{"id":382,"date":"2017-01-28T10:55:35","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T15:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=382"},"modified":"2017-01-28T10:55:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-28T15:55:35","slug":"are-we-better-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2017\/01\/28\/are-we-better-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We Better Off?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With apologies to The Temptations<\/a>, sports journalism in the year 2017 is a “Ball of Confusion”<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Not a socially conscious song that fits the times but rather a jumble of ideas and “Hot Topics” that vie for our attention…Newspapers, don’t read them…local (Sports) News, don’t watch it… Sports Talk Radio, all they do is yell at each other and take inane callers…<\/p>\n

So sports fans, where are we?<\/p>\n

I’m struck by the inordinate amount of journalists who don’t worry about content but rather spend their time making sure the presentation is what matters…Make a name for yourself, get people taking about you, not necessarily what you’ve written, said, posted…As long as it stirs the pot , it’s relevant…<\/p>\n

Trenni Kusnierek<\/a> joined us this week for our initial sports journalism seminar and and put it very succinctly it says here; “If I’m vanilla, no one one is going to want to listen”… She is referring to her appearances on sports talk radio but just look at what (and who) is making news these days and it could be any platform…..Dan LeBatard<\/a> fired the first salvo of Super Bowl LI when he compared the racial makeup of the two teams wide receivers… I think they call that submission by omission (Malcolm Mitchell, Michael Floyd, Matthew Slater come to mind but hey, it doesn’t fit the argument)…Don’t let facts get in the way of a good story…<\/p>\n

Let’s not even get started on the Tom Brady\/Donald Trump<\/a> issue…Is there really anyone out there who believes a one time New England Patriot fan is NOT going to watch the Super Bowl in a week because Brady admits to being friends<\/a> with the President of the United States?…Please!….<\/p>\n

Kusnierek, on a recent stint on WEEI Sports Radio said “If people aren’t sending you hate mail or saying bad things about you, you’re not doing your job”…Translate, be outrageous, be edgy…But does that go so far to add, even if you don’t believe what you’re saying?”…Is it all for the “show”?…I hate that we’ve gotten to that point but with more journalists than ever vying for attention, maybe that’s what it has simply become…<\/p>\n

Super Bowl Media Day was once one of the coveted assignments…The League controlled who got in, how much time you got, where you could roam…Now they sell tickets (to the fans)!….what’s that about?…Has the N-F-L sunk to such a level that they worry about having to buy interest?…It looks like a stretch…<\/p>\n

We’ve come to accept the World of 140 characters…But it seems like “sports lite”…Not much in depth, no more long form…Instant and fat free….<\/p>\n

“So, round and around and around we go<\/span>
\nWhere the world’s headed, nobody knows”…<\/span><\/p>\n

Those song lyrics sum it up pretty well….insert the words sports journalism before “world’s”<\/em> and you have the landscape in 2017….<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With apologies to The Temptations, sports journalism in the year 2017 is a “Ball of Confusion”… Not a socially conscious song that fits the times but rather a jumble of ideas and “Hot Topics” that vie for our attention…Newspapers, don’t read them…local (Sports) News, don’t watch it… Sports Talk Radio, all they do is yell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}