More National Sports Media bullcrap

[Landshark]

Indianapolis is mediocre? I guess the 49ers are pretty bad then. The Falcons aren't mediocre either.

And if Indianapolis is great that they thrashed San Fran so easily, then Miami must be elite because they beat them in Indy.  There's upsets, and then there's scores that make your jaw drop when they roll across the ticker.  That Indy-San Fran game was one of the latter.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

News stories are not chosen based on what team is the best, but what story will generate the most interest.  

ESPN posted a story about the Dolphins going 3-0.  They posted a story about the Giants going 0-3.  Etc.   They checked the page counter number and then decided which story should get more air time on TV.  

More people care about the Giants than they do the Dolphins.  

The Dolphins have done exactly two things this year that is news worthy: 

1. Mike Wallace bitching about not being targeted enough.

2. Sparks flipping the bird. 

Look at what the headlines are;

Pacman getting arrested again.
Gore upset about not getting the ball more in the 2nd half
Rashad Jones injury
Nicks bitching he wasn't targeted enough. 

If you get to 5-0, you can be sure some one will ask Mercury Morris if he rooting for the Dolphins to lose.  And the headline will either be that he is or that he denies wanting the Dolphins to lose and you will have your big national story. 

[Spider-Dan]

For the record, I think the '72 Dolphins would be reasonably happy to root for another Dolphin team to go undefeated.  At a very minimum, you would not see Morris trash-talking them.

[Sunstroke]

^^^ I actually had a conversation a few years ago with Mercury on the TDMMC show, and asked him that exact question. While I'm too lazy to dig into the Fins Radio archives, I believe his answer was along the lines of him not only having no problem with it, but that he would enjoy seeing Miami do the deed a second time.  Lil_B may remember his answer better than I do, but I think that was Mercury's basic position.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^ I actually had a conversation a few years ago with Mercury on the TDMMC show, and asked him that exact question. While I'm too lazy to dig into the Fins Radio archives, I believe his answer was along the lines of him not only having no problem with it, but that he would enjoy seeing Miami do the deed a second time.  Lil_B may remember his answer better than I do, but I think that was Mercury's basic position.

My understanding from an article I read during the 2007 season, is the first time he was asked the question he said he didn't want any team to go undefeated including the Dolphins, which outraged Dolphin fans and he changed his public stance to remain in the good graces of the one fan base that likes him.

So if I was a reporter looking for a story and the Dolphins were 5-0, I most certainly would ask MM the question again and then if he says he is rooting for the Dolphins go with the "MM denies rooting against the Dolphins" because it will get a hell of a lot more page hits than "72 Fins rooting for '13 Fins" 

Getting back to my basic point.  News coverage is determined not by who is doing well, but what story generates the most interest nationally.  And the 'Fins don't have the national fan based they had in the Shula era. 

[CF DolFan]

It's kind of funny actually. I think I'm finding many people are rooting for the Phins who are not fans. That's probably based a lot on two big things. A dislike for Patriots domination in recent years and a hatred for the Jets.

The Dolphins are kind of squeaky clean or at least getting there. I also think that's why so many people don't have an issue with Green Bay and Denver being successful.

[Landshark]

It's kind of funny actually. I think I'm finding many people are rooting for the Phins who are not fans. That's probably based a lot on two big things. A dislike for Patriots domination in recent years and a hatred for the Jets.

The Dolphins are kind of squeaky clean or at least getting there. I also think that's why so many people don't have an issue with Green Bay and Denver being successful.

Because Green Bay and Denver didn't cheat their way to the top

[Spider-Dan]

My understanding from an article I read during the 2007 season, is the first time he was asked the question he said he didn't want any team to go undefeated including the Dolphins, which outraged Dolphin fans and he changed his public stance to remain in the good graces of the one fan base that likes him.

I think maybe your own biases against Morris are bleeding through.  I've never seen him say anything bad about another Dolphin team going undefeated.

[Brian Fein]

^^ Because it hasn't happened.  I think it'll be interesting when/if the Dolphins get to 12-0 and people start interviewing him.  We'll see where his true colors lie.

[Spider-Dan]

You do realize that the Dolphins got to 11-0 in 1984, right?

[CF DolFan]

I think maybe your own biases against Morris are bleeding through.  I've never seen him say anything bad about another Dolphin team going undefeated.

I remember it too. It was also talked about after the Morris interview with TDMMC.

He really did start out with an "us" against the world attitude ... Including current Dolphin teams of the time. Obviously someone talked some sense into him.

[Dave Gray]

Credit where credit is due: Around the Horn did a very good and very fair job on Monday's show of discussing Miami.  They got their own segment and got reasonable coverage.  Reali even seemed to mock that we weren't getting reasonable attention from the panel, where other teams were.

PTI, on the other hand -- an embarrassment.  The lead story was the NY Giants.  Then, that led into the Colts and how good they are (guess who beat the Colts on the road, by the way) and gushed over Luck and how he's risen to the top of the young QB list, which included RGIII, Russel Wilson, and Kaepernick, who is 4th.  (No mention of Tannehill.)

When they finally do talk about Miami, it's part of an AFC East segment and it just devolved into Patriots talk.

[Brian Fein]

ESPN should be talking about the Dolphins non-stop this week, because they are airing MNF starring the Miami Dolphins.  The other shows are a big commercial for their other programming.  I suspect that's the only reason why Around The Horn even talked about them.

This is the same crap that got me fired up about Tebow.  They talk and talk and talk about the topics they feel are "big" stories (like 3rd string QB's who can't throw and football teams that are 0-3) when, in fact, the real BIGGER stories get ignored.

That's not journalism, that's a commercial and brainwashing.

I'll never forget the time Jaws went on the air on ESPN and said that Kaepernick could be the best QB of all time. Then, for the next week, ESPN did story after story on multiple shows about how Jaws said Kaepernick was the best QB of all time on their own network!  Creating the news out of thin air?

http://deadspin.com/how-espn-manufactures-a-story-colin-kaepernick-edition-1185400028

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

That's not journalism,

I guess that is where we differ.  I don't expect journalism on the sports pages of the newspaper or in sports shows.  Or for that matter from Entertainment tonight, People magazine, or parody like The Daily Show or SNL.  I don't hold them to that standard.

I do expect journalism standards to be meet in the News sections of the paper and on shows purporting to be news.

FoxSports can spin non-stories all day and that would be  fine by me.

The fact that FoxSports in fact has more journalistic ingenuity than FoxNews pisses me off to no end. 

[Brian Fein]

I expect SportsCenter to be a journalism experience.  It is a news program.  I don't expect Mike and Mike or PTI to be news shows.  They are talk shows.  SportsCenter is a news program, and ESPN is a news network.