How does everybody feel about this "coverage"

[Mike]

Tweets from our media at practice yesterday.

 

Bob Irving @BobIrvingCJOB

Bombers practiced today--looked good. That's all I got!!!

 

Paul Friesen re-tweeted that and then sent out the following...

 

Paul Friesen @friesensunmedia

What he said.

 

Tweets from our media today.

 

Bob Irving @BobIrvingCJOB

Blue bombers looking sharp in practice--we are talking about "practice". That's all I got today.

 

Paul Friesen @friesensunmedia

The #Bombers are practicing again. And I'm watching. Sort of.

 

...

 

Am I the only one irritated by this garbage? It's one thing for them to do an awful job of covering the practices that they're assigned to, but when they get to the point where they're openly mocking it ... it just annoys me.

 

 

[Blueandgold]

I think we should petition the sun to give Gbill all of Friesen's duties.

[Captain Blue]

Every time a Jets player sneezes, you hear about it from five media sources and then they have to speculate about it for hours. Is it a virus? My God it could be a virus!

Yet we get nothing, absolutely nothing of value by the media on the Bombers. It ticks me off immensely. They get paid to sit and watch football and STILL can't manage to do even to do that.

And for those wondering about fan attendance, how would it impact numbers if fans actually had more than crappy newspaper articles to consider?

[The Unknown Poster]

Why do their superiors allow it?  I wish I could publicly tweet that I not doing my job and instead sitting outside enjoying the day.  My boss would be calling me minutes later...or clocking me out.

 

Its sort of a laughing stock too isnt it?  Its an embarrassment really.

[The Unknown Poster]

Would a concerted twitter shaming accomplish anything?

 

Andrew Shallcross ‏@PCWAndrew 1m1 minute ago

Local media coverage of @Wpg_BlueBombers practice is an embarrassment.Must read fan coverage for real info. @BobIrvingCJOB @friesensunmedia

[voodoochylde]

It's essentially thumbing their noses at us forum dwellers and I absolutely *HATE* the fact that they treat the CFL and the Bombers as second tier.  

 

Though, I will say that Bauming is usually the best of the bunch .. by a mile.

[Mr Dee]

I think MorningBigBlue, representing some 700 members, should send notice that we are disappointed in the lackadaisical coverage of the oldest Professional sports team in Winnipeg. Or failing that, provide the members with some correct e-mail addresses for the parties involved and the membership could send 1 common message. Or, we could do both. If these media outlets received hundreds of e-mails each, they might take notice.

Let's let them know we're not pleased with what they give us.

[Rich]

Paul Friesen:  paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca

 

Bob Irving: http://www.cjob.com/contact-bob-irving/

[Atomic]

I don't know, would it really make a difference if they tweeted out "Denmark just had a great catch."  I'm not so sure.  What else can they say?  They will report on injuries.  They're not going to report on plays or formations.  They often tweet about who is working with the first team if there is a line-up change.

 

Do you want Friesen tweeting more?  Because this is what it will be: "Willy missed a couple receivers on that drive.  Looking out of sorts."  "Nick Moore just had an ugly drop."  "Defensive backs looking sluggish today."  Which of course is followed by 16 weeks of posters here telling us that "Moore and Willy are brutal at practice according to reports".

[TBURGESS]

They are newspaper reporters.  Tweeting isn't what they are there to do.  They're there to get info for their columns tomorrow.

[mbrg]

Thought maybe we're finally going to start dumping on this soft zone every team is forced to play under the new rules.  Guess that coverage discussion will wait.

 

Here's the thing - I already expect nothing but garbage from Friesen.  All he wants is to have a strong inflammatory take on something he has inadequate knowledge of.  That's his entire MO.  He walks in near the end of practise and asks other reporters what he's missed.  I **** you not.  I've seen him do it.

 

Irving is there to get sound bites for his audio based programming.  He does very little in the way of real reporting, and he's taking a really long wind down into retirement.  So while I'd like more from him, it makes sense why we don't get more.

 

The rest of the bunch do offer up snippets from time to time, but not much.  Should they be required to give it away for nothing rather than keep it to themselves and sell it back to us later, either in print or radio?  That would be nice, but I understand why they don't.

 

So it sucks.  It sucks because we have nothing and it sucks because they could be using Twitter to their advantage - "Read my article on who was making great catches at practise in tomorrow's Free Press" - but they don't.  They just go thru the motions of this being their jobs.  Of course, I'm not on twitland, so this doesn't affect me at all.

 

What sucks most is that these guys have what many of us would consider a dream job, and it's like they don't care at all.  Zero passion for being allowed to sit and watch football every day and get paid to do it, when most of us would be happy to do it for free if we could.

[Rich]

They are newspaper reporters.  Tweeting isn't what they are there to do.  They're there to get info for their columns tomorrow.

 

I disagree with this.  In this new media age, tweeting is part of their job. It should be used to push followers / readers to their columns.  It should be to gain trust from and expand their followers base to drive more traffic to their respective papers.

 

Those tweets do nothing to make me want to read tomorrow's column.   At least for Bob Irving, he doesn't have a column.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

They are newspaper reporters.  Tweeting isn't what they are there to do.  They're there to get info for their columns tomorrow.

 

I disagree with this.  In this new media age, tweeting is part of their job. It should be used to push followers / readers to their columns.  It should be to gain trust from and expand their followers base to drive more traffic to their respective papers.

 

Those tweets do nothing to make me want to read tomorrow's column.   At least for Bob Irving, he doesn't have a column.

 

Exactly.  If they tweeted something like "Willy looking terrific and had lots to say.  Read tomorrow's paper for full coverage", then maybe I could see that.  Tweeting and newspaper coverage are two different things.  Lawless tweets stuff all the time AND talks about it on H&L and still his column on the topic usually adds even more.  These clowns could learn to do that.  or dont tweet at all.  To tweet and say you're barely watching, why on earth would anyone read a column written by someone who barely watched?

[mbrg]

They are newspaper reporters.  Tweeting isn't what they are there to do.  They're there to get info for their columns tomorrow.

 

I'd be more inclined to believe that if they turned and faced the field.

[Atomic]

What sucks most is that these guys have what many of us would consider a dream job, and it's like they don't care at all.  Zero passion for being allowed to sit and watch football every day and get paid to do it, when most of us would be happy to do it for free if we could.

 

Expecting sports journalists to be as passionate about the home team as the most overzealous fanatic is just unreasonable.  Maybe someone got into sports writing because they love hockey, but the paper has them covering football.  It's not their fault and you can't fake passion.

[TrueBlue4ever]

I think MorningBigBlue, representing some 700 members, should send notice that we are disappointed in the lackadaisical coverage of the oldest Professional sports team in Winnipeg. Or failing that, provide the members with some correct e-mail addresses for the parties involved and the membership could send 1 common message. Or, we could do both. If these media outlets received hundreds of e-mails each, they might take notice.

Let's let them know we're not pleased with what they give us.

Be sure to add:

The opinions or views expressed by Mr. Dee or any other individual poster are those of the presenters/authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and recommendations of the entire Morning Big Blue website, including its staff, moderators, posters who may post in less voluminous quantities than others, lurkers or supporters. Opinions stated by various contributors to Morning Big Blue are not to be considered as endorsed by the entire membership.

[Mike]

 

What sucks most is that these guys have what many of us would consider a dream job, and it's like they don't care at all.  Zero passion for being allowed to sit and watch football every day and get paid to do it, when most of us would be happy to do it for free if we could.

 

Expecting sports journalists to be as passionate about the home team as the most overzealous fanatic is just unreasonable.  Maybe someone got into sports writing because they love hockey, but the paper has them covering football.  It's not their fault and you can't fake passion.

 

 

I think the major point was already summed up quite early in this thread.

 

Who else here can say that they would be welcome to go on social media during their work day and gloat about how much work they're not doing?

[Atomic]

 

 

What sucks most is that these guys have what many of us would consider a dream job, and it's like they don't care at all.  Zero passion for being allowed to sit and watch football every day and get paid to do it, when most of us would be happy to do it for free if we could.

 

Expecting sports journalists to be as passionate about the home team as the most overzealous fanatic is just unreasonable.  Maybe someone got into sports writing because they love hockey, but the paper has them covering football.  It's not their fault and you can't fake passion.

 

 

I think the major point was already summed up quite early in this thread.

 

Who else here can say that they would be welcome to go on social media during their work day and gloat about how much work they're not doing?

 

 

They are there only because outlets want someone on-site in case something major happens.  An injury or fight or coach blow-up.  Not to live-tweet every detail.  In this sense they are doing their job simply by being present.

[JohnnyOnTheSpot]

I've seen plenty of unremarkable practices and this was probably one of them. Do you really expect a play-by-play of practice?  Add to that O'Shea gives next to no info and the assistant coaches are made to give none.

[mbrg]

 

What sucks most is that these guys have what many of us would consider a dream job, and it's like they don't care at all.  Zero passion for being allowed to sit and watch football every day and get paid to do it, when most of us would be happy to do it for free if we could.

 

Expecting sports journalists to be as passionate about the home team as the most overzealous fanatic is just unreasonable.  Maybe someone got into sports writing because they love hockey, but the paper has them covering football.  It's not their fault and you can't fake passion.

 

 

If I had their job I wouldn't be hooting or hollering, but I would be facing the field during practise.  Seriously.  They sit in those loges at the top of the stands around a table and visit.  Half of them are facing the wrong way.  That is entirely their fault.  How is facing the wrong way, not paying attention or taking any notes "not their fault"?  No one is saying they have to take their shirts off and paint a "W" on their pasty white chests.  I don't want any homer reporting at all.

 

And I deliberately did not mention Wiecek, the king of "I'd rather be anywhere but here" Bomber reporting.  Yes, he wants to be chain smoking and covering the horses and curling.  We all know that.  Football is his punishment and he writes accordingly, inflicting punishment on us.

[The Unknown Poster]

Friesen is tweeting at me.  Im probably the least knowledgeable football fan here.  Please feel free to jump in to the tweet convo.  lol

[Tracker]

Could this terse reporting be a reaction to the closed-mouth approach of our current head coach who talks but usually really says nothing?

[Noeller]

 

They are newspaper reporters.  Tweeting isn't what they are there to do.  They're there to get info for their columns tomorrow.

 

I disagree with this.  In this new media age, tweeting is part of their job. It should be used to push followers / readers to their columns.  It should be to gain trust from and expand their followers base to drive more traffic to their respective papers.

 

Those tweets do nothing to make me want to read tomorrow's column.   At least for Bob Irving, he doesn't have a column.

 

I can tell you for a fact that this is basically true. In the new age of media, if you're not embracing Social Media with everything you do, then you're irrelevant and being left behind. You want people to care about your column the next day? Drive up interest via your social media page. 

 

As for expecting them to be fans....they're *supposed* to be impartial, but I think we can all agree that the reason Ed Tait is so damn popular is because he's a huge fan of the team, and has stated many times that he was raised going to games with his father from a young age. 

 

I'm not going to go outta my way to complain that these guys aren't doing their jobs...that's not for me to say. But as a fan, would I like to see more from them at practices? Absolutely...

[Atomic]

Friesen is tweeting at me.  Im probably the least knowledgeable football fan here.  Please feel free to jump in to the tweet convo.  lol

 

Seems like a reasonable question to me.  If you are tweeting that his coverage is terrible then you must know what you'd rather see.

[The Unknown Poster]

I think it was Irving that tweeted earlier that Willy was throwing bullets or something.  At least thats something. 

 

How was twitter coverage of the Jets development camp?  I wasnt around much but I assume it was better? 

 

There is a way to provide some useful info on twitter as a way of previewing the next day's column.  But "Im not even watching" is hardly the way to get anyone to pay to read a column.