Another day, another Freep "Michigan" headline.
Today's story, provided by Mark Snyder. Headline: "What the USC-NCAA situation means for U-M."
There is absolutely no need to read it. It is content-free fluff, in which the free Press goes back to its favored "NCAA expert," Florida attorney Michael Buckner, to attempt to supply something to make the otherwise-vacuous Mark Snyder article less embarassingly vacuous. I read the article, and five minutes later, I cannot recall one single consequential thing that attorney Buckner had to say.
Snyder reports essentially, the procedure that USC has gone through is the procedure that Michigan is going through. And the facts in the USC case were significantly different from the Michigan case. And USC says it will appeal. And so the two situations are similar, but different. And by the way, the "major" violations that Michigan accepted were blah-blah-blah-blah.
The meta-story here is that Friday is a home-delivery date for the Free Press. And the Freep never wants to let one of those days pass without another chapter in the campaign against Rich Rodriguez.
Mark Snyder. "Your Michigan Wolverines reporter at work."
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blogging and messaging...
i just knew this would be a Section 1 post
If it bothers you so badly, stop reading it. I did.
For a bunch of people that have 'boycotted' the Freep, you sure know exactly what is going on with the paper.
I don't.
Another day, another Section 1 Freep thread...
"Freep" and "Fish" both start with the letter "F", and both stink.
Yes, just as facinating starts with an F.
"Fascinating".
I don't bother to read the freep. Even if I wasn't boycotting, I wouldn't bother to read an article that I know would just piss me off. Due to the way so many writers write like they were still in Journalism 101 (say what you are going to say, say it, and say what you just said), I can usually tell after one or two sentences whether or not I want to read an article, anyway.
Basically, if an article starts out with something like, "RR shit his pants today" or some other sterling nugget of "info," I don't bother to read further. And that really sums up Snyder, Sharp, or Rosenberg quite nicely.
Besides, it's not like there aren't plenty of competent writers in myriad other outlets writing good articles and columns about Michigan sports.
Why was this negged? I get that Tater sometimes has less than plausible conspiracy theories, but there is nothing wrong with what he says here.
...going to ever stop until RichRod is gone. I'm beginning to think that the "winning will make it stop" meme isn't applicable to him unfortunately -- at least as it pertains to the Freep. They will continue to hound him at every turn for every perceived failing.
Going by your description, the article's biggest failing is in not pointing out the distinct difference in the manner in which Michigan and USC approached their internal investigation and response to the NCAA. It also seems to me that this would have been the perfect opportunity for them to start walking back they're continued insistence that practicegate was some monstrous event. An opportunity to compare and contrast the sets of "major" and major violations was lost.
Since they didn't take this opportunity, they won't ever.
Another day, another ridiculously obsessive Michigan fan who thinks every single thing penned about them is outrageous and worth sharing with the world.
Oh wait, its Section 1 again. I take back the 'another' part.
please stop reading the papers, check out a book, go to the beach and enjoy summer, bro
Screw the Freep for not tailoring its content to uber-knoweldgeable sports fan, especially the all-important Michigan fanatic!!!!!!
What is 'fluff' to one is actually knowledge to another. Its a fucking business. They appeal to the normal 'bandwagon' folks. Get over it. This automatic bashing is just a sign insecurity. You are so insecure in the stability of your coach, in your program, in your identity as a Michigan fan, that you look for what is wrong with everything critical printed about it, and find the critical to bash in everything neutral printed about it. Only the glowingly praiseworthy passes your test of what you need to make you feel good as a Michigan fan.
Grow up. Mature. Please.
This is such an interesting, odd coincidence, I could not resist.
In this thread (it started out as an attack on Dave Birkett of aa.com) there are comments from me, and from Brian Cook, in which both of us are, at the same time, saying the same thing, in defending Dave Birkett's oddly nuanced bit of writing on the Dorsey aftermath. Both Brian and I (there were many others, of course) were defending Birkett from what might be the most rabid, unthinking, knee-jerk Michigan-is-untouchable fans.
The funny thing is that my comment went up on 6/10/10, at 1:26 pm.
And Brian's comment went up on 6/10/10 at 1:26 pm.
Link: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/birkett-officially-joins-ranks-rosenburg
Fair enough, I was too broad in my (somewhat also knee-jerk) condemnation of your post. But I still think that approaches such as this (from your referenced post) -
With the Free Press, it is impossible not to impute "motive."
are naive. The Freep is trying to sell papers. That is their motive, not to bring down RR. So they sensationalize, what journalistic outlet doesn't? Continually criticizing them for doing so is just so tiresome nowadays. The Freep has to appeal to the fans who are at the margins. And do you what one of the minor reasons for this is? Because we are all here. Blogs, twitter, facebook, are changing the system. Which is expected. But expecting newspapers to not change is simply expecting them to fail. Everyone is adjusting. We should too in terms of expectations.
As you may know, the Freep.com home page has a Top Ten most-viewed, most commented list of stories.
Today, mid-day, the top five stories were all college sports stories. When I looked (it changes), the Michigan/USC headline comparison story was Number 1. (Remarkable, I'd say, given its complete lack of content or news.) The possible departure of Tom Izzo was the Number 2 story. And related college sports stories rounded out the Top Five.
College sports appears to be money, baby, for the online Freep. (A younger demo, no doubt plays right into that.) One of the reasons for my post today was to again track and observe what the Freep does in print editions on home-delivery day.
And yeah, if the Freep -- freep.com in particular -- isn't scared to death of MGoBlog, they should be. I don't "expect" the Freep to "fail," as you say. But there's always hope.
Personally, I'm looking forward to Section 1's usual 5-paragraph response in which he claims he doesn't really care about the Free Press, but says he only does this because we deserve to know what a journalistic empire on the relative moral scale of North Korea is doing to Michigan Football.
On a relative pain scale, Section 1 vs the Freep is better than half of MgoBoard vs msu. I can stand one "OMG THE FREEP DID THIS" thread a day comparred to 42 "LOL MSU DID THAT" threads an hour.
But always remember, we don't really care about the Freep or msu. No matter how many posts...
and just say this:
I'm really fine with people who want to boycott the Free Press. I think it is great. As for my use of this Message Board, I suspect that our host and proprietor Brian Cook is pretty much good with me. As he wrote, here:
If you want a truly comprehensive breakdown of all the ways in which the article was sensationalized, this site will wear out even the most dedicated torch-bearer. The best high-level view from me is probably the Words on Agenda And Bias in the aftermath of the Great Albom What-Is-Your-Job Debacle. If you're looking for something shorter and in a very narrow column, that guy who still reads the Free Press because he wonders "how was Rosenberg supposed to determine what was true and what was not?"—guh—received a number of responses, the best from Section 1 and M-stache, in a thread that oscillated from dismissive flaming to patient explanation from better men than I.
Full link: http://mgoblog.com/content/long-last-sir
(My one disagreement with Brian; as someone who supplied one of the "patient explanation[s]," I am NOT a 'better man than Brian.')
Brian Cook's attitude toward the Free Press -- complete, total beyond-exasperation. He's got a substantive blog to run, he's had his moment of personal confrontation with Mark Snyder, and he's moving on. I have no problem with Brian, and I suspect he has no problem with me. Witness the above. I think that I am more "on-message" with the proprietor of MGoBlog than many of you. That's really all that I care about. Have a nice day.
Name-calling? Where?
potato salad.
This is not something you should be taking lightly.
geez
Now, I like potato salad as much as the next guy. Its very versatile. You've got your German, Southern, New England varieties, and what-have-you. But, seriously, I can't eat it every day, nor even once a week. How about a change-up once in a while? Macaroni salad, perhaps? Pasta salad? Or, if potatoes are your thing, there's always au gratin, scalloped and mashed, among many others. Anything else, please.
Gnocci.
These articles are going to be regular occurances. It sucks, but it happens.
You can't do anything about it. As hard as it is, just ignore the stuff. Put the paper down and slowly walk away.
thanks Section, I won't read the paper but am glad for being informed that their bias continues on unabated. I don't see anything wrong with tracking the output of a media outlet that has so clearly positioned itself against the program. It is different from an absolute 'BOYCOTT!!!' mentality, it is keeping abreast of whatever misinformation is being spread. I am a much more invested fan than the other alumni in my family and many of my friends from school and, especially lately, they ping me to get better, more accurate information. In most cases I point them to one of Brian's excellent posts that typically provide a fair overview with regard to whatever the 'crisis du jour' might be. It is valuable to me to know what they are putting out there
If these posts don't interest you, the very easy solution is not to click and just pass it by and if you click in by accident, you are one click away from many other posts that do interest you. Wasn't this what the direct link v. print link debate was all about? Tolerance? I no longer mention, react to or worry about anyone posting direct FP links (I never negged for it), it is their choice and I am okay with that, but tolerance should go both ways.