I'm getting Astroturfed

Not in the sense of being in the back of Bill Clinton's pickup truck, but getting a lot of e-mails on one topic.

As Answer.com puts it:

The contrast between truly spontaneous or "grassroots" efforts and an orchestrated public relations campaign is much like the distinction between real grass and AstroTurf.

So I've gotten a batch today from the booster club of ... wait for it ... an SEC women's basketball team.

A team which played on TV last night and drew ... wait for it ... official attendance of 532.

As of this moment, I've gotten 8 e-mails on the subject. So I have heard from 1.5 percent of all the people at the game last night. If the sports editor in, say, Knoxville or Ann Arbor, got the same response about football ... that would be 1,500-plus e-mails.

I need a day off.

 

The people have truly spoken. Give them what they want!!!

 

This happens all the time. And, it just kills me.
I get it from WNBA attendees and NHL fans (to some degree). Horse racing is another one, for some reason.
But, you're right. They go to the game, at halftime decide the paper has some conspiratorial grudge against them, their team, their sport and humanity. Go home and fire off emails. Some still write letters. I just don't get it.
They want Page 1 banner coverage of an event in which nine people show up...
I'm being a bit facetious, but you get the point.

 

So what did you do to raise the ire of a coordinated batch of women's basketball fans?

 

I'll bet he jut briefed it, or led the highly anticipated, much-read women's college roundup with it. I surprised HH didn't staff it with two writers, a columnist and do a four-page wrap. Women's SEC basketball is in such high demand.

 

Ol' 2under will get his, I'm sure of it.

The main problem with that game was that it was on TV and ended really close to our deadline.

All of those e-mailers apparently missed Monday's paper, which centerpieced their women's basketball team.

(How many daily papers in the country did that? On the Monday of the Super Bowl? Jackson, Miss., I am advised, and maybe ... who else? Knoxville?)

The advantage of getting that blizzard of e-mails was that it made it cost-efficient to draft a measured bulk response ... one that I may repurpose as a column sometime.

 

Heh.

 

I know of at least one other paper that centerpieced that exact same game on that exact same day. And for the record, that was an "announced" attendance of 532 on Thursday. More like 53.2 actually attended, according to sources close to the situation.

 

Sorry, Rusty, your Monday sports section has always "disappeared" by the time I get into the office. I'll gladly amend my earlier remarks.

I'm sure Kyle's story this morning helped inspire the e-mail offensive, which is fine. He does a good job, BTW, and I know it's not so much appreciated over there.

I've now gotten 10 e-mails, representing somewhere between 1.9 percent (official attendance) and 19 percent (unofficial but more accurate number) of everyone who was there.

 

Whenever I see one of these so called reader campaigns - or as I call them, parents with agendas-- I live in fear that some of these emails will make their way to the publisher and/or managing editor. I've yet to meet a publisher with a spine that will stand up to these people and defend his sports staff.

 

They are rare, but do exist.