Post
by Jeff Welsch » Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:41 pm
Since first viewing this thread yesterday, I have been debating whether to respond. Conventional wisdom in the sports writing and coaching community is to avoid Internet message boards like the plague, but -- until now -- I've tended to view BobcatNation.com as a rare bastion of rationality and have appreciated my occasional stopovers here.
Because I've the civil discourse on this board, and because of my continuing commitment to connecting with Bobcat fans, I'll plow ahead nevertheless, probably destined for shark-infested waters.
So, here goes: Some of what I've read in this thread is so patently absurd it defies logic. The Chronicle's maroon flag a reflection of our school loyalties? Please. I'd conservatively estimate that 80 percent of the people who work here could care less about the Cat-Griz rivalry.
A few other thoughts:
* You want the Chronicle to "support" or be a "fan" of the Cats? All right, then what message exactly does at least one football story a day send to you? Show me another media outlet that does that and I'll tip my hat to whomever that is, and try to step it up here.
* If you find our coverage lacking, tell us WHERE it is lacking. One or two of you weren't happy with the Weber State coverage; fair enough, I can accept that we can always do better. But we did have two stories and eight photographs. Tell me who exceeded our efforts, and why. Be constructive.
* It seems message board fans, being on the extreme wing of fandom (c'mon, we all have to admit that), can't fathom a sports writer not being a fan. If we're not Bobcats, then surely we're Grizzlies or devoted to somebody else, and, well, if we're in Bozeman we should be MSU fans. No. I'm a fan of people who play sports, and I enjoy sports. Period. I like almost everybody I've dealt with at MSU, and hope they do well, but feel the same way about UM, Weber, PSU, etc. But I don't have emotional sports attachments to institutions - not even my alma mater, Arizona State.
* I will say again that I fervently believe that you as Bobcat fans and readers are better served if we AREN'T fans of the teams. As paying customers, I'd think you'd want somebody out there keeping an objective eye out for you, just the way you need the media to keep an objective eye out for government, etc. Without it, we have no credibility ... just look at Fox and CBS, among others. Does anybody really believe they're getting an objective, believable slant from either of these outlets? If we only seek out "positive" news on the Cats and "negative" news on the Griz, then you'd know you have to take everything we write with a grain of salt. And how would that help the Cats?
P.S.: It's remarkable to me that many of you guys get so bent out of shape about Hink's column or my piece on Bobby Hauck, and you completely ignore the many stories that do reflect positively on MSU, most recently the column I wrote last week on Nick Marudas. The same credibility gap thus exists, only in reverse. If your criticism doesn't come from an objective place, it doesn't have much credibility, either.
* Experience has shown me that the only way to avoid criticism on these boards is to be a shameless homer/apologist. Well, I worked with one of those writers in Corvallis, and while he was popular on OSU's message boards, nobody in our profession or in the athletic department respected him, and even the majority of OSU fans I knew felt that way. If we're not irritating you from time to time, we're not doing our jobs, and when we praise the Cats (e.g., Marudas), we need you to know it's authentic.
As I said, our "support" is in the amount of copy we provide on MSU -- more than any other media outlet, I'm certain (much to the chagrin of many of our readers who think we have WAY too much on the Cats). It isn't support as much as it's recognition that our readers want Cat news, and we have the opportunity to do something better than anybody else.
A final thought: The goal of a columnist is to provoke thought and water-cooler discussion. Like them or not, many of our columns, including Hink's, have people talking about what's in the Chronicle. I'm guessing in the past few years, you've been talking about what's NOT in the Chronicle.
All right. Fire away. Thanks for the vine and, again, if you have some constructive criticism, I'm all ears.
jeff welsch
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