Another media fanboi?

Don't want to rip too much, but I can't imagine covering a game wearing a rugby jersey. No matter the level, it was always dress shirt or polo and slacks or the very least nice jeans.

 

Yeah, I saw that too. And I'll give Wilbon a mulligan on that.

 

Makes me lonely, I guess ...

 

No one as in journalists or those consuming the news? Either way, people still care about impartiality. Work in a newsroom and field some emails, both from editors and readers, and that much will be evident.

 

So?

A journalist either recuses herself from being involved in an interview where she apparently can't be objective or she tells ESPN she'll dress like a professional and not a fan.

But that's ESPN and long has been. Doesn't mean it's OK.

 

Didn't Michael Wilbon and Mike Greenberg - both Northwestern grads - have big roles on College GameDay when the show was there a few years ago? I seem to remember it was some type of, "Our old school is relevant in college football, yay, fanboi time!" theme to their appearance.

 

It's not any better in that circumstance.

But, again, what difference does it really make? Do people want objectivity? Not really. They use objectivity as a weapon against opinions they don't like, but true, down-the-middle rigorous objectivity is uncool. Sources want people who "side" with them. Readers/viewers want writers who "speak" for them. The downside is a world where everyone can just have their own "side." That's media.

Hell, it's the world at large.

 

Ned Jarrett rooted for Dale Jarrett on the last lap of the Daytona 500 once. It was great television.

Anything involving the Cubs could be tolerated this time. If the country is still here next October, Cubs media cheering should be contained.

 

It bothers me, sure. But media execs have made it pretty damn clear that they prefer to have their news presenters liked rather than respected. So whatcha goin' do?

 

The problem is that these days, too many readers define being "impartial" as having a viewpoint the same as theirs.

 

Typically no excuses for fanboi shenanigans, but we all have our screw-ups. I almost got humiliated in front of the Northwestern football team for that.

I was dispatched down to Ryan Field to cover the spring game, because we had a local kid who was a LB on the team. So I went down to do a feature. It was one of those warm spring days in the Midwest, which as anyone who's lived in the area knows, the temps can drop 50 degrees in a minute. So I grabbed a windbreaker on my way out the door. It was pretty much carte blanche to sit where I wanted, so I grabbed a spot pretty well up in the bleachers, had a great view, started taking notes. Suddenly, the wind shifts off the lake, and it gets damn cold.

So I threw on my balled-up windbreaker, still not realizing what I had grabbed. The game ends, I'm waiting around near the team huddle with other reporters as Pat Fitzgerald is talking to the team, and a sports info lady taps me on the shoulder and says, "You wanna take that windbreaker off or do you want Fitz to make you take it off."

I looked down and realized my windbreaker had "WISCONSIN" emblazoned across it in big letters. I had no fucking idea till then. What an idiot. I quickly took it off, but a few players were ribbing me, good-naturedly thankfully. I got the local kid and a couple coaches without incident, but I felt like an ass.

 

Well, who led them to that water? We did. Journalists. Media. Especially in sports. It's so much "personality" there with these hybrid writers/columnists/radio hosts/impresarios. Who do we trust to be the blank slate and ask hard questions that may run counter their repeated stated views?

Twitter doesn't help.