The Buffalo News and their "agenda"

[BringBackOrton]

 

Yep, absolutely!

 

We get about 500 downloads to our podcast when the Bills win. About 350 when they lose. I have the heat maps to show the patterns.

 

 

As detailed in the OP: to discredit the brand that's putting forth a product in direct competition with theirs. Reports are of turmoil, disconnect, disorganization, backstabbing, etc.

 

On the flipside: what's the consequence? The Bills won't revoke their credentials. At least not in this decade.

Huh? There's been reports of disconnect, disorganization etc far before Pegula and his cronies got here. Unless there was a Ralph Wilson Sports and Entertainment group I missed, I fail to see how they felt in competition with the Bills pre-2014.

 

"Why not" is hardly a sufficient motive.

 

There's also a matter of what they accomplish. They discredit the team, sure. What happens after that? Pegula sells the team and runs away crying? Buys TBN and fires them all? Pays off Graham and Skurski to write propaganda?

Edited December 23, 2016 by jmc12290

[The Big Cat]

Huh? There's been reports of disconnect, disorganization etc far before Pegula and his cronies got here. Unless there was a Ralph Wilson Sports and Entertainment group I missed, I fail to see how they felt in competition with the Bills pre-2014.

 

"Why not" is hardly a sufficient motive.

 

There's also a matter of what they accomplish. They discredit the team, sure. What happens after that? Pegula sells the team and runs away crying? Buys TBN and fires them all? Pays off Graham and Skurski to write propaganda?

Thanks

[Saxum]

 

Yeah, I reject using clickbait and negativity as the explanation. This feels far more insidious and calculated. And I think it does have much more to do with the symbiotic relationship between professional sports teams and local "journalism" coming apart at the seams. I think it's quite clear who doesn't need who.

 

Corrected. In fact they should treat them that way.

[Ohiostyle]

I think with official mouthpieces, the only alternatives for TBN are to take the stories that you won't here from them (WGR, BB.com). Even if things were to become wildly successful, I'd expect TBN's content to remain the same. It's their only nitch at this point. They are creating far more content than any of the others.

[NewEra]

For the last two decades, the Bills have given local writers nothing but mediocre, uninspiring football to write about and analyze. All around the league, teams go from zero to hero and make runs from championships, while we consistently hover around 7 wins and twice a year get a front row seat to the chasm separating our squad from arguably the most dominant sports dynasty of all time.

 

If I were a writer covering this team, if the bulk of my career now spanned a record-long drought, I imagine I'd be burned out too.

 

But lately it's felt different. It seems that in the last couple years it's taken a turn. For the personal. We've gone beyond if it bleeds it reads. Now it feels like the motto is make it bleed.

 

I don't know how much good it will to rehash the last couple weeks of coverage/conduct, instead I'd like to offer an explanation for why there seems to be a growing sentiment among the fans that the likes of Graham, Carucci, Sully, Skurski and Gleason have really taken to honing in on the negative side/spin/angle of every Bills story.

 

They're fighting for survival. The Bills are no longer a football team. They're a media company. They writers that cover them compete with the team for:

 

• Access--WGR, the "official home of the Buffalo Bills" gets weekly exclusives with marquee members of the organization, ditto the Bills web properties, the MSG network, et al.
• Eyeballs--The Bills web properties, the MSG network, WGR, PSE, these all tie back to the Pegulas. They (and the team by proxy) have final authorship on content that TBN now has to compete with.
• Relevance--Not only can the team's channels outdo them from a content standpoint, so can the national guys. It's not just ESPN and SI that have their angles on the Bills anymore, now the league has its own 24/7 network to further marginalize the need for the local guys to cover.

What exactly do the Bills need TBN for?

 

Nothing, it turns out.

 

In fact, TBN is a liability for them, hence the move to tighten the reigns on what outside media can and can't cover.

 

More and more I see TBN guys tweeting about this Buffalo Guild mumbo jumbo. It's 2016. The local paper free fall began a decade ago. They're desperate.

 

So is it any surprise--when the chips are down, when the team you cover is doing all that it can to eradicate your purpose--that your response would be to smear them any way possible? Fortunately for them, the Bills don't make it very difficult.

 

All of this seemed to really take flight when the Pegulas took over. And given everything I'm mentioned above, is the conclusion here really that wild?

Word. It's TBN is at all all time low. I haven't read an article in months. I see the headlines on TBD and just cringe. I refuse to give those "writers" any clicks. They should be ashamed.

[hondo in seattle]

Their negative articles probably get the most clicks too. Not saying you're wrong, but I'm sure that plays a factor.

 

TBN's only agenda is revenue. To generate revenue, they need readers. So the safe guess is that the sports editor has decided that negativity generates clicks.

 

And maybe he or she is right. But I hate any reporting that isn't balanced. Negativity is dreary and depressing. Pollyanna positivity is goofy and unrealistic. Can't we get a little bit of both?