Me-first journalism: Jameis Winston style

Well, is it the "majority" of the fan base? I don't think it's the majority who are making death threats or ripping the guy on social media or message boards. It's the fringe, batshit crazy fans, and while there may be more of them down south, I don't know that I would say it's the majority of the fan base.

He should feel lucky, if he covered a SEC school it would have been 100X worse.

I'll bet Jeremy Fowler got more grief over the Urban Meyer confrontation than this guy did during the whole Winston case.

 

If only Jeremy Fowler had written about it, then we would know.

Best to keep the process secret and as opaque as possible to keep people just guessing about whats behind the current.

 

He didn't write about it, but the story was written. I think Bianchi did a column about it.

Pretty soon, they'll all have daily blogs whining about the mean things posted about them on the message boards.

"Wife read Warchant today, they said our kids are going to be ugly. Going to buy a gun."

 

He has experience covering Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and he's been in the business for several years now, many at the Times. He understands plenty. You have no clue what you're talking about. Trust me, Matt's one of the good ones out there. You're wrong on this one. Plain and simple.

 

I'm not saying he's a bad guy at all. I'm saying I didn't like the story. That's it. If I'm not mistaken, he was not the beat writer for OU or OSU. That's a big difference.

Live and learn.

 

My point is that I'm sure he didn't write this as some kind of "look at me" type of story. He's not the kind of guy who would seek to put himself into a story unless he felt there was a good reason for it, and I'm sure it's something he and his editors discussed before he wrote the piece.

 

I'm sure all of that is completely true. Just because I didn't like the story doesn't mean I have anything bad to say about Baker. For all I know, an editor made him write it. There's a lot of NFL filler this time of year...

Someone PMd me and said Baker is helping with the Bucs now, so his days with Winston may only be beginning.

 

I never acknowledged the wackos in my college football days, mostly because I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that I was aware of their existence.

 

Nothing "look at me" about this kicker at all...

"After 15 months of searching, I don't know yet. Maybe I never will.

But I'm still looking."

 

It's a column. It's written as a column. In the context of the piece, it makes sense.

 

I thought it was interesting ... until the end with the "After 15 months of searching, I don't know yet. Maybe I never will. But I'm still looking."

I cringed reading that, and it ruined it for me. He seemed to do a decent job of avoiding "look at me" in his column until the ending, though it might have been interesting to see him address the concerns that the supposed majority of FSU fans have been questioning him about. Would potentially be a good way to shut (some of) them up.

And JRoyal, just because you worked with him in Oklahoma doesn't mean you can't ever be critical of his work. I think everyone, at some point or another, critiques a co-worker's story or decision making process. It doesn't mean you think they're a bad person.

 

Trust me, I have no problem being critical of my current and former co-workers' work. But when I saw this piece called "self-fellating"' and "self-indulgence of a high order," I felt like I should chime in. I enjoyed the piece. I didn't see that any "self-fellating" and knowing Matt, I don't see self-aggrandizement as the motivation. And, as I said earlier, there is a portion of the audience that enjoys these types of columns. We rail against them because "journalism," but when you're writing a column like that, you're naturally inserting yourself into things.

And when I say he's "one of the good ones," I don't mean he's a good person. That's irrelevant here. I meant he's a good journalist. "Me-First" doesn't apply to his work. "Me-First," to me, would mean the piece was just about bringing attention to himself. That wasn't even close to the point. I read it as a piece about rabid fanbases and the extremes they'll go to with his personal experience providing context. Could he have done the same piece without it? Possibly. But considering his experience, it would be disingenuous to write that piece without acknowledging what he's been through.