or himself and now relies in twitter to argue with former players, real professional and mature. The field lacks any respect and credibility anymore. Our local media is the perfect example. Slamming major guys like LaConfora is right on, this is a "he yells loudest and most often" field where skills, acumen, and knowledge have been replaced by fast fingers, laziness and professional immaturity. But not slamming these local hacks is biased and shortsighted. Basically you have two types of reporters.... The flashy, loudmouthed national blowhards like LaConfora who do have major sources and contacts (the get used by teams as much as they use the teams!). And you have sloppy local reporters who generally lack the contacts and insight and therefore can't make predictions and rumors because its as valuable as me doing it. The media serves one purpose, provide us entertainment and ideas that we can ruminate about. The next time the local AP honk writes a highly investigative or analytical piece that shows true depth and knowledge will be the first. We need to stop assuming these people have any value. They have opinions like us and if it weren't for the fact they have the hand their name under the banner of credibility afforded to them by the false belief the media is credible, they'd be completely uselsss rather than almost useless. And yes, I started my career in the media. It sucked and is filled with a bunch of former jocks and failed literature majors who thought they'd be the next Hemingway. I got out because these people are a sad lot and I realized I was neither cut out l care about covering a game for a living not was I looking to be the next Hemingway! as if on cue. ... i won't apologize for being a member of this board, buddy. some people do like it when i link a story or provide a heads up, so that they know something is coming. and it's not as if i do that often. but continue on with this diatribe all you want, lamenting how you started your career in the media and found that it sucked. too bad. i enjoy this job tremendously. i won't apologize for that either. as for you suggesting many of us lack contacts, well: it was the AP that knocked down the story suggesting Reid was 95 percent sure to sign with the Cardinals. there were many locals who knocked down the speculation that the Bills were about to sign Vick, and that a press conference had even been scheduled. i don't know what these investigative pieces you seem to continue to yearn for. it's likely you might have missed some of the work the AP has done on looking into NFL concussions over the past two years. it's likely you might have missed a few pieces i did during Kevin Everett's near-fatal injury. it's likely you missed the pieces i wrote and contributed to involving Vince Young's financial problems. of course, i'll now be accused of being a pompous self-promoter. but it's really no-win with you. so thanks for your support. and please, contact me so that i can repay you all the money you've spent on reading my stories, because it's quite clear they've been a disappointment. such is life. jw
Fan in San Diego Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 as if on cue. ... i won't apologize for being a member of this board, buddy. some people do like it when i link a story or provide a heads up, so that they know something is coming. and it's not as if i do that often. but continue on with this diatribe all you want, lamenting how you started your career in the media and found that it sucked. too bad. i enjoy this job tremendously. i won't apologize for that either. as for you suggesting many of us lack contacts, well: it was the AP that knocked down the story suggesting Reid was 95 percent sure to sign with the Cardinals. there were many locals who knocked down the speculation that the Bills were about to sign Vick, and that a press conference had even been scheduled. i don't know what these investigative pieces you seem to continue to yearn for. it's likely you might have missed some of the work the AP has done on looking into NFL concussions over the past two years. it's likely you might have missed a few pieces i did during Kevin Everett's near-fatal injury. it's likely you missed the pieces i wrote and contributed to involving Vince Young's financial problems. of course, i'll now be accused of being a pompous self-promoter. but it's really no-win with you. so thanks for your support. and please, contact me so that i can repay you all the money you've spent on reading my stories, because it's quite clear they've been a disappointment. such is life. jw jw don't even give that idiot the time of day. It's awesome that you post here and your a great journalist. Keep up the great work.
Wayne Cubed Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 I guess I'm just reading it differently. To me, he's reporting what a source told him. Is he using a source as a guise for his own speculation? That seems far-fetched, but I suppose it's possible. I don't see the harm in tweeting something like that, especially when you have so many followers who are thirsty for every last bit of information he has. In the end it's up to the reader to decide if what these guys tweet/write is valuable. I see some value in these kinds of things, others don't. Try this out though: the weather man says there is a 95% chance of rain, wouldn't you think it's going to rain? Predicting the weather is such an inexact science and usually weather men use numbers like 30% or 60% so it's hard for them to go all in. Like a weather man, being an NFL insider is an inexact science. And just like the weather your judged by your predictions.
Delete This Account Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 jw don't even give that idiot the time of day. It's awesome that you post here and your a great journalist. Keep up the great work. thanks, but since name mentioned, felt i had to respond. i wouldn't go with "great" in the very least. i do my best is all i can say to be accurate, fair and efficient in getting out information. jw
purple haze Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 (edited) Its absolutely amazing that these "respected" NFL writers are wrong as often as they are and still deemed "respected". The age of twitter has turned these guys from journalists into rumor mongers trying to scoop the other writers by throwing every guess they have at the wall (twitter wall) as a guarantee or near guarantee. Jason La Canfora, and Adam Shefter really take the cake. I'll give ONE example and you guys can fill in some others. The big report 2 days ago was Reid to the Cards- Done Deal! Yesterday- Talking to Chiefs first, Today- Going to Chiefs, Count on it! I have ABSOLUTELY NO faith in reports that Wisenhut is the Bills first choice and is the "leading candidate". Its just another guess so that someone can say "I said it first". I want to separate John Warrow and Tim Graham from this conversation. They have avoided making ridiculous guesses have only reported what they know to be true. I'm glad to see they still take their roles seriously. Tim Graham just botched a report the other day. It happens. They find out what they can. "Sources" can be wrong. There are no guarantees. As long as it's not a recurring theme w/a journalist. But this new age of technology, the proliferation of blogs, websites, twitter, Facebook has given information gathering more urgency and less accuracy in general. It has also turned, seemingly, many writers/reporters into pundits/opinion givers rather than straight reporters. Edited January 3, 2013 by purple haze
Just in Atlanta Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Didn't know we had an AP guy in our ranks. PPP, here we come Not a PPP thing, just a post to show it's more than NFL writers, and that journalism as a whole is on the slide.
GG Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Didn't know we had an AP guy in our ranks. Not a PPP thing, just a post to show it's more than NFL writers, and that journalism as a whole is on the slide. You will find that if you invoke the word "political" in a football thread, it will wind its way to PPP or get you banned.
Simon Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 You will find that if you invoke the word "political" in a football thread, it will wind its way to PPP or get you banned. Or you may also find that using the word "political" has never gotten one post moved ever nor has it ever even come close to resulting in a banning.
GG Posted January 3, 2013 Posted January 3, 2013 Or you may also find that using the word "political" has never gotten one post moved ever nor has it ever even come close to resulting in a banning. Ever is a wide range.
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