Radio Show - The Soxaholix

Radio Show
March 2007
Boston Sports Review
23
BSR MEDIA SPECIAL
Blogging rights
On the Internet, regular Boston sports fans take on
the established media — and often come out ahead
24
Boston Sports Review
March 2007
T
By David Scott
heir ranks are populated by Frustrated Journalists
(Scott’s Shots), the Nicest Beat Guy in the World
(Reiss’ Pieces), a Potty-Mouthed New Media
Trailblazer (Cold, Hard Football Facts) and The Guy
Who Got Keys to Fenway (Feeding The Monster).
They are mainstream media members (Boston Herald’s “Point After”)
and underground Internet geeks (Soxaholix). They don’t necessarily
attend the games they discuss or face the people they write about, but
for an increasing number of their customers, that’s not necessarily a
bad thing.
Some — like the “Tilber,” “Red” and “Hart Brachen” mentioned
herein — wear a “virtual mask,” à la the Lone Ranger to conceal
their true identities (and as not to ruffle the feathers of supervisors,
managers and higher-ups at their day jobs). Others — your dutiful
author included, at the Bostonsportsmedia.com site — attempt to
use their platforms to strengthen their other media opportunities
(i.e., work). And there are even those that straddle that imaginary
line between Old Media and New Media and are actually facilitating
the shift from printed word to blogged one for their glacially slowmoving owners.
It’s not so much that Boston sports media has finally, possibly
even begrudgingly, entered that indefinable “blogosphere,” it’s more
that there is already such diversity among its leaders. It’s a diversity
that manifests itself in several ways, but we’ll start with the loudest,
most pronounced.
“The magazine ‘Editor & Publisher’
— which sits in every newsroom in
America — conducted a survey in the
past two years measuring the public’s
perception of the media. They found that
Americans trust politicians more than they
trust the media. That’s kinda scary, actually.
But the media has only itself to blame,”
ColdHardFootballFacts.com’s cold, hard,
founder Kerry Byrne said. “To address
the Boston sports media in particular, it’s
obvious to anyone with one gonad or ovary
and a couple of functioning synapses that the
Globe has it out for the Patriots organization
and for Bill Belichick in particular. ... The
Globe’s hatchet job on Belichick in the
Ted Johnson story is just the most recent of
numerous examples.”
If Byrne – a food writer for the Herald in
“real life” who is described in his CHFF bio
as “our Chief Angry Troll” — sounds a bit
militant and a bit too bitter, well, that’s good
listening on your part. But it’s by design.
“I’m not the complete belligerent
[expletive] I come across as … on CHFF,”
Byrne said in a follow-up to the group email that served as the basis for this story.
“It’s just kinda the role I play in cyberspace.
In real life, I’m a fat jolly guy who has spent
his entire career in journalism traveling
the globe drinking beer or rolling across
the states watching football games. I have
nothing to complain about. I’m the king
of the cushy lifestyle. But fat, happy guys
are boring. Fat, belligerent [jerks]? Well,
they’re far more entertaining, especially
when they’re beating their critics about the
head, neck and face with a cudgel of Cold,
Hard Football Facts and then laughing as
they point at the bloody, bloated carcasses
of their defeated foes. That’s fun.”
But Byrne, who is taken to frequent
bashing of Globe football columnist Ron
Borges yet seems to share a sense of the
blasphemous with his foil — certainly
doesn’t speak for everyone who’s blogging
in Boston or on Boston sports. Some of
them just do it for the kick it gives them.
+)#1
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A PUBLICATION OF
March 2007
Boston Sports Review
25
BSR MEDIA SPECIAL
“My blog was started to
alleviate boredom from my current
profession,” said the creator of
“TLBR” (Throws Left Bats Right).
And because I think my insanity
needs an audience.”
“For me, SurvivingGrady.com
is cheaper than therapy,” said that
site’s “Red” (aka Tim McCarney).
“After the Hindenburg that was the
2003 ALCS, I actually found myself
waking up at night in a cold sweat,
becoming physically ill because
I was so distraught. So I started
typing. Started channeling all this
angst and fury and passion into a
blog because I just wanted to be
able to get a good night’s [expletive]
sleep for once. It’s cathartic and safer
THE BEANTOWN BLOGGERS
A thumbnail sketch of the Boston Sports Bloggerati who participated in this story:
n Bruce Allen, Boston Sports Media Watch (www.bostonsportsmedia.com)
Links of the day to the majority of Boston’s local sports stories, with analysis
n “Hart Brachen,” The Soxaholix (www.soxaholix.com)
Get Your War On meets Wonkette meets Boston Dirt Dogs meets SoSH
n Albert Breer, Boston Herald’s Point After (news.bostonherald.com/blogs/patriots)
Breer, from the MetroWest Daily News, shines with posts such as “Tale of the Tape”
n Kerry Byrne, Cold, Hard Football Facts (www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/)
The site’s motto sums it up: “Our facts can beat up your opinions”
n Dave Doyle, Fox Sports.com (community.foxsports.com/blogs/FOXSportsMMA
Former Globie is one of the nation’s foremost Mixed Martial Arts observers
n Chris Forsberg, Boston Globe high school sports (www.boston.com/sports/schools)
Forsberg attempts to attract the YouTube generation to a newspaper’s Web site
n Seth Mnookin, “Feeding the Monster” (www.sethmnookin.com/)
Even after the book tour has ended, Mnookin still feeds the monster quite regularly
n Christopher Price, Boston Metro (boston.metro.us/metro/sports)
The multitalented Price’s regular gig is as editor of the commuter paper’s sports section
n “Red,” Surviving Grady.com (www.survivinggrady.com)
“Red Sox fans seeking contentment in the post-Grady Little world”
n Mike Reiss, Boston Globe (www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/
“Reiss’ Pieces” has set the standard for Boston newspaper sports blogging
n David Scott, Scott’s Shots (www.bostonsportsmedia.com/shots)
This piece’s author is the creator of a Boston-centric sports media criticism blog
n “TLBR,” Throws Left, Bats Right (tlbr.blogspot.com)
An anonymous sports media professional’s snarky, funny and insightful commentary
n Jeffrey Sullivan, The Sheriff Station (z3.invisionfree.com/Sheriff_Station/index.php?)
Another former Globie, whose blog has been transformed into a message board
n John Tomase, Boston Herald’s Point After (news.bostonherald.com/blogs/patriots)
Tomase combines with Breer to take us beyond the Patriots’ injury reports
26
Boston Sports Review
March 2007
than, say, punching a truck when the
Sox just can’t push that run across in
the bottom of the ninth.”
“I do it mainly because I feel it’s
an important part of the newspaper
reporter’s job. I don’t like the idea of
waiting until tomorrow what you can
report today, especially
when it means that
you can ensure you’re
accurately reporting it
first,” said Mike Reiss,
who many credit as the
“Blog Father” of Boston
sports media. “That
is probably the No. 1
reason [my] Patriots blog
started. As a reporter at
a suburban paper [he
started blogging at the
MetroWest Daily News],
it was rare to be in
position to break a story
that no one else had.
When that happened,
it initially took a lot of
time to get the story
online and that frustrated
me, going through all the
hoops of trying to get
the story on our site. So
when the idea of a blog
came about, it excited
me in the sense that it
cut out all the hoops, and
allowed for almost an
instant transformation
from keyboard to Web
site.”
Reiss’ main
competitor is the Boston
Herald’s two-headed
blogging duo of John
Tomase and Albert Breer
[the MetroWest reporter
who filled Reiss’ position
when he left]. [A content
sharing agreement
between the Herald
and the MetroWest is
reportedly set to expire
in a few months, which
will leave Tomase at
the Herald to compete
against Breer and Reiss
— a move that could
considerably spice up the
football blog wars.]
“You do it because
it simply is the future of
this business. Your next
job, in most cases, will
require you to do it, so
you better get good at
it now and have some
experience at it before
you go looking,” said
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HSFHH.VSQIZ
March 2007
Boston Sports Review
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BSR MEDIA SPECIAL
Breer, who is also a contributor to
this magazine. “And the truth is that
it’s the present of this industry too. I
can tell you from my experience that
I probably get about 10 times more
feedback off my blog than what I get
from print.”
O
“All of our readers are headed
online, so we’d better be there
waiting when they arrive,” said
Tomase. “Newspapers still have
more to offer than blogs because of
the three A’s: access, accountability,
and — I can’t think of a way to say
who find themselves logging onto
a content management system at
all hours of the day with no better
reason than the one Seth Mnookin,
the author of last summer’s muchtalked about “Feeding the Monster,”
offered: “I started because I wanted
to let people know about my book.
BSR MEDIA POLL RESULTS
ur second annual media poll was compiled in January and February. We received 647 responses, with the large majority
voting on our Web site, www.bostonsportsreview.com. That’s where you can find a more comprehensive list of results,
including all responses that received at least 2 percent of the votes.
FAVORITE BOSTON SPORTS RADIO PERSONALITY
Michael Holley, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23%
Mike Felger, ESPN Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18%
Glenn Ordway, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11%
Dale Arnold, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
Mike Adams, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
LEAST FAVORITE BOSTON SPORTS RADIO PERSONALITY
Gerry Callahan, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Glenn Ordway, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13%
John Dennis, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Dale Arnold, WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Mike Felger, ESPN Boston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
FAVORITE BOSTON TV SPORTS ANCHOR
Bob Lobel, WBZ (Ch. 4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26%
Mike Lynch, WCVB (Ch. 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Joe Amorosino, WHDH (Ch. 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
Hazel Mae, NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Mike Giardi, NECN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
LEAST FAVORITE BOSTON TV SPORTS ANCHOR
Bob Lobel, WBZ (Ch. 4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29%
Butch Stearns, WFXT (Ch. 25) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23%
Steve Burton, WBZ (Ch. 4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Joe Amorosino, WHDH (Ch. 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Chris Collins, NECN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
FAVORITE BOSTON SPORTS WRITER
Bob Ryan, Boston Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
Mike Reiss, Boston Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Mike Felger, Boston Herald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
Jackie MacMullan, Boston Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
LEAST FAVORITE BOSTON SPORTS WRITER
Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
Ron Borges, Boston Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29%
Gerry Callahan, Boston Herald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Steve Buckley, Boston Herald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
Tony Massarotti, Boston Herald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
‘trained journalist’ that starts with
A. But there’s a real value to the
skills required to report and write a
story that sometimes gets lost in the
blogosphere, where a writer’s value
seems directly tied to how much he
root, root, roots for the home team.”
And then there are the bloggers
FAVORITE BOSTON TELEVISION
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER OR ANALYST
Jerry Remy, Red Sox-NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34%
Mike Gorman, Celtics-FSNNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27%
Don Orsillo, Red Sox-NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11%
Tom Heinsohn, Celtics-FSNNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
Andy Brickley, Bruins-NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7%
LEAST FAVORITE BOSTON TELEVISION
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER OR ANALYST
Dale Arnold, Bruins-NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tom Heinsohn, Celtics-FSNNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Don Orsillo, Red Sox-NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jerry Remy, Red Sox-NESN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Greg Dickerson, Celtics-FSNNE (fill-in) . . . . . . . . . . .
26%
21%
18%
15%
. 7%
FAVORITE BOSTON RADIO
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER OR ANALYST
Gil Santos, Patriots-WBCN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33%
Joe Castiglione, Red Sox-WEEI/WRKO . . . . . . . . . . . . 24%
Sean Grande, Celtics-WRKO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
Gino Cappelletti, Patriots-WBCN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
Cedric Maxwell, Celtics-WRKO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
LEAST FAVORITE BOSTON RADIO
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER OR ANALYST
Jerry Trupiano, Red Sox-WEEI/WRKO (former) . . . . . .
Joe Castiglione, Red Sox-WEEI/WRKO . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jon Meterparel, BC football-WEEI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cedric Maxwell, Celtics-WRKO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gino Cappelletti, Patriots-WBCN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21%
17%
15%
12%
. 8%
FAVORITE BOSTON SPORTS WEB SITE
Boston Sports Media Watch (bostonsportsmedia.com) . . . 29%
Boston Globe* (boston.com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21%
Boston Herald* (bostonherald.com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11%
LEAST FAVORITE BOSTON SPORTS WEB SITE
Boston Dirt Dogs (bostondirtdogs.com) . . . . . . . . . . . 31%
Boston Globe* (boston.com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18%
WEEI (weei.com) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14%
*Totals for Boston Globe and Boston Herald include votes for individual blogs within Globe and Herald sites (such as Reiss’ Pieces)
FOR EXPANDED POLL RESULTS, LOG ON TO
www.bostonsportsreview.com
28
Boston Sports Review
March 2007
March 2007
Boston Sports Review
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BSR MEDIA SPECIAL
Sports Guy” work. That is not to take
anything away from Simmons, of
course, who is a remarkable talent.
His ability to blend sports, humor
and pop culture is unsurpassed.
And I’m sure that he’s inspired
many people to venture into the
f you read their words and
blogosphere with their own writing.”
dissect the responses a bit,
“Bill Simmons deserves all the
there is an
credit in the world
undeniable
for making it on his
tonality to the group
own terms, creating
as a whole. It’s their
his own niche,
own Boston accent,
developing his own
but in print version and
style, and building
lilted not by Boston’s
his own audience,”
famed fading R’s or
said Foxsports.com
dangling G’s, but by
editor and mixed
smarm and wit and a
martial arts blogger
conversational style
Dave Doyle, a former
that is undeniably
Boston Globe writer.
Simmonsesque — as
“But his importance in
in ESPN.com’s Bill
the grand scheme of
Simmons, the Grand
things is overplayed.
Daddy of ’Em All
He’s a writer who
for not just Boston
made it, no more and
sports bloggers but
no less.”
the nation’s sports
Others we surveyed
bloggers. He is simply
believe in the Power of
“The Sports Guy”
Bill a bit more.
now, but many of
“I think … that
us remember him as
some early adapters
“The Boston Sports
helped show Boston
Guy” from his 1997sports fans that there’s
2001 stint on what
a lot of intelligent,
was known as AOL’s
funny, offbeat,
Digital City Boston.
different, whatever
He was then a
stuff out there, and
somewhat bitter yet
Bill Simmons is
profoundly humorous
the best example
and gifted writer of
of this, and I think
sports, a Boston-area
it’s impossible to
native who grew up
underestimate the
amid Larry Bird’s
extent to which
majesty and Bill
he helped create a
Buckner’s tragedy
market for online
— and was able to
commentary,”
translate both and
Mnookin said.
much more into
“Bill showed a
compelling words and
lot of us what was
observation. He had
possible with the
been disillusioned
Internet, especially
Bruce Allen’s Boston Sports Media Watch site follows the lead set by Bill Simmons in his Boston days
during some time as
on a local basis,” said
— a place to discuss the coverage of the local teams and question the questioners.
an underling on the
BostonSportsMedia.
Herald’s sports desk, and his Digital
Kimmel Show”). He continues to
still in school [actually, Simmons is a com founder Bruce Allen. “You
City column was a last-ditch effort to live in California, but still peppers
1992 Holy Cross grad), he hasn’t had could target a site to a specific city,
prove, darn it, he was good enough,
his national columns with Boston
any effect on me in terms of breaking write great content and create a rabid
smart enough and talented enough to
mentions and anecdotes. As much
new ground or anything,” said “Hart
following and career for yourself.
write for a national audience.
as many of today’s Boston sports
Brachen,” the nom de plume of the
While the Internet did exist before
Now, a decade later, he is
bloggers have undoubtedly been
Soxaholix creator. “I started my first
the The Sports Guy site came online,
arguably the most valuable writer
influenced by Bob Ryan, Peter
Red Sox-devoted blog in 2000, and
for Boston fans it was somewhat
for ESPN.com and the anchor of
Gammons, Leigh Montville and Will
I was several months into it before
limited to reading the sports pages of
that Web site’s Page 2 — the place
McDonough, the Simmons Effect
I ran across Simmons’ “Boston
the local papers and for the diehards,
Now it’s more like a persistent case
of jock itch (or membership in the
Corleone ‘family’): I keep trying to
slowly wean myself off away and I
keep coming back.”
I
where all the snarky and sarcastic
are driven in droves. He’s been
cartoonized and caricaturized, and
he even pulled a flip-flop of Michael
Holley proportion when he left
(almost entirely) the ESPN.com gig
for a chance at Hollywood fame and
fortune (with the late-night “Jimmy
(where locker room access and press
box viewing are strictly frowned
upon) has been just as pronounced
and perhaps more important. Even if
some are hesitant to admit it.
“Considering that I put my very
first Web site online and began
publishing on the Web way back in
1994, when Simmons was probably
To read more about the world of Boston sports blogs,
log on to www.bostonsportsreview.com
30
Boston Sports Review
March 2007
perhaps posting in the Usenet groups
for the local teams. His site gave fans
a new outlet and voice to read and
interact with.”
It’s true too, that we are also
beyond The Sports Guy in many
ways. Chris Forsberg, for instance, is
about the right age (mid-20s) to have
been Simmons-ized, but he’s also
Web 2.0-competent and a dotcom
producer (for Boston.com’s high
school sports section) with some
pretty clear comprehension of what
his users want.
“It’s hard for me to imagine
being limited to words on paper
now. Every day, I’m more and more
mesmerized by what we are able
to produce online and the speed at
which we do it,” said Forsberg, who
had toiled at a smaller paper prior
to his Globe experience. “For the
high school Super Bowls, we put
together a Flash presentation that
incorporated a bit of behind-thescenes stuff with the actual game
coverage at one site. I’m hoping that
football junkies spent a good chunk
of time just playing around with it.
“The Boston.com high school
sports page caters to an age group
that is growing up with YouTube
and iEverything. I’d be crazy not
to tap into some of what makes this
audience tick,” Forsberg said. “I
couldn’t tell you a single thing about
Web 2.0 when I started in August,
but now I think it’s truly what our
site will grow upon (even if it’s a
slow climb thus far).
“We ask visitors to submit their
photos, video and thoughts (through
our message boards). I think my
audience isn’t content to simply absorb
what I offer them, they want to be a
part of the coverage as well. In the
coming years, I think you’ll see these
user-submitted sections blossom.”
“User submitted.” That’s what it’s
being called now. Wasn’t it just a few
months ago that a similar exercise
was known as “blogging?” But
Forsberg can’t get bogged down in
the blog debate. Things are swirling
around him too quickly.
“At my last [job] I carried two
pens and a notepad to a game,”
he said. “Now I have a laptop, a
video camera, a still camera, a
digital recorder capable of creating
mp3 files, 12 sets of batteries and
sometimes I remember those pens
and a notepad.”
BSR
David Scott is a Boston-based freelance writer
who has covered major national sports
for the past 15 years. Contact him at
[email protected].
Bob Halloran
W
You are the media
hat about your responsibility?
Yes, you. C’mon, you were Time
Magazine’s Person of the Year.
Did you think you could escape
responsibility when it comes to the media? Look
in the mirror. You are the media. Literally, you
become part of the media when you post and blog.
Figuratively, you’re the media because the media
is whatever you decide it is.
Look, in discussions about the media, I used
to be just like you. I complained about how poorly
the media does its job. I
believed the media was
guilty of overhyping some
things and completely
missing others. I hated
to see the media sink
its teeth into a story and
refuse to let go until long
after it had become a
non-story. I thought the
media could be meanspirited, hypercritical,
overly aggressive, lazy,
redundant and repugnant.
And those were my
feelings on the days
when I liked the media. Believe me, as a working
member of the media for more than 20 years, my
attitude toward my profession didn’t exactly lift
my self-esteem. As a defense mechanism, I was
forced to rationalize that “at least I’m not all of
those terrible things, just some of them.”
‘
You think
members of
the media
have an
agenda, but
so do you ­­—
against the
media!
’
B
ut then it dawned on me that I’m
wrong. And, I suspect, so are you. The
only reason the media is all of those
awful things is because the media is so big,
it’s everything. It’s everything bad, but it’s also
everything good. It’s mean and nasty, and it’s fair
and balanced. It’s frivolous and it’s important.
It infuriates and informs. It’s opinionated and
it delivers the facts. It’s lazy, and it diligently
breaks news. Therefore, in the final analysis, the
responsibility falls on you — the consumer. You
just have to know who you are and what you want
and then pick a medium that suits you.
If you want to be angry all the time, then read
the columnists that tick you off and listen to the
radio shows with the biggest blowhards. If you
want a soft and fluffy approach, watch the barely
critical homers on the local television sportscasts.
If you want to hear opinions, but you want those
opinions to be predominantly positive, watch the
house organs like NESN and FSN New England.
If you want a national perspective on your
favorite teams, check out ESPN or read varying
newspaper accounts on the Internet. If you want
to form your opinions from unfiltered information
— as much as that’s possible — then stick to
watching the games and looking at the box scores.
It’s on you. The media is there to serve you, and it
does it very well. If you think the media is there to
infuriate you, it can do that, too.
T
he media is a reflection of you, and
here’s how the mirror works. If you
think the media is lazy, maybe you
are. Maybe you’re not working hard enough to
find more information, better information or a
variety of perspectives. If you think the media
sensationalizes and overhypes stories, maybe
you’re letting yourself be oversaturated with
coverage. If you think the media won’t let go
of a story, maybe it’s because you won’t turn
off the sports talk radio station. If you think the
media is hypercritical, maybe it’s because you’re
hypersensitive. If you think the media is too
negative, maybe it’s because you’re too positive
and you don’t like your teams being criticized.
For instance, Bill Belichick’s involvement in a
messy divorce case was and is a story. And if you
think the media pounced on that, I disagree. I don’t
think the local TV stations did much, if anything,
as details were revealed. The sports pages left it
alone, but the gossip columns and talk radio gave
it some legs. When a portion of the media does
something you don’t like, can you wave your finger
at the media and say, “Shame on you media”?
That’s a lazy generalization made by people too
lazy to speak in specifics.
T
hink about it. Aren’t you guilty of being
just like the media? You think members
of the media have an agenda, but so do
you — against the media! You criticize the media,
ironically, for being too critical. You complain
obsessively about a media that obsesses. You
drown yourself in saturating media coverage.
You turn the media into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Whatever you don’t like about it, you make sure
to find it. But with just a little bit of effort, you could
avoid the negative aspects of the media and
inundate yourself with the best it has to offer.
The media can get bogged down in things like
“handshake-gate” and the Patriots’ “lights out”
dance in San Diego, but you’re the one who let’s
them bog you down. You play the victim, instead of
using your power to control the situation.
The media can be a lot of things, including
anything you want it to be. If you don’t like what
you see, look in the mirror. And if you think it
stinks, get a whiff of you.
BSR
Bob Halloran is a news and sports anchor with
WCVB-TV (Ch. 5) and a former columnist for ESPN.com.
Contact him at [email protected].
March 2007
Boston Sports Review
31