The Winnipeg Media

[gbill2004]

Jim Toth made a comment the other day that got me thinking about the Winnipeg media and why they consider themselves as expert.  Jim Toth said, after a Bomber win, "This Bomber win came as a shock because all of us in the media discussed earlier in the week and had the Bomber getting blown out this week".   Looking at the media, I doubt any of them have played any serious sports; none of them look like athletes.  They all are likely education in communications, maybe an English degree

 

A few days before the season started, I called into CJOB on one of their "panel nights" with Penton, Toth, and I think Bob Irving was on too.  I said I thought the Bombers win 8 games and make the playoffs in a crossover and Toth and Penton basically laughed at me. 

 

Toth comes across as quite arrogant sometimes, like a "know it all".  When I see him at Bomber practice he's always socializing with the other media, not even paying attention to what's going on.  One practice I was at last year, Buck Pierce threw a total of one pass, and Toth sends out a tweet that "Buck is looking great at practice today", because he interrupted his socializing and glanced over to see Buck complete a pass. 

 

Another example is last year, the day before the Banjo Bowl, the Bombers had an open house for fans at IGF with festivities, free lunch etc.  Paul Wicek was there and tweeted, "there's a disturbing number of Rider jerseys at IGF today".  I replied to his tweet and said, "I'm here right now and I count a total of 4 Rider jerseys...you find that disturbing?"  Wicek then blocked me for that.  He's just trying to create a story by reporting false information.  I called him on it, but he doesn't want to hear it. 

 

My question is why do the Winnipeg media who follow the Bombers consider themselves to be "experts"?  Some consider themselves as the authority.  Sure they follow the Bombers and report on Bomber related news, but what makes their opinions more valuable than anyone else?  I'm starting to put less and less weight on what the media says, and more weight on what some of the more credible posters have to say on forums like these.  

[kelownabomberfan]

I don't care if you never played the game, and I don't mind negativity if it is intelligent and insightful, but at the very least, the person being paid to report on the game should be a fan of the game, like us, and possess basic knowledge of the rules, actually - more than basic knowledge truth be told. Other than Tait and Penton in some ways, I don't see a lot of true football fans in the media in Winnipeg. Other cities have the same problem, but the difference is our guys are masquerading as knowledgeable folk, and their stupidity and apathy to the game we love is exposed week after week. Because we fans call them on it.

[17to85]

Jim Toth made a comment the other day that got me thinking about the Winnipeg media and why they consider themselves as expert.  Jim Toth said, after a Bomber win, "This Bomber win came as a shock because all of us in the media discussed earlier in the week and had the Bomber getting blown out this week".   Looking at the media, I doubt any of them have played any serious sports; none of them look like athletes.  They all are likely education in communications, maybe an English degree

 

A few days before the season started, I called into CJOB on one of their "panel nights" with Penton, Toth, and I think Bob Irving was on too.  I said I thought the Bombers win 8 games and make the playoffs in a crossover and Toth and Penton basically laughed at me. 

 

Toth comes across as quite arrogant sometimes, like a "know it all".  When I see him at Bomber practice he's always socializing with the other media, not even paying attention to what's going on.  One practice I was at last year, Buck Pierce threw a total of one pass, and Toth sends out a tweet that "Buck is looking great at practice today", because he interrupted his socializing and glanced over to see Buck complete a pass. 

 

Another example is last year, the day before the Banjo Bowl, the Bombers had an open house for fans at IGF with festivities, free lunch etc.  Paul Wicek was there and tweeted, "there's a disturbing number of Rider jerseys at IGF today".  I replied to his tweet and said, "I'm here right now and I count a total of 4 Rider jerseys...you find that disturbing?"  Wicek then blocked me for that.  He's just trying to create a story by reporting false information.  I called him on it, but he doesn't want to hear it. 

 

My question is why do the Winnipeg media who follow the Bombers consider themselves to be "experts"?  Some consider themselves as the authority.  Sure they follow the Bombers and report on Bomber related news, but what makes their opinions more valuable than anyone else?  I'm starting to put less and less weight on what the media says, and more weight on what some of the more credible posters have to say on forums like these.  

bolded tells the whole story

[Mike]

I don't mind the Debbie Downer stuff so much, it's hard to blame them for that.

 

The other stuff though ... is it really too much to ask for a guy covering the CFL to 1) know the rules and 2) pay attention at practice

[rebusrankin]

It certainly helps having a background in the sport you are covering, but time, research etc allow you to build up a level of knowledge. However in the case of our media, its mainly a case of misguided arrogance.

[brett_c_b]

I haven't got to see a game at IGF yet since I live in Edmonton, but I've made it to one day of training camp both years at IGF. The day I was there this year I was sitting right in front of the media group. The entire time they talked about photo radar tickets, they weren't watching training camp or talking about anything relevant in any way. When Gary Lawless showed up halfway through the day I moved on because it's bad enough when I have to listen to him talk about anything on TSN.

[Mark F]

 Looking at the media, I doubt any of them have played any serious sports;

 

 

 

Some of them have played.

 

Doug Brown, Troy, I think Mitch played NFL and CFL football. Now you have to include Walby.

 

 

These guys are all members of the Winnipeg media. I think they're all entertaining, and have interesting informed  viewpoints. 

 

I know nothing about the hockey writers and broadcasters.

 

I don't care if you never played the game, and I don't mind negativity if it is intelligent and insightful, but at the very least, the person being paid to report on the game should be a fan of the game, like us, and possess basic knowledge of the rules, actually - more than basic knowledge truth be told.

 

 

 

This sums it up well.

[Floyd]

Pretty sure if your job is pretty much 'covering the CFL' and talking to CFL insiders, you gain a fair bit of understanding.

 

Winnipeg fans are too touchy about the media...  most of the points made about Kelly and Mack were valid - it was just unfortunate that most of what they did had a negative effect.

 

If anything, Winnipeg media are too easy on the bombers - I mean the fluff questions at the last OShea conference were almost comical.  The media treated Burke with kid gloves too... these guys want a winning team as much as anyone.

[17to85]

It's not that the media are too easy on the Bombers, they're hard on them make no mistake about it, they just lack the ability to know what kinds of questions to ask for the most part. They play favourites with individuals based on their expectations of how they should be treated as the all knowing and all powerful media. 

[Mr Dee]

The media get what they deserve, from us fans who are passionate about their team.

That's the whole point. We are the fans.

The media get to cover our team as part of their job.

So do your job.

Don't know a particular rule? Learn it.

Don't know how a particular player is doing? Watch him.

 

Watch the damn practices and report what you see. You can even have your own opinion.

Just do your job.

 

You want respect…earn it

 

Touchy? Not without reason

[TrueBlue]

The media is the media.  These guys can choose to brush up on their education in the sports they cover if they choose to, if they think it will make them better at their job.  The first step for them though, is admitting there is a problem, which they won't do on their own because to them, they are all awesome. 

[kelownabomberfan]

Looks like Friesen is watching practice today...

Paul Friesen ✔ @friesensunmedia

Drew Willy throwing deep, showing no ill effects from Thursday's hand injury. #Bombers

[mbrg]

The media get what they deserve, from us fans who are passionate about their team.

That's the whole point. We are the fans.

The media get to cover our team as part of their job.

So do your job.

Don't know a particular rule? Learn it.

Don't know how a particular player is doing? Watch him.

 

Watch the damn practices and report what you see. You can even have your own opinion.

Just do your job.

 

You want respect…earn it

 

Touchy? Not without reason

 

And this is my biggest problem with Weicek covering the Bombers.  I really don't get the impression he understands the CFL at all.  His articles, the segments on the radio he does - both leave me shaking my head and saying "that's not right" about all sorts of basic things.  Sometimes even the players on the roster.  You can look this information up pretty easily these days.

[mbrg]

Looks like Friesen is watching practice today...

Paul Friesen ✔ @friesensunmedia

Drew Willy throwing deep, showing no ill effects from Thursday's hand injury. #Bombers

 

Looks like Friesen is sneaking glances Tait's shoulder at his notes.

[do or die]

Easier for some people to just throw some stuff up against a wall....

 

...less work....

[Fred C Dobbs]

I don't care if you never played the game, and I don't mind negativity if it is intelligent and insightful, but at the very least, the person being paid to report on the game should be a fan of the game, like us, and possess basic knowledge of the rules, actually - more than basic knowledge truth be told. Other than Tait and Penton in some ways, I don't see a lot of true football fans in the media in Winnipeg.

 

I'll bet this will surprise a lot of folks around here:

 

http://www.winnipegsun.com/videos/1285558160001

[Goalie]

Break it down in to 2 groups.. Print media and the radio guys

 

The radio guys are pretty decent for the most part.. Irving,Bauming, Brown,mitch,walby,westwood.. they are all fine. Toth is terrible. Thought the Jets would take D man Hayden Fleury in this years draft, honestly made no sense. He said either nylander or fleury so he's wrong most the time actually. Penton and  Tait are decent print media guys, penton is ok, has his bad days, he works for the sun so... it's too be expected at times as the sun likes to always go the "negative" route, even when their is nothing negative to report, not just sports but really everything.

 

Radio guys are solid, print media is pretty brutal and i'd suspect most casual fans probably base their thoughts on what the print media says. I doubt they are listening to the radio guys that often.  The issue with them is exactly what the op said about toth, they all think they are "know it alls" but in reality, don't even know the rules.

 

LOL at calling wicek out on something and having him block you, talk about arrogant. 

[Mike]

 

I don't care if you never played the game, and I don't mind negativity if it is intelligent and insightful, but at the very least, the person being paid to report on the game should be a fan of the game, like us, and possess basic knowledge of the rules, actually - more than basic knowledge truth be told. Other than Tait and Penton in some ways, I don't see a lot of true football fans in the media in Winnipeg.

 

I'll bet this will surprise a lot of folks around here:

 

http://www.winnipegsun.com/videos/1285558160001

 

 

I'm surprised, but not for the reason you probably think.

[iso_55]

I don't want media cheerleaders covering the team. I do expect balanced coverage though. I don't listen to sports radio in Winnipeg online & I try to avoid it here in Calgary because on our 24/7 sports radio station here, (The Fan 960) we have nothing but media hockey experts on the air. Guys who never played sports but are the experts on everything the Flames & sometimes the Stamps. Get sick of the kool aid most times. 

[TBURGESS]

The weekly media bash.  Yawn.

[peggars]

its easy to see the difference in knowledgeable people like Irving and Brown compared to the "others".  It so much more in depth, with technical explanations.  I love listen to Doug talk about defensive fundamentals, scouting, strategy, and why things resulted the way they did opposed to the WFP and sun articles that are generic and superficial  

 

edit:

 

I actually dated a carleton journalism girl whose dream was to be in sports broadcasting.  She was more knowledgeable then any of her classmates that I met but still only understood simplistic notions of hockey and football.  She was an expert in soccer "from being a collegiate soccer player" but basic in all other major sports.  When i asked her about being more technical with her articles she stated that she has to keep them basic so that larger audiences can understand.  This might be a factor to why the current freep and sun reporters write the way they do.

[Noeller]

Guys who never played sports but are experts everything the Flames & sometimes the Stamps.

Definition of Calgarys sports fan community....

[iso_55]

 

Guys who never played sports but are experts everything the Flames & sometimes the Stamps.

Definition of Calgarys sports fan community....

 

When I hear some of them trying to act like they've spent time in a locker room &  know what it's like to play in a CIS, NCAA or CFL game when they never did, I just shake my head. It's one of the reasons I no longer listen to Sports Talk radio here because it is laughable. 

[mbrg]

 

 

Guys who never played sports but are experts everything the Flames & sometimes the Stamps.

Definition of Calgarys sports fan community....

 

When I hear some of them trying to act like they've spent time in a locker room &  know what it's like to play in a CIS, NCAA or CFL game when they never did, I just shake my head. It's one of the reasons I no longer listen to Sports Talk radio here because it is laughable. 

 

 

Well if you're in Winnipeg, you'll have a reason to frantically try and kick the radio thru the dashboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hint - rhymes with troy westwood

[do or die]

If only they could stick to bodily function and drinking jokes.........