Watching the DC and Goff interviews for today and boy does it seem like they need some help with coming up with good questions.
Goff barely got asked 4 questions and was looking around surprised there was nothing more for him… Only bait question was “Did you watch the Rams game?” he smirked and said something like “yes I have some friends on that team and they did a great job”.
If any writers want to take suggestions, I’m sure we can come up with some good ones to help out…
Personally I haven’t been very impressed with Lions beat writers since Tom K passed away. I feel like he provided more (and better) content then all of our current beat writers combined.
Those guys are crazy AF for not coming in here for content. I think someone should pull content from here and post from the collective, with Nate making money from what the Free press posts. it would be win/win/win
Money for nate for running this place, better material for the general public to read, and deeper truth for all.
Some of you smart dudes could get some recognition for your football blogs too.
LOL @ Goff talking about the nostalgia of his youth - watching Favre play at Lambeau, when he was a kid. Reminds you of how young these dudes are.
“New Orleans kicked the Hornet’s nest, so we’re gonna get their A game!”
-coach Dan
“GB was slaughtered, and it’s bad for league revenue. We expect the A game from the Refs on MNF.”
-BigNatty
Agree … the reporters have been weak sauce since Tom K passed.
Maybe they will improve as the team improves. They can’t get worse.
Here’s a freebie for them, “Jared, when is your girlfriend going to show us the goods?”
I was listening to Sirius XM fantasy sports radio today and one of the hosts had a section about this , basically the beat writers are all buddies now and travel in packs and pretty much just write whatever the hell the team tells them to…
The best beat writers are the guys that are on their own digging and scratching and climbing, developing sources and finding out what’s going on doing actual journalism instead of being A flock of parrots
What prompted this was the discussion about how in the heck nobody knew Trey Sermon was gonna be deactivated before the game or Brandon Aiyuk was basically gonna be frozen out of the offense, as well as the whole Odell Beckham Junior situation right now. It seems like the teams are controlling the media with threats of lack of access and and the big pussy writers won’t go against the teams
Makes me miss Tom K all the much more. Even Meinike is coming across as a disgruntled Stafford fan lately
…or a flock of seagulls?
When is Aveion Cason coming back? The fans deserve answers!
well I’m a certified idiot so I’d be no damn good !
That is interesting and I definitely can see that. Thank you for posting this as I think it’s a topic that deserves some attention.
In regards to our own beat writers (I don’t really closely follow any other teams to know who their beat writers are) I can definitely tell they all “work together” to some degree. In that the topics they choose to write about are all usually pretty much the main topics divided up between them. I can respect that aspect as these are people you work with and see every day. Aside from them all doing a mailbag, I feel like the same topics are either somewhat divided up as in “you write about the DL, I’ll write about the WR” or they all report variations of the same press conferences. With technology today, it’s changed in that aspect - I would rather just watch the Dan Campbell press conference than read the highlights from it. Even quotes in print when not meant to be misinterpreted can be misinterpreted, as in the delivery and inflections in tone of a statement.
There’s mike O’Hara, who, God bless him (and Kyle Meinke pointed this out in his last mailbag) always just answers his own question. I remember way back when he was with the News or Freep, I forget which one, but that perfectly describes his style of writing. He would never ask a tough question and when he had to bring up a tougher topic he frames it in a way where the answer he gives is already answered by how he phrases the question, if that makes sense. Or it’s just a question so obvious it really requires no answer.
I like this topic because I highly respect journalism and journalists. At one point I wanted to be one and seriously was considering it.
But the way things have changed with basically unlimited access, 24/7 news cycle, and most obvious as you stated, teams telling you what to write, I wonder how much of that they can impact or control vs being out of a job or not getting stories and access if they do.
For instance, Dave birkett blew the top on the story about the Patricia sexual assault allegations (I think it was him). Did he face backlash for doing that? The POD team recently got press access, and for the most part as much as I like that site they are fans first and more or less an extension of the Detroit lions website (side note, winging it in Motown, the red wings sb nation site, still doesn’t have press access and the red wings seem notorious for holding a very tight grip over their beat reporters. The best reports come from the non beat reporters… the beat reporters write the most mundane, obvious, boring articles - much much worse than the lions reporters).
Tom K wrote great stuff and provided awesome insight. He was able to balance the Xs and Os aspect which I love with the team dynamic stuff to a T. I feel like Justin Rogers does a lot of Xs and Os analysis (or he did last year) almost to exhaustion. Kyle Meinke seems to be more on the team dynamics and overall look but lacks some of the Xs and Os insight. A lot are in between.
I definitely think we as Lions fans are lucky to have so much reported news, but it does seem it gets to the point where they are all just reporting variations of the same thing or lacking in the football knowledge side to ask real football questions. I have gained so much more knowledge on this forum from all of the wonderfully knowledgeable people here that know these things, and some of the greatest topics here are barely if ever touched on in the local media.
I apologize for the long winded reply but this is a great topic to me and one I’m pretty passionate about. So thank you for posting this and I look forward to hearing everyone’s insight and opinions!
The TLDR version - I agree and maybe disagree but mostly kind of sort of agree.
Also too one last thing I’ll add, is the reliance/necessity of “clicks.” How many people read this or clicked on it? It seems to have become the way in which successful journalism, and media in general is measured.
So of course “hot button” topics get the most coverage. The fact local sports radio has been debating keeping Sewell at LT and then coupling it with the Lions historic incompetence, bringing up and beating down the CJ story, again… the Stafford to LA stuff… all that. That gets the most clicks from a lot fans I guess, but is not necessarily the most pressing or interesting topics for many others.
I for one get very bored reading regurgitations of the same topic. It’s like listening to a mediocre pop song over and over and over. It provides nothing new and is boring and brainless. Give people something to read that elevates their interest and understanding and something new to think about, or something to think about.
Well said. The double edge of the internet; only so much information & so many outlets. Diluted for the fans & hard to monetize for the providers. So they start sensationalizing/obsessing over the hot topics & making opinions into stats (PFF,etc) & debating/analyzing those fake facts, rather than real Xs & Os to create cheap & superficial but voluminous content.
The Rams coverage is no better, btw. Probably worse, actually. If you guys are following The Rams/Stafford this year, I’d recommend Rams on Demand fan site. Just like here, far better source for info & real debate. I don’t participate, just lurk. I enjoy my fanhood much better that way these days.
I thought it was hilariously ironic that today’s media session was the first time I could hear the questions & no one had any to ask.
Right on dude. Yeah I agree completely and very well said yourself.
I do a decent amount of driving every day so I usually have the radio on (I need to just switch to the classical station, much much better than sports radio). Like today, from 4-6 they just beat the dead horse that is the CJ issue or talk about Sewell at LT, the “hot” lions topics… and there’s no insight, no real information, it always just comes back to the Lions ownership sucks.
Now that is a whole other topic and one which has its own thread I’m sure multiple times. It is a legit topic, but holy smokes, it seems whenever one of the hot issues comes up it’s just berated to death. But it’s meant to get listeners and create strong opinions, and they succeed in that (for the record I listen but don’t call in I promise). It’s basically just what can we talk about to get people riled up or create talking points about the same stuff.
And I will definitely check out the Rams on demand. I’d be interested to see similar, more educated and insightful discussions from their fan base.
Yeah, you’ll definitely find that there. Their fair share of extremists & knuckleheads, of course. Definitely a cut above the Herd & RamsRule. Turfshowtimes is wildly uneven; mostly wannabe journos with a PFF subscription.
Let me know what name you use & I’ll drop in . I think I’m Rampacious or some such nonsense…lol…been a while since I even logged in, but I visit daily.
I don’t know I’ll create an account but checking it out… I dig! Will let you know if I do but would just be a lurker most likely.
I saw they posted the pff grades Stafford was 79.7. Interesting in that he won player of the week. Not that pff is the end all be all, and I guess that’s a pretty good score? Not sure how they do their stuff.
I’ll be lurking!
FWIW…and that ain’t much…lol…