Ann Arbor.com offers apology after Birkett remarks
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/annarborcom-apologizes-for-inappropriate…
I'd like to think this is due to Tater going over there and giving them hell, I'd also like to think that they would fire that asshole, but at least there was an apology.
I didn't see this posted anywhere so I hope I'm not visiting the redundancy dept.
you completely miss the point. And I beg you, please don't tell me what I do or don't like to be told, you don't even know my feelings on this situation, I never offered them to you.
In fact I never commented on the article at all. If you must know, I believe it was blown way out of proportion, like things generally are. As a completely rational, educated, and I'd like to think alert individual, I am capable of thinking these things, yet without resorting to lecturing people that I don't even know in a completely absurd and condescending tone.
He side-steps them, and circles around them. Very artfully, but still.
When it is read in its proper context, responding to some joker, does it make the comment less offensive to Demar if he were to read it?
I agree people overreact on here sometimes but I'm usually okay with someone overreacting when they're responding to someone insulting a high school kid trying to set his life straight.
out of socket patting yourself on the back. People aren't overreacting, even the paper said "it was inappropriate in any case." The guy shouldn't lose his job but people in the MSM should be held accountable for foot-in-mouth remarks too. Like Tony Kornheiser was yanked for a short time, DB should be pulled off UM sports for a while. I guess the paper is over reacting too for issuing an apology.
In other words, this quote was taken out of context, like several posters suggested yesterday, including myself.
I'm not sure I understand - do you think Birkett's comment, now that the context has been explained, was not a shot a Demar Dorsey? I think all the apology explained was that someone else prompted the comment. It certainly wasn't justified or in any way appropriate.
Unless you think Birkett honestly believes that repairmen (not just ones who happened to be named "Demar") come to his house with crowbars. I'm sure you don't really think that, do you?
March 16th, 2010 at 12:02 PM ^
but worthless.
He's already exposed his "little bias" to the whole world.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:16 PM ^
and that is when he returned from getting a coffee, sat down and typed... " Who is B*rk*tt? It is far better to not even acknowledge his existence than to acknowledge with ire. "
March 16th, 2010 at 12:17 PM ^
Sad part is that they totally lied about it at first claiming a fake Birkett had logged in and was elevated to Moderator status as a joke.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^
That "apology" is just some shit that some guy named Tony Dearing, who appears to the Chief Content officer tossed up. Nothing from Birkett himself or any of that. They went out and got some other guy to say "Sorry Birkett is a shithead."
When I see Birkett made to apologize or otherwise disciplined we can talk. Otherwise its real easy to toss up a meaningless and generic apology.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:23 PM ^
I read the apology and its still bullshit. First, painting Birkett as merely technology incompetent instead of malicious is more easily forgiven in society, but I call bullshit on the whole thing. Maybe a "Demar" comment came through, but its awfully convenient that Birkett happened to fuck up on that given his agenda previously.
Second, regardless of the context, it's still a veiled insult. He was letting in a repairman, and told "Demar" not to bring a crowbar. When you hear crowbar, do you think repair, or breaking and entering? Exactly. Fuck Dave Birkett.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:33 PM ^
"It was me in response 2 a comment from someone posting as 'Demar' that didnt get posted. RT @oldmancoyote22: Theyre claiming it wsnt Birkett"
"Read the whole chat. A couple other comments got up from 'DemDors' and 'Dave's TV'. Wasn't picking on Dorsey. @oldmancoyote22"
Not sure how he thinks he "wasn't picking on" Dorsey. That's exactly what he was doing.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:46 PM ^
Yeah it's not the biggest deal in the world. But If you write for a paper or half paper/half website you cant say shit like that. This guy gets paid to not say shit like that. If they want people to make lousy jokes about players, especially players that are not even on the team yet, they should split up his salary and pay it to anyone sitting in bar with an opinion. Or better yet split it up between every idiot on here so we can just spout off about anything we want.
You can't make excuses for Birkett, he is a supposed to be a professional. He went to school and learned the do's and don'ts so junk like this wont happen. It's fucking amateur hour. End of story.
He attended MSU. Let's not assume he learned anything.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:47 PM ^
Said the wrong thing; there's really no defense for it, but I'm not sure about calling for his job.
The apology is lame, and he should issue his own - and one directly to DD. Then they should throw him on probation and I assume he'll be on his best behavior.
At least maybe this will keep him a bit more subdued WRT NCAA investigations stuff...
I can definitely understand how the "mistake" could happen. However, when you are in a public postion, it is your JOB to know better. Considering his past, it is really his responsibility to know better. It could have been an honest mistake but he still does not deserve any slack just because of his stupidity.
I used to read Birkett a little bit through Mlive and he seemed pretty fair until Dorsey came to Michigan. Since then he's been a douche.
And at least AA.com offered an apology. The Freep would have apologized for not "exposing" Dorsey to the full extent of their capabilities. The Enquirer has more reliability than the Freep.
Magnus, I don't see how you can't see the difference between Birkett apologizing (which hasn't happened) and the paper doing a CYA for him.
There's no reason that Birkett should not have issued a statement or quote in the article, and something should have been worded directly as an apology to Dorsey. When newspapers are this stubborn (for no logical reason), it's easy to see why theirs is a dying craft.
From what I have heard on this board, this is not the first time Birkett's attitude toward UM has surfaced.
Also, regarding the online website, AA.com, don't you have to wonder: Why on earth is an MSU grad the major reporter for the UM football beat?
Why was the decision to hire him made by the sports editor (the same guy who hired JIm Carty for the AA News)?
I'm in a public position. It does get old to monitor everything you say, but it goes with the territory. Fortunately, on a personal level, I'm not prone to say, let alone think, all kinds of offensive things. But I agree with Brian's comments elsewhere 1000% (at least as I understood Brian.)
1) Many on this board are often too sensitive to any kind of criticism of anything Michigan related.
2) In particular, it seems that msm gets absolutely no passes as regards criticism of Michigan. Birkett prob. isn't a bad journalist. However,
3) As regards his comment on Demar, he was way out of line, and an apology was in order.
Now, to those who have had it with Birkett, please tell us what you want. Do you want the man fired? Do you want AnnArbor.com to fold? Do you want mgoblog to become your only news source of all things Michigan?
With the exception of Drew Sharp and Rosenberg, and the Freep, I am willing to read most journalists and their take on Michigan. From my perspective, more news and coverage is better, even if I don't agree with all of it. Every now and then, even those I don't care for come up with breaking news, or analysis that is worthwhile reading.
I want more Wojo and Angelique. If our other reporters were along the lines of those two- who call out Michigan at times, but are rarely, if ever, inappropriate, the world would live in peace, harmony and kittens. What? What was I saying? Oops. Sorry.
Wants: Ethical reporting, Fairness.
Given that Birkett is an MSU grad and previously covered MSU basketball, most people in his position would overcompensate for bias while covering Michigan football in an Ann Arbor publication. Instead, Birkett has chosen to subtly flaunt his biases.
I'd like Michigan football to be covered like a source of entertainment.......not as some assumedly corrupt government entity.
Is an apology from the guy who did it/said it/typed it. Not his boss. You make a mistake, you man up and apologize for it. You don't get someone else to do it. Then you can determine how sincere it is. Otherwise, it looks like NOTHING but a PR move. You're big enough to make comments, editorialize, and pipe up and ask questions, but when you do something wrong, you're no where to be found? Not right. Do that, and it's done. No firing, no suspension. Just man up.
Whether I think AA.com could find a WHOLE lot of better people who could do their job relatively easily is a whole other point...
Well at least the paper has a sense of accountability, not so much can be said for Dave Birkett.
what else do you expect from a sports department where the managing editor is from Ohio State and the two reporters are from MSU and ND.
when I heard apparently sincere arguments. I now think I was just fooled by the online PR. Here is what I found:
BIrkett is an MSU grad (link)
His boss, the sports editor now, was formerly the AA News managing editor whom Carty praised as the guy responsible for getting rid of the "homers" at the AA bringing in a new breed.
This group brought us the 4-part bogus academic fraud story.
IMO, Birkett is just doing what he was hired to do.
UM hatred--beginning at the AA News--continues with its successor, AA.com. Rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated.
Apologies about BIrkett's remarks now sound like hollow PR.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/David/Birkett/
Birkett has shown, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he is too much of a Spartan to ever write with even a shade of objectivity on the University of Michigan. Inexplicably, A2 dot com allows him to do whatever he wants. Birkett didn't even have to apologize; Dearing did it for him.
The pattern of attacks on UM and splashy headlines designed to portray UM as the "outlaw school" of the state is a poorly-disguised effort to assist the MSU programs in recruiting at the expense of UM.
The more splashy headlines that are in mlive about UM's "troubles," the more recruits and their parents begin to percieve UM as a "dirty" school while forgetting that approximately 15 percent of MSU's scholarship football players have pled guilty to at least one misdemeanor.
This is exactly what Birkett wants. And it is exactly why he should be fired.
In case anyone reads the comments, there is a post by someone named "tomhagan" telling the "hyper-sensative Rich Rod Mafia" to "get a life." He also refers to Rich Rod as our "King" and says he recruited Demar out of "desperation."
I guess annarbor.com is where people like tomhagan go after being run out of here. Says what kind of website aa.com is, doesn't it?
1. There's still no way of knowing whether people are / are not overreacting or taking Birkett's quote out-of-context, since they still haven't produced the alleged comment that allegedly prompted Birkett to write what he wrote. As Cook wrote not too long ago, the days where we take the mainstream media's word on things is gone, long gone.
2. If Bill Martin had apologized to Todd Harris instead of Lloyd Carr, we'd be hearing about it until the rest of time. And everyone would assume that Carr didn't really think he had anything to apologize for.
I tried to think of how to defend his remarks, even if one accepts the context claimed in the AA.com link. I couldn't think of any good defense.
a crowbar
is a crowbar
is a crowbar.
if he can't separate his personal opinion and dislike for DD and maybe even RR, then he should not report on UM football.
Here we have an MSU grad implying that a UM student is a
menace 2 society.
I guess that MSU grads now also hide behind ski masks with
press cards.
...I would. It is short and really crystalized why I now think that aa.com is a trash piece of journalism. That is it for me, no more clicking on their web page with a bunch of MSU, ND and OSU grads running the sports department. You don't think all of them have some subconscience hidden agenda's. Put the shoe on the other foot. How would you feel about being a reporter having to cover everything OSU everyday and sound "All in" about it?..... There is no way any true blue fan, could do that. Why would we ever expect the same from these d-bags?
That is why I feel that Birkett is just a symptom of the underlying problem. His boss, the one who hired him, and the one who hired Jim Carty, is at least one of the guys hiding in the ski mask. So just firing Birkett--however justified that may be--- would probably just produce another hire just as bad,
...maybe even somebody whose credentials do not make his bias so self-evident.
What the hell is that?
But you point out a very interesting new word....
While "subconscience" may be just a "subconscious" slip, it also maybe a more apt description of the kind of journalism that is beneath what any conscientious reporter would engage in.
I was sort of fascinated by the intermingling of three words, it's actually pretty impressive if you ask me.
Subconscience, think about it...
Disliking Birkett is perfectly understandable after the signing day shenanigans, as he acted in a manner that did not befit a journalist at a press interview. It is also understandable to have been upset after he made the comment about Demar seemingly out of the blue on a live chat. And I too think that Birkett should have made a personal apology, although to be fair, he may (and probably will) still do so.
That said, most of these comments are ridiculous overreactions. Birkett's comment was taken out of context on a live chat. Getting too upset about this is an example of why the media complains about fans all the time for misconstruing anything negative into a conspiracy. Almost everyone on a live chat will make a comment at some point that sounds awful when taken out of context, including journalists.
Furthermore, by going after Birkett over this, everyone here is showing a similar bias against him that he showed against Dorsey. Birkett has had one major instance that should have detracted significantly from his standing as an ethical and stand-up journalist at annarbor.com. Meanwhile, Dorsey has two major incidents that detracted significantly from his chances to be a UM football player (I hate to break it to all of you, but he did break the law). If we are willing to live with Dorsey's transgressions, then it seems that we should be able to deal with one incident from Birkett without calling for his job.*
*And yes, I'm aware that the situations aren't completely analogous. However, Dorsey did break into someone's home and is frankly lucky that he has no convictions. I have no problem about Dorsey playing for Michigan, but there are legitimate questions about whether he constitutes a 'risk' that Michigan should be willing to take. I think that if we're willing to live with a player who is such a risk, then we can live with a single journalist who went too far pursuing the matter, rather than be a rabid pack of dogs that follows everything he says and pounces on him for it regardless of context.
Have you considered that there might be a reason for the overreaction? Maybe it is the only way to stop this nonsense?
I appreciate that you want a balanced perspective. In the abstract, I would agree with you.
If we had some balance evident in the history of AA.com and its parent, AA News, I do not think so many people would be upset.
Yet, this is not the first of Birkett's offenses. Nor is it the first of his boss, who at the AA News hired Carty and initiated the last bogus 4-part attack on UM. I do not think people would even be this upset had that investigation not been shown to be overblown, full of unwarranted accusations, and derived from practices as ethically challenged as those of the Freep.
Also, the similarities you draw between Birkett and DD have a number of problems, not the least of which leads to my question:
Is Birkett 15 years old?
(ie the same age as DD was when alleged to have committed an offense)
Yes?
Well, in that case, we should all apologize to Birkett.
Maybe Birkett was just in a bad crowd over at aa.com.
Maybe the poor kid just didn't know what he was doing.
Even in context, his comment was inappropriate. Furthermore, his previous conduct has been inexcusable.
That said, we are acting like idiots by continuing to go off on Birkett over a comment that was not really that bad in context. And I don't expect a balanced perspective over here (we're all Michigan fans, minus a few visitors) but it would be nice if we didn't act like a bunch of five year-olds.
He needs to go apologize to Dorsey personally when he gets here. That was such a low comment, I would have fired him.
While I appreciate the effort to own up to mistakes, and am certain the apology offered on behalf of Dave Birkett by AnnArbor.com was genuine, to me the event itself is not resolved until Birkett himself personally apologizes. This "veteran sports journalist", as you call him, took a cheap shot at a high school age kid who wants nothing more than to come up north, attend the University of Michigan, receive a degree and play football. He has never been convicted of anything. A comment like Mr. Birketts, which I choose not to repeat, would be offensive no matter who it came from. That it came from a "veteran sports journalist" is embarrassingly absurd, as is Mr. Birkett's lack of a personal apology. The fact that someone can act like Mr. Birkett has and remain employed is surprising, especially with the readership that I'm sure AnnArbor.com is targeting.
Until this wrong is corrected, I will be getting my University of Michigan and Ann Arbor related news elsewhere on the web.
Yours in Journalistic Excellence,
(Name Redacted)
...participate in this free for all. Here's the deal as I see it.
In their CIL, Rothstein and Birkett were acting like sports radio hosts rather than serious journalists. There's a difference, folks. If they want to be taken serious as a reporter (online, print, radio, or television) as opposed to a talking head bufoon, interactions with readers have to be approached with some sort of dignity and integrity.
Choosing what approach to take is an editorial decision for A2.com. Its editors have to decide whether it makes sense for their reporters to pretend that they are objective, serious journalists while taking on the persona of entertainers. It's that simple.
Last year, washingtonpost.com was running a series of video commentaries called "Mouthpiece Theater" starring Dana Milbank and Chris Cilizza, two of their star politial reporters/commentators. These guys would dress up like Alistair Cooke and make "funny" commentary about the political issues of the day. Everything was going along swimmingly until in one of the skits they did a send up of the famous/infamous White House beer summit in which they joked that Hillary Clinton's beer should be "Mad Bitch" beer. Now I'm sure most of you think that's about the funniest thing you've ever heard, but the point is that as journalists, these guys didn't have the latitude to produce amateur SNL skits on this website. It jeopardized their objectivity and hurt the WaPo brand.
As a result of the uproar, Mouthpiece Theater was cancelled, the WaPo apologized as did Chris Cilliza (don't know if Milbank ever did).
The point is that A2.com has a choice to either be a source of serious news or an infotainment provider. It can't do both.
Here are some links if you want to see what the hubbub was about:
Initial report on the controversey.
Report on Mouthpiece Theater's cancellation.
Howard Kurtz reports on Mouthpiece Theater's demise in the WaPo.
Chris Cilizza's apology.
I know many of your will say this is just PC BS, but it's more than that. Journalists should stick to journalism while leaving the comedy to comedians and the sports radio schtick to the Valenti's of the world.
And no, Birkett was not "taken out of context". He made a smart ass comment in response to some guy who goaded him into it. That's his fault, not some anonymous dipshit on the internet.