Wanna grow up to be a debaser
Three articles today, the first sets things up and the others close the deal.
It's no wonder newspapers are dying...
Pixels or Paper: Truth Doesn't Care - an old-school columnist realizes that access isn't all it's cracked up to be. He concludes that sports writing should really be all about "fresh, creative, unvarnished, unrestricted and entertaining thoughts about the issues of the day."
With that column in mind, here are two media stories about two hockey owners that have their hands all over their teams, requiring meetings, updates, and approvals on every move.
In Toronto, that sort of approach is a stinky, meddlesome mess.
It Ottawa, it's passion.
Discuss.
i don't ever, ever side with anything having to do with Ottawa...but these examples show just how negative the local media is towards the Leafs. it's unreal.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. I had to think about it for a day. "There’s something of a war going on right now between the mainstream media – particularly sports writers and columnists – and bloggers."
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's not a "war", but a case of the empire they built is collapsing, while the bloggers, or "on-line media", are at the ground floor of the "elevator to media-future" and the only place to go is up. Next stop, penthouse suites for all of us!
Who has the mini bar key?
ReplyDeleteGB - An interesting comment...The standard thinking is competition is good for the end user. With Leaf fans having so many options for information and so many outlets competing for their eyeballs you'd think the cream would rise to the top. But in my experience, the competition has led to hyperbole, rumour mongering and lots of idiotic filler.
ReplyDeleteWhat will be interesting is if the market reacts in a rational way and those that provide the better insight, analysis and writing are rewarded with the most eyeballs or if the opposite occurs and Cox's temper tantrums continue to be the most read articles over at the Star...seeing as this is a marketplace where Steve Simmons is the most-read sports columnist in the country, I'm not holding out much hope on the market being a rational actor.
I wonder if the resentment of the traditional media isn't somewhat simpler... the blogger steps into the columnists shoes, without climbing the ladder of beat reporting first.
ReplyDeleteFurther, as a result of the competition the bloggers create and deal with, simply getting the tap on the shoulder from a paper and being given a column isn't enough; they then need to compete with the "blogosphere".
Hard work isn't enough anymore. They now need to demonstrate talent in multiple areas to be successful. The full force hasn't been felt yet... the next generation of Stachans and Cox's is going to struggle...
It's a good things for us readers.
It's a simple discussion, really.
ReplyDeleteIn Ottawa, homerism sells. End of story. So that's all they write.
They love Melnyk, even though he's a crook who lives in the Barbados to avoid taxes. They loved Bryden even when he went bankrupt and left dozens of local small business up the creek. They loved Dudley and Gauthier and Johnston even though they all bolted. They loved Martin and Muckler and even Paddock.
They love everyone right up until they leave town, then they pretend they hated them all along. It's sad.
I know some of these guys. They don't want to write this garbage. But when they write anything else the fans up here can't handle it. So they sit down at their keyboards, pom poms in hand, and write what the audience wants to read.
I get as frustrated as anyone else at Cox and Simmons and Berger et al. But Toronto hockey fans should thank their lucky stars they don't have to read what passes for sports coverage in Ottawa.
I would be interested to see what the Montrealers are forced to ingest from their Media-ocrety *rimshot*
ReplyDelete