ProfootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Gerald Poindexter & Mike Vick -- *Updated*

Re: ProfootballTalk's Florio seeks to overturn Surry County electorate in Vick case

tl;dr

 

Re: ProfootballTalk.com's Florio & Surry County electorate in Vick case *Updated

*Update*

After conducting his own research on Virginia law (something which Profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio should have done BEFORE he shot his mouth off), the verdict is in:


To put it in his own words, Florio is a 'complete buffoon.'

You can go read it for yourself:

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm

under the heading:

POSTED 9:32 a.m. EDT, October 4, 2007

VICK COULD ESCAPE VIRGINIA CHARGES
------------

Here's the upshot: On September 25, Florio publicly called for Surry County prosecutor -- a prosecutor who was lawfully elected by his constituents, of whom Mike Florio is not one -- Gerald Poindexter to be removed from his job. NOT ONLY did Florio call for Poindexter to lose his job, Florio ruined his own credibility as a pseudo-journalist by providing a live link to Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell's email and asked the readers who felt similarly to him to let McDonnell know their feelings, as this SportsJournalists.com thread details. That is, he went from reporting the story to becoming part of the story. Or trying to, anyways. McDonnell essentially blew off Florio and the rest of the "Florians" who did write the Virginia Attorney General.

What Florio found in his research is that Poindexter was correct in being cautious about what he could successfully prosecute Vick with according to Virginia law. Specifically, Virginia law's version of 'double jeopardy' (being charged with the same crime twice) is more inclusive than what Florio thought it was.

Of course, Florio tries to give himself an escape hatch by misleading the reader with the headline "Vick could escape Virginia charges" and by saying something to the effect of "well, there are some technicalities on which Vick could still be prosecuted...blah blah blah," but make no mistake -- this is an "in your face" to the internet rumor monger attorney who both called for Poinexter's job and who was shocked - shocked - that Vick might not face all 6 (I believe it was 6) counts of animal cruelty in Poindexter's prosecution. You also don't 'escape' charges that have little, if any, chance of either being prosecuted or holding-up in court. Intentionally poor wording of his post by Florio, in an attempt to distract the reader from the pie on his face.

To summarize: The research is in, and the conclusion is clear -- Mike Florio spoke too soon, and by doing so, he: ruined his journalistic credibility; wrongly became a thorn in the side of Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, who has REAL work to do and shouldn't be bothered with the ravings of a blogger and his minions; and made himself look like a legal hack as well for spouting-off about a case in a state whose laws he obviously knew jack crap about.

The jury's in, Mike -- you're a hack, both as a wannabe-journalist and as an attorney who was theorizing about law which is/was obviously beyond your knowledge. That is, West Virginia, where you reside, doesn't have the same legal code as does Virginia, where Gerald Poindexter is a prosecutor. There's a reason why you're not a member of the Virginia Bar Association, as you aptly demonstrated.

And if I were Gerald Poindexter, I might be looking into whether or not you should face rebuke as a member of the bar who sought to wrongfully seek the termination of a fellow member of the bar.

 

So apparently Rok was wrong in believing Florio was the best football blogger on the web a month ago.

 

Re: ProfootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Gerald Poindexter & Mike Vick -- *Updated

Yes, you are correct in that thought.

Here are two things which PFT is good at:

1) Getting stories (and particularly, rumors) fast

2) Legal analysis (when Mike Florio ("Mr. PFT") stays in his 'sweet spot' and doesn't get into areas he clearly doesn't know).

When PFT ventures out beyond these elements, it tends to sink, IMO. Thankfully for them and their readers, they have recently added writer Michael David Smith, who is both a better writer than Mike Florio and who tends to write without the overwrought bathroom humor somebody fibbed and told Florio was funny.

However, my experience with PFT is similar to my experience with reading Bill Simmons: At first you think it's great, but after you read it/him for a few times and start to 'kick the tires,' if you will, the luster is quickly lost.

And remember, I made my remark before Florio pulled the "let's start an email campaign to get Gerald Poindexter kicked out of his voter-elected job as prosecutor of Surry County" farce.

PFT is a nice niche site. It is useful. It is also very limited, and has gained a sizable portion of its audience due to its coverage of the Vick case. In that vein, I understand Florio's decision to continue to try to make inroads on the Vick prosecution and sentencing, as opposed to, say, tracking down Belicheat and his actions to a greater extent.

And that's cool, that's editorial control. It's not my blog and Mike Florio can do whatever he wants and he feels he needs to do to ensure site hits.

It's just when he breaks all journalistic pretensions by live-linking to an Attorney General's email and calling for his Florians to message away, and when he absurdly gets out in front, legally, of a case of which he does not have adequate knowledge to speculate on, I'm going to call him on it.

Same as I call out Ric Bucher, or Simmons. Or Rhoden. Or Paolantonio. Or ...

No exemptions or sacred cows here. I love Whitlock, for example, but I've ripped him the same as anyone else when I feel he got it wrong.

And when I make a mistake, I'll say it, and not weasel away, as is the case with Florio's latest Vick entry, "...'escape' charges..."

 

It's probably the most powerful blog in professional sports.

Florio does a great job. Is he always right? It's called rumor mill for a reason.

 

Thanks for stopping by, Mike Florio.

 

Re: ProfootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Gerald Poindexter & Mike Vick -- *Updated

Wow, outed Bill Simmons and Mike Florio in two days!

 

Ha ha. That was solid, Dangerous_K.

 

Re: ProfootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Gerald Poindexter & Mike Vick -- *Updated

Let's take a look at this quote a little deeper.



"It's probably the most powerful blog in professional sports"


1st of all, this sounds like a 'sell job.' In other words, it sounds like it came from someone on the PFT.com payroll. As much as Mike Florio likes to use "we" instead of "I" when discussing PFT, there ain't much meat on them employee bones. Michael David Smith isn't exclusive to PFT, nor is fantasy football guy Matt Pitzer. So, that leaves like two techies (who themselves may not be exclusive to PFT) and Florio. So, here you have a person with 23 posts doing a sell job on PFT. And it's a 'hard sell,' make no mistake about it.

As a sentient being with the power of deductive logic, this one isn't too difficult.
- - -


"Florio does a great job."


Yes, if you prefer your news delivered with slurs such as "Fat Albert." Or if you like repeated childish invocations of butts and their associated euphemisms, as well as human excretion discussion and 'humor.'

Michael David Smith gives you the scoop without the, um, 'scoop,' if you get my drift. That works better for me. So, if Florio decides to make Smith the captain of the ship and he, say, the legal analyst, PFT would be in better shape, IMO.

Florio has a number of 'blind spots,' one of them being The Cheatriots. Another is that he is what young people would call a 'player hater.' Again, much of his traffic seems to come from things such as the Florio-named "Turd Watch." He's the Rudy Giuliani of NFL blogs. And the law-and-order thing seems to be working for him.
- - -


"Is he always right?"


I think we have that question pretty-well answered in this thread.
- - -


"It's called a rumor mill for a reason."


Right, and it's not called the "This is where I destroy any pretensions of journalistic credibility and make Sporting News, Fox Sports Radio, the NFL league offices, etc. wonder if they will be able to continue my working with them because I'm an idiot who called for the ousting of a voter-elected (of which I was not one of the voters) prosecutor based upon my ignorance of the state's laws which the prosecutor is operating under because I need to keep my moneymaker, Mike Vick, under public scrutiny" section.

That's insanely hack. Embarrassingly hack. That's not a 'rumor' section, it's a 'ruiner' section. As in 'career-ruiner.' For "our" PFT.
- - -


Florio isn't anywhere near ready for prime-time, despite his various PFTV 'auditions.' He can continue to crack on the Emmitt Smiths of the world all he wants, or the Chris Mortensens, if he likes. But someone might want to tell him to look in the mirror.

Or the toilet, if he prefers. And I think he would prefer that, based on his musings. I've heard that the water in there provides a pretty good reflection.

 

PFT did have the Bulger benched story before anyone else.

 

Re: ProfootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Gerald Poindexter & Mike Vick -- *Updated

Which is why I wrote:

"Here are two things which PFT is good at:

1) Getting stories (and particularly, rumors) fast..."
- - -

Again, the problem is when John Clayton Body-Double Florio's reach exceeds his grasp, and he wanders into areas he shouldn't be wandering. Such was clearly the case with his calling for Poindexter's job and his take on Poindexter's bringing/not bringing of full charges against Vick, as these views were seemingly informed by apparently-not-so-omniscient West Virginia employment lawyer Mike Florio's ken.

In the case of his Poindexter takes -- and any number of other takes and similar 'Mike Florio Inc.' ventures -- Mike Florio's head hit the ceiling long ago. Perhaps one day he will wake up and realize that fact.

When that day comes, PFT's readers will be far-better served. As will the Sporting News, Slate, etc.

 

Re: ProfootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, Gerald Poindexter & Mike Vick -- *Updated

Now see, Florio is much better when he is providing free legal advice that he understands as he does in his most recent update on his rumor mill regarding Vick and the Falcons' attempt to recover money from their QB. That's a man who understands his limitations, and the reader is better served, IMO.

However, as I mentioned, the extent to which Florio focuses on Vick's case to the exclusion of, for example, possible legal redress for Bob Kraft against Belicheat exposes his biases and subjectivity. I have yet to hear Florio discuss the research time he has put in on the nuances of the possible legal avenues which Kraft's contract with Coach Corrupt may contain for the owner to terminate his bylaw-breaking coach.

But -- as this thread has noted -- since Florio appears to have enjoyed some level of success primarily on the back of Mike Vick, his unbalanced allocation of his resources is not unexpected.