OSUBlazerfan
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All valid points
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It’s an interesting time in the world of journalism and mass media. And if you’re not careful as a consumer, sometimes it’s easy to mistake fluff for news. As I’m always telling my parents, consider the source. My dad will tell me about a story he saw somewhere, and when I ask him where exactly he saw it he’ll say, “I saw it on TV.” Well, CNN is a TV channel. But so is MTV. Which one is it, Dad?
This concept of sourcing has recently become an issue with the Portland Trail Blazers. When the team hired three new assistant coaches in July, the first interviews with the new coaches appeared at trailblazers.com (a Blazers employee interviewed each coach). The next day, local reporters had an opportunity to interview the new assistants. All said, pretty benign stuff. Clearly it’s not the first example of a corporation breaking news on its own web site.
Things got a little tricky in mid-August, when Brandon Roy appeared in a controversial music video. Rather than make Roy available to local reporters — as the team did with Greg Oden this past winter when his nude photos surfaced — Roy was solely interviewed by a Blazers employee. A video copy of that interview was then disseminated to all four television affiliates in Portland. No one had a chance to question Roy. Once again, it didn’t cause any major waves because Roy was so forthcoming in his comments and completely took ownership of the fact that he used bad judgment.
On Monday afternoon, the trend continued. The team sent a video copy of a Paul Allen interview to local television affiliates (you can find the interview at trailblazers.com). Allen was interviewed by Blazers broadcaster, and employee, Mike Barrett. The interview runs almost 10 minutes, and not once is Allen asked about his decision to fire former Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard. 150 days have passed since Tom Penn was fired — believed by many to be the first sign that Pritchard was also on his way out. And over the last 150 days, Paul Allen has refused to take any questions about Pritchard. To this day there are long-time Blazers fans still scratching their heads about why Allen chose to fire the man who assembled this current roster. But when Allen sat down for his recent interview: nada, zilch, niente. No questions about the 800-pound gorilla in the room.
My whole point in detailing this is one part anecdotal, one part buyer-beware. Information distribution methods are changing. But there is still a vast difference between a carefully crafted press release and a bona fide interview, during which any question is fair game. I think it’s important to recognize that difference.
http://fox12sports.wordpress.com/20...pe/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
It’s an interesting time in the world of journalism and mass media. And if you’re not careful as a consumer, sometimes it’s easy to mistake fluff for news. As I’m always telling my parents, consider the source. My dad will tell me about a story he saw somewhere, and when I ask him where exactly he saw it he’ll say, “I saw it on TV.” Well, CNN is a TV channel. But so is MTV. Which one is it, Dad?
This concept of sourcing has recently become an issue with the Portland Trail Blazers. When the team hired three new assistant coaches in July, the first interviews with the new coaches appeared at trailblazers.com (a Blazers employee interviewed each coach). The next day, local reporters had an opportunity to interview the new assistants. All said, pretty benign stuff. Clearly it’s not the first example of a corporation breaking news on its own web site.
Things got a little tricky in mid-August, when Brandon Roy appeared in a controversial music video. Rather than make Roy available to local reporters — as the team did with Greg Oden this past winter when his nude photos surfaced — Roy was solely interviewed by a Blazers employee. A video copy of that interview was then disseminated to all four television affiliates in Portland. No one had a chance to question Roy. Once again, it didn’t cause any major waves because Roy was so forthcoming in his comments and completely took ownership of the fact that he used bad judgment.
On Monday afternoon, the trend continued. The team sent a video copy of a Paul Allen interview to local television affiliates (you can find the interview at trailblazers.com). Allen was interviewed by Blazers broadcaster, and employee, Mike Barrett. The interview runs almost 10 minutes, and not once is Allen asked about his decision to fire former Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard. 150 days have passed since Tom Penn was fired — believed by many to be the first sign that Pritchard was also on his way out. And over the last 150 days, Paul Allen has refused to take any questions about Pritchard. To this day there are long-time Blazers fans still scratching their heads about why Allen chose to fire the man who assembled this current roster. But when Allen sat down for his recent interview: nada, zilch, niente. No questions about the 800-pound gorilla in the room.
My whole point in detailing this is one part anecdotal, one part buyer-beware. Information distribution methods are changing. But there is still a vast difference between a carefully crafted press release and a bona fide interview, during which any question is fair game. I think it’s important to recognize that difference.
