Perhaps Buffalo needs to Draft a competent Sports Media

[Kelly the Dog]

Third rate team, third rate media market. The crappy sports media actually annoys me more than the team's performance. The Bills clearly face clearly superior opponents all the time. Scope, Bullfrog, Sully, Vic, Buscaglioni, none of those guys have to write stories or deliver on-air content with a defense in their face. So what's their excuse for being such medium talents?

I live in LA. There are a couple of excellent sports writers but not many. The vast majority of the local news, tv, radio, and bloggers are as bad or worse than the Buffalo guys.

[bopper2]

While watching the presser, I thought the media jackals were just trying anger and provoke DW. And, no, I am not a big fan of his.

Sullivan, in particular, is first rate d-bag, who has been cashing pay checks for writing the same freaking column over and over for the last 5 years.

[jimmy10]

I live in LA. There are a couple of excellent sports writers but not many. The vast majority of the local news, tv, radio, and bloggers are as bad or worse than the Buffalo guys.

My experience is in radio, not print media, but as far as broadcasting goes, there is a clear drop-off in talent from a NYC, LA-type major market to a town like Buffalo. Nothing against WNY, it's just the nature of the biz.

[Kelly the Dog]

My experience is in radio, not print media, but as far as broadcasting goes, there is a clear drop-off in talent from a NYC, LA-type major market to a town like Buffalo. Nothing against WNY, it's just the nature of the biz.

IMO the local LA radio is unlistenable. The local LA TV is probably the worst of any large city (if only because all of the local TV anchors are acting as if always on audition for a TV show or national job and rarely, like, report the news. They just try to make each other laugh with their (not so) brilliant personalities. I'm unsure about the NYC radio and TV. I hope it's better. I don't see Francesca as being any better, he's just more of a bad thing.

[tombstone56]

you get what you pay for, this groups of sports writers as a whole all like 7th round picks or FAs,, the BILLS,SABRES and NEWS all needs upgrades!!

[TANK2]

Not a huge Whaley fan. Used to be but not right now. That said the Buffalo media is a joke. Some of those questions were embarrassing. Especially Gleason from the news. What an unprofessional tool.

Edited January 3, 2017 by TANK2

[bbb]

You guys keep clicking and they'll remain in place. I haven't clocked a BN link all year. They're an embarrassment and should all be fired. I don't know what their agenda is but it's definitely not to give Bills fans information on the Bills.

 

Because of their union, they will never be fired.

 

[Saxum]

Third rate team, third rate media market. The crappy sports media actually annoys me more than the team's performance. The Bills clearly face clearly superior opponents all the time. Scope, Bullfrog, Sully, Vic, Buscaglioni, none of those guys have to write stories or deliver on-air content with a defense in their face. So what's their excuse for being such medium talents?

 

Third rate team, fourth rate media market and fifth rate (on good days) media. No one there reaches medium on best days.

[notwoz]

 

Because of their union, they will never be fired.

 

There's a lot of truth to that statement. They probably can't even be demoted to recording Friday night bowling scores, either. They have a sweet gig, and they know it. Why would they go to a market that's competitive and require them to actually work! That said, I don't mind Vic Carucci. He almost seems to be a throwback to the Larry Felser-Phil Ranallo days. Tim Graham can be OK, but he is full of himself and quite thin-skinned. As for Sullivan, he's Capt. Obvious ... never provides any information that's new. The others aren't worth discussing.

[zonabb]

Imagine this is your career goal: a sports reporter. Then imagine you had the desire to cover professional sports in a big city. The imagine it was the city you grew up near and rooting for, which is a top 10 media market and sports mecca. But then imagine you just sucked and got stuck in Buffalo, NY, a market outside the top 50 and you never could get to your dream job at the Globe or Herald covering your beloved Celtics, Pats, Sox, and Bruins. So you take your anger and shattered self-esteem and you turn into a miserable old curmudgeon who instead of enjoying his job, turns it into a self-indulgent, pustulant, misery fest. That's Sullivan's professional life, and it his personal live apparently didn't turn out as planned either. I met this joker once waiting to get into the press entrance at an event and all he did was act like a whiney ingrate that he, the king of garbage Buffalo media, had to wait to get in. Guy is just a miserable human being, he is who he appears to be.

 

I've always maintained I wish out media covered state and local politics the way they cover sports. I don't care what the media says, I don't need them to speak for the "fans" or the "city," no one hired them as my f'in spokesperson. I'm a STH, I have the choice to stop if I feel like it, the Bills owe me zero answers, I am a willing customer. This idea that somehow the Bills owe me and the media a press conference and an explanation is a joke and only held up by the media a s requirement because without that assumption, they'd be more useless than they already are. The only people that owe us press conferences and answers are the only ones who never have a press conference or weekly radio show and that's the people who take our money in the form of taxes. We're owed that, we're owned nothing from the Bills.

 

What I think is hilarious is these young generation of hacks who try to act like anyone cares what they say. I was at a party and I saw some tweener playing a sports anchor on Channel 7 bumble his way through a poorly constructed and horribly delivered editorial soliloquy the other night, total tire fire.

 

Sports media is basically a game if "who can be the biggest idiot to say the most outrageous thing, and say it as loud as possible."

 

What we lack here is what other city's have, which are a few quality writers and reporters to buffer the hacks. When we Kelley passed and Felser retierd, we lost guys who could be excellent reporters without being azzholes, who the subjects of their work respected. No one respects these guys, which in some ways has to annoy the hell out of them. You can be critical and classy, they just don't know how. All my warning points are from slamming the media, specifically JW, but I should get one removed (haha) for giving JW props for being good at his job, being classy, and writing facts instead of opinion. The Buffalo News has removed the line between editorials and columns and now that has turned into an infection in its reporting.

[bbb]

Imagine this is your career goal: a sports reporter. Then imagine you had the desire to cover professional sports in a big city. The imagine it was the city you grew up near and rooting for, which is a top 10 media market and sports mecca. But then imagine you just sucked and got stuck in Buffalo, NY, a market outside the top 50 and you never could get to your dream job at the Globe or Herald covering your beloved Celtics, Pats, Sox, and Bruins. So you take your anger and shattered self-esteem and you turn into a miserable old curmudgeon who instead of enjoying his job, turns it into a self-indulgent, pustulant, misery fest. That's Sullivan's professional life, and it his personal live apparently didn't turn out as planned either. I met this joker once waiting to get into the press entrance at an event and all he did was act like a whiney ingrate that he, the king of garbage Buffalo media, had to wait to get in. Guy is just a miserable human being, he is who he appears to be.

 

I've always maintained I wish out media covered state and local politics the way they cover sports. I don't care what the media says, I don't need them to speak for the "fans" or the "city," no one hired them as my f'in spokesperson. I'm a STH, I have the choice to stop if I feel like it, the Bills owe me zero answers, I am a willing customer. This idea that somehow the Bills owe me and the media a press conference and an explanation is a joke and only held up by the media a s requirement because without that assumption, they'd be more useless than they already are. The only people that owe us press conferences and answers are the only ones who never have a press conference or weekly radio show and that's the people who take our money in the form of taxes. We're owed that, we're owned nothing from the Bills.

 

What I think is hilarious is these young generation of hacks who try to act like anyone cares what they say. I was at a party and I saw some tweener playing a sports anchor on Channel 7 bumble his way through a poorly constructed and horribly delivered editorial soliloquy the other night, total tire fire.

 

Sports media is basically a game if "who can be the biggest idiot to say the most outrageous thing, and say it as loud as possible."

 

What we lack here is what other city's have, which are a few quality writers and reporters to buffer the hacks. When we Kelley passed and Felser retierd, we lost guys who could be excellent reporters without being azzholes, who the subjects of their work respected. No one respects these guys, which in some ways has to annoy the hell out of them. You can be critical and classy, they just don't know how. All my warning points are from slamming the media, specifically JW, but I should get one removed (haha) for giving JW props for being good at his job, being classy, and writing facts instead of opinion. The Buffalo News has removed the line between editorials and columns and now that has turned into an infection in its reporting.

 

Great post!

 

I think the only guys who I would be in the Kelley/Felser class are Mark Gaughan, who unfortunately for Bills fans (and fortunately for my Bonnies) moved over to college sports, and Tyler Dunne, who you could tell was not long for that Popsicle stand.

[Saxum]

Sports media is basically a game if "who can be the biggest idiot to say the most outrageous thing, and say it as loud as possible."

 

Then the Buffalo News writers are doing a great job!

 

I worked in press (Buffalo Courier Express which closed in 1982) and mostly worked in editing.

If the bags of dung worked there their press cards would have been pulled.

[dave mcbride]

The most tired act among active, passionate Bills fans is blaming the media. It calls to mind what a very close book editor friend of mine (at Princeton University Press) told me years ago -- the first instinct of populism (both left and right, but honestly, mostly the right) is to always, always blame the media first. It's a tried and true tactic that is as effective as it is inaccurate.

 

Sorry for sounding pissy about this -- seriously. I'm just so sick of people attacking the media and not factoring in that the Jerry Sullivans of the world have covered nearly two decades of dysfunction. How could they not be scarred by the constant failure, and more importantly, how could they not be jaundiced by a dog-and-pony show in which the left paw doesn't know what the right hoof is doing?

[Saxum]

The most tired act among active, passionate Bills fans is blaming the media. It calls to mind what a very close book editor friend of mine (at Princeton University Press) told me years ago -- the first instinct of populism (both left and right, but honestly, mostly the right) is to always, always blame the media first. It's a tried and true tactic that is as effective as it is inaccurate.

 

Sorry for sounding pissy about this -- seriously. I'm just so sick of people attacking the media and not factoring in that the Jerry Sullivans of the world have covered nearly two decades of dysfunction. How could they not be scarred by the constant failure, and more importantly, how could they not be jaundiced by a dog-and-pony show in which the left paw doesn't know what the right hoof is doing?

 

If he was competent in his writing we would he excuse it but he isn't so we won't. And because it is a tried and true tactic that does not make it wrong.

 

Be sick and "pissy"; will continue to attack media when they act like bags of dung. The fact that some belong in a mental institution from scars is not my issue and will not fund sending them to the funny farm.

[Freddie's Dead]

This thread is just wrong. The Buffalo media is dead balls on accurate here. The Bills are a laughingstock. Look at ESPN, Fox Sports, and some of the other tweets from national media. Whaley's performance was worse than bad, he outright lied (or ALynn did, because they have 180 degree diametrically opposed explanations on whether ALynn had input to Tyrod's benching). As a consultant, I've worked at a lot of companies with dysfunctional management structures. The Bills front office shows all the classic signs of dysfunction: unclear organization chart, unclear decision lines, unclear reporting lines, unclear division of duties, inability to communicate corporate goals to employees and/or the public. Blame the media all you want, but they've got it right here.

[Chilly]

It's disappointing that the Buffalo media decided to focus on the Rex firing rather than football matters.

[dave mcbride]

 

If he was competent in his writing we would he excuse it but he isn't so we won't. And because it is a tried and true tactic that does not make it wrong.

 

Be sick and "pissy"; will continue to attack media when they act like bags of dung. The fact that some belong in a mental institution from scars is not my issue and will not fund sending them to the funny farm.

I am not a huge fan of Sullivan, who is too reactive, but he has written a couple of strong columns in the past two weeks. He's actually a solid prose stylist, although he loses points from me for not working sources (like, say, Will McDonogh, who had a similar job at the Boston Globe).

[Kelly the Dog]

The most tired act among active, passionate Bills fans is blaming the media. It calls to mind what a very close book editor friend of mine (at Princeton University Press) told me years ago -- the first instinct of populism (both left and right, but honestly, mostly the right) is to always, always blame the media first. It's a tried and true tactic that is as effective as it is inaccurate.

 

Sorry for sounding pissy about this -- seriously. I'm just so sick of people attacking the media and not factoring in that the Jerry Sullivans of the world have covered nearly two decades of dysfunction. How could they not be scarred by the constant failure, and more importantly, how could they not be jaundiced by a dog-and-pony show in which the left paw doesn't know what the right hoof is doing?

In this case the left paw very much knew what the right paw was doing. There was only a 30 minute time period when it didn't. And then was immediately informed. And the dog and pony didn't happen to be moving at the time. The Pegulas knew exactly what Whaley thought of Rex. The same way you and I know what the other feels about the Bills. We talk to each other in both broad and specific terms all year long. Rex wants to talk to Pegula who is planning on firing him after the season. Pegula says we're not starting Tyrod because of the obvious contract and injury implications, the day after two guys went down with leg injuries. Rex says I play to win, if you are going to fire me, fire me now, I'll go watch my kid. Pegula says i think it's time for a change. Rex says Lynn is the guy for the job. Then immediately Pegula tells Whaley and then Lynn. I don't see any dysfunction at all. Edited January 3, 2017 by Kelly the Dog

[dave mcbride]

In this case the left paw very much knew what the right paw was doing. There was only a 30 minute time period when it didn't. And then was immediately informed. And the dog and pony didn't happen to be moving at the time. The Pegulas knew exactly what Whaley thought of Rex. The same way you and I know what the other feels about the Bills. We talk to each other in both broad and specific terms all year long. Rex wants to talk to Pegula who is planning on firing him after the season. Pegula says we're not starting Tyrod because of the obvious contract and injury implications, the day after two guys went down with leg injuries. Rex says I play to win, if you are going to fire me, fire me now, I'll go watch your kid. Pegula says i think it's time for a change. Rex says Lynn is the guy for the job. Then immediately Pegula tells Whaley and then Lynn. I don't see any dysfunction at all.

I just disagree, Dog. That whole thing today was redonkulous.

[Kelly the Dog]

I just disagree, Dog. That whole thing today was redonkulous.

What do you think happened?