Freep Mini-Fisk

Hammer wins again.
Nicely done. Suck it Freep...

I also thought the editor's attempt to provide some cover for his reporters and paper was lame. This guy should be in politics and not journalism. I think the folks at the Freep are realizing this will not turn out the best for them.

+1

a grand total of ONE month to form. This is basically an admission that no work was done to examine the opposite side of things

One month is plenty of time to interview other sources. That's plenty of time to do work. That proves nothing.

Anger makes no mention of this - his implication seems to be that RR feels like he got caught so he is ceasing activities on Sundays to try and atone for his wrongdoings or soothe the worries of his dectractors.

While this inference may be true, his general statement is not incorrect. It is an unadulterated e-fact.

This is a textbook response from someone who cannot refute the claims being made by the other side

This is a textbook response from someone who cannot refute the claims being made by the other side.

When the question about how hard they were working was asked, whichever writer asked it conveniently failed to mention that he was going to use their words in a story alleging that the UM football coaches broke NCAA rules and that the program could suffer possible sanctions as a result.

More specifically, the context was incorrect because the authors did not question what activities were, and if those activities counted toward the total.

I'm in no means defending the freep, and most of your points were right. I just thought I'd fisk your fisking for not other reason than being able to use that line I used on point 3.

a month seems like a long time to investigate and put together that article. what troubles me is that over that time period they never bothered to interview Rodriguez or Barwis.

Freep's logic is
1. Freshmen are working long hours.
2. Rules say you can't have supervised long hours.
3. Therefore, UM is breaking the rules.

Similar to:
1. Sam is driving a car.
2. There is a speed limit of 55 miles per hour.
3. Therefore, Sam is breaking the speed limit.

how he said "a detailed reveiw of rules governing the sport." right, suck it freep!

but logic won't return the tempest to the teapot. Winning, on the other hand, will.

The potential for NCAA sanctions is unlikely IME, so the worst part of the article was the bad PR ("Michigan is divided, and divided teams fail. Therefore, RR will fail").

Yesterday provided 'Exhibit A' for the notion that the team is not only united, but hungry to prove that they support their coach.

VERY Nice piece!

An important question is if or when, depending on how optimistic you are, UM gets 7+ wins how the Freep will react? Will they jump on the RR is great and we are back train? Or will they stay in the bed that they made?

Second question. Are we as loyal fans going to hand it to them if/when they try to back track?

When a story has holes big enough to drive a truck thru (as has been easily shown), one must wonder why Rosenberg would even attempt such a stunt. And even if the story took a month to develop, how long were they sitting on it so as to drop it the week before kickoff? No matter how you look at it, it stinks, and with all due respect to JOREL and others who just want the story to go away, we have a responbility to keep pulling the Freep and Rosenberg out in to the open on this until every angle is exposed and they are publically and repeatedly disgraced. Great work.

I play one when no one is around to see how insane I look talking to myself and conducting mock interviews with a roll of paper towels. AND, my conclusion is this:

You sure as hell CAn talk to players and interview them. However, if you are conducting an "investigation" or if your questions are for a particular story, you should tell them that. IMO, if you don't, you are lying to them. I have gone past the line of saying Rosenberg was disingenuous with the kids (former, current, disgruntled, happy, or dorky freshmen) and decided he was being blatantly dishonest, even if by omission only.

It was nice hearing Craig James, during the broadcast on ESPN2 say, "I think it's a witch hunt."

And yeah, I totally agree that the Freep's response is nothing more than formulaic CYA.

And the idiots who do nothing but threaten Rosenberg or bother to email him just to call him a "douchebag" or some such are, well, idiots.

I'm a person of strong moral conviction ... however, I wish nothing but pain and death to you.

Does anyone know which site this came from? Seems like something that may have been said in sarcasm on the e-blogs and then taken out of context in the editorial.

I couldn't find it on Google.

"The backlash has included threats against Rosenberg and Snyder. One gem from the fanatical fringe: 'I'm a person of strong moral conviction ... however, I wish nothing but pain and death to you.'"

Whether or not the death threats were made does not support or disparage the "journalist" allegations. Nor is it a signification portion of the backlash. If the editor had real issues with the "backlash", how about commenting on a ABC announcer calling the allegations a "witch hunt" during the game Saturday. Seems like the editor was hoping this kind of "backlash" goes unnoticed.

Also: "Rosenberg is primarily a sports columnist but, like many columnists, is also an excellent reporter. In columns, he's been critical of Rodriguez, as some cyberspace conspiracy theorists point out."

I think it is fairly obvious the second point is directed towards this statement by Brian:

allowing a columnist with such a strong viewpoint to write an anonymously-sourced investigative news article on the same topic of his obsession is improper.

The Free Press has been trying the marginalize blogs and Brian in particular. As Brian pointed out they previously had implied Brain was some anonymous writer who nobody could identify and could not be contacted, instead of a guest of several radio talk shows this past week including being interviewed by Mitch Albom. There is little doubt they see the internet and Brain as a competitor.

Nothing to add about the Free Press's pathetic treatment of this situation.

I just want to write that following a Tigers team during a playoff year without John Lowe has been annoying or worse. But every morning, I smile as I avoid that assclown publication. I suspect that I'm in good company.

Anyone know how much of an impact all of this has ad on the Free Press? It can't be helping its image. I wonder if after the initial excitement there has been a meaningful dip in sales and/or internet hits.

I sent this out to Paul Anger this morning. There's nothing here that mogoblog readers don't already know and haven't already said, but it needs to be said, again and again, to those in charge at the Detroit Free Press.

Mr. Paul Anger
Editor and Publisher
Detroit Free Press

Mr. Anger:

I was a long time Free Press subscriber until the discontinuation of daily home delivery. After that I continued to read the on-line version and occasionally purchased a paper at a local retailer. I will no long do so. The article by Michael Rosenberg “exposing” the University of Michigan football practice schedule was a one sided piece of Yellow Journalism worthy of the worst supermarket tabloid. After reading it I vowed I would never read a Free Press again, in any form.

On Sunday, while at the home of my sister (who will soon be canceling her Free Press subscription) I broke my vow and read your self serving attempt to justify the Rosenberg article. To someone who had no other source of information the Sunday paper might look balanced and objective. It was not. As examples:

You continue to claim the article was based on interviews with “current and former players,” even though Drew Sharp has already said in a radio interview with Dan Patrick (ESPN) that the only current players “interviewed” were the two freshmen ambushed at press day.

You continue to insist that your sources must remain anonymous because they fear reprisal from their couches, even though the only unnamed sources are former team members who are no longer subject to any action from the Michigan couching staff.

You quote an ESPN reporter who “confirmed” your report by talking with an unnamed former player. There was no mention of ESPN reporter Kirk Herbstreet, a former Ohio State quarterback, who called the Free Press campaign a “witch hunt.”

You continue to insist that Michael Rosenberg has no hidden agenda because he is a U of M grad. I’m sorry, but a Michigan degree does not guarantee an absence of bias. Rosenberg’s prior articles about Rich Rodriguez, most recently his “Rodriguez should have known about Justin Feagin and his traffic tickets,” make it clear that Rosenberg is trying to drive Rodriguez out of Ann Arbor

Sunday’s paper was your last chance, and you have blown it. I will no longer financially contribute, in any form, to the Detroit Free Press. I will not buy it, I will not access it on the web, and I will do everything I can to persuade my friends and family to likewise abstain. I will get world and national news from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNN. I will get state and local news from the Detroit News and annarbor.com. I will follow Michigan athletics on mgoblog.com. And I will wait eagerly for the day when I read in one of these publications that the Detroit Free Press is defunct.

Sincerely