Cowboys Camp Day 10: Vela v. Real Journalists.

[dcfanatic]

Fans do.

Journalists shouldn't.

Bloggingtheboys.com

It's exclusively about the Cowboys.

Of course it's going to be slanted.

There are so many times when people just make up their own definition of what the blogs are supposed to be because they are simliar to the 'newspapers'.

It's like saying 'Hey Rafael, dumb it down and just say 'Go Cowboys' 500 times a day because if you don't then your work will be valued and the fans will put expectations on you about what your supposed to act like and say in the articles you write'.

It's a definition you are making up. It's not one he is asking for. He readily admits that he's a fan first.

 

[dcfanatic]

I'm not ok with the way the world of journalism is changing, that's true. But that's not really the point. Last year was a circus, and that fact was a legitimate point for criticism or coverage. That doesn't mean it was the only thing worth covering. And it doesn't absolve paid journalists (ie, the professionals) from their responsibility to cover the right stories and to cover them accurately and professionally.

During the regular season, though, there's enough meat and enough people on the record that the quality of the coverage goes up generally. It's the scarcity of the offseason that let's you know who's all-hat, and who's actually got some cattle. Either way, it's pretty damning when hobbyists, no matter how dedicated, are more knowledgeable and do a better job generally covering the team you're paid to cover.

Again, this has nothing to do with the slant of the stories. I understand that hobbyists generally are going to slant positively. It's a matter of understanding and ability, not outlook.

If the DMN followed your criteria they would hire 10 Todd Archers.

And you would read their stuff.

But the problem is that you are not the only person in the audience.

They have to provide content for a gazillion people. From ages around 16 to 80. They need something for everyone, not something for Idgit and only Idgit.

The best part is that you are free to not read stuff from an author you don't like and you can go search for stuff from an author like Vela.

 

[Idgit]

If the DMN followed your criteria they would hire 10 Todd Archers.

And you would read their stuff.

But the problem is that you are not the only person in the audience.

They have to provide content for a gazillion people. From ages around 16 to 80. They need something for everyone, not something for Idgit and only Idgit.

The best part is that you are free to not read stuff from an author you don't like and you can go search for stuff from an author like Vela.

Yeah, that's not lost on me. Just like grocery stores sell M&Ms and NY strips in the same market. Clearly, the local Dallas media prefers to sell M&Ms. That's their prerogative, but it means that their coverage pales in terms of the information it provides and the quality of the product the same way that M&Ms pale next to steaks in terms of nutritional content.

Everybody understands when people make fun of the nutritional content of M&Ms, though.

 

[dcfanatic]

Yeah, that's not lost on me. Just like grocery stores sell M&Ms and NY strips in the same market. Clearly, the local Dallas media prefers to sell M&Ms. That's their prerogative, but it means that their coverage pales in terms of the information it provides and the quality of the product the same way that M&Ms pale next to steaks in terms of nutritional content.

Everybody understands when people make fun of the nutritional content of M&Ms, though.

So everytime out you are taking steak over M & M's?

And the more precise comparison would be chicken and steak. Those are meals.

Even if you read a blog entry you are not fond of you are still getting fed information just like when you choose chicken or steak.

If your friend gives you a call and says that Jenkins will miss some practices but he has no idea why then I would compare that to being the M & M's in this scenario.

Now I want some peanut M & M's while I wait for Staubach to come on.

 

[Idgit]

So everytime out you are taking steak over M & M's?

And the more precise comparison would be chicken and steak. Those are meals.

Even if you read a blog entry you are not fond of you are still getting fed information just like when you choose chicken or steak.

If your friend gives you a call and says that Jenkins will miss some practices but he has no idea why then I would compare that to being the M & M's in this scenario.

Now I want some peanut M & M's while I wait for Staubach to come on.

Unfortunately, I think it's more steak v. M&Ms. Chicken I could live with. As long as I didn't have to deal with people telling me M&Ms taste like chicken.

Now I'm getting hungry, too. Time to fire up the grill and get me a thick, juicy steak.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Vela isn't the most accurate guy out there, but it's very understandable since he doesn't blog for a living and doesn't have the access that the local Dallas media and the crooks at BSPN have.

And he's still probably more accurate than those guys.

What so many of the professional media don't understand, particularly blowhards like Buzz Bissinger, is that the blogs are successful because they are informative and somewhat entertaining. Not because some writer uses a bunch of swear words and rips into athletes.

The DMN and FWST have blogs of their own, but despite the advantage they have in resources and name recognition, Cowboys fans mostly could care less about these blogs and prefer Grizz's and Vela's blogs because they are more interesting, entertaining and much more fair without some vendetta to find a way to rip into somebody on the team that they don't like.

The DMN and the FWST have the blogs to write those analytical type of pieces that Grizz and Vela can write, so the newpapers cannot use that as an excuse for why they don't provide that. Although they could take a tip from the Boston Globe, who usually has very analytical football columns and still has a solid readership.




YAKUZA

 

[BAT]

-- A Jason Williams sighting. Dallas ran a 3-5 scheme when it faced the heavy two-TE, two-RB offensive set. Dallas had its five man line with three down linemen and two OLBs , but three ILBs behind them instead of two. Carpenter and Jason Williams were the weakside ILBs and both broke up a lot of running and passing plays.

So who was the third ILB? Bradie James?

 

[dcfanatic]

Vela isn't the most accurate guy out there, but it's very understandable since he doesn't blog for a living and doesn't have the access that the local Dallas media and the crooks at BSPN have.

And he's still probably more accurate than those guys.

What so many of the professional media don't understand, particularly blowhards like Buzz Bissinger, is that the blogs are successful because they are informative and somewhat entertaining. Not because some writer uses a bunch of swear words and rips into athletes.

The DMN and FWST have blogs of their own, but despite the advantage they have in resources and name recognition, Cowboys fans mostly could care less about these blogs and prefer Grizz's and Vela's blogs because they are more interesting, entertaining and much more fair without some vendetta to find a way to rip into somebody on the team that they don't like.

The DMN and the FWST have the blogs to write those analytical type of pieces that Grizz and Vela can write, so the newpapers cannot use that as an excuse for why they don't provide that. Although they could take a tip from the Boston Globe, who usually has very analytical football columns and still has a solid readership.

YAKUZA

Speaking of not being accurate.

The DMN blog gets way more traffic that any other Cowboys blog.

BTB has those articles on their blog because they are a blog. The DMN has feature articles on their site under the Cowboys Plus section.

And the goal of BTB and the DMN Blog are completely different. So comparing them really isn't comparing apples to apples.

Here's the deal. You guys on here who hate the DMN Blog and things of that nature are such a small vocal minority. So because this group comes on here and talks about it some of you think it's this way for 'most' Cowboys fans.

It isn't and the numbers prove it. Trust me.

If anything the DC.com blogs are second to the DMN blog.

Your average fan doesn't go to boards or sites like BTB. And there are way more average fans than there are diehards like us.

But again, like I said once in this thread.

The choice is there and it's awesome to have that choice.

 

[Idgit]

Speaking of not being accurate.

The DMN blog gets way more traffic that any other Cowboys blog.

BTB has those articles on their blog because they are a blog. The DMN has feature articles on their site under the Cowboys Plus section.

And the goal of BTB and the DMN Blog are completely different. So comparing them really isn't comparing apples to apples.

Here's the deal. You guys on here who hate the DMN Blog and things of that nature are such a small vocal minority. So because this group comes on here and talks about it some of you think it's this way for 'most' Cowboys fans.

It isn't and the numbers prove it. Trust me.

If anything the DC.com blogs are second to the DMN blog.

Your average fan doesn't go to boards or sites like BTB. And there are way more average fans than there are diehards like us.

But again, like I said once in this thread.

The choice is there and it's awesome to have that choice.

But, DC, don't make the mistake of confusing what's popular with what's good. There are a number of reasons why established media sites have more traffic that startup blogs that have nothing to do with quality of coverage. They get cross-media promotion and they have name recognition that's difficult to compete with, but that doesn't make them inherently better.

And while you're right that there definitely is a variety of offerings available for Cowboys coverage, that doesn't mean that the offerings themselves are equal. Or that the offerings available for the average fan are of sufficient quality.

Granted, the goal for money-making media companies is to increase readership, which is why their writers tend towards the sensational at the expense of the relevant. That makes the coverage more popular, perhaps, but it doesn't make it better.

It raises an interesting question, though. It's possible that the coverage the Cowboys get nationally contributes to the desperation the local media has to get attention. It might explain why they're so likely to take sides and to resort to name-calling and challenging the head coach in press conferences and the like. Forces them to effectively lower the nutritional content of their coverage in order to get the attention they need to maintain readership.

Whatever the cause, though, it's bad for quality.

 

[dcfanatic]

But, DC, don't make the mistake of confusing what's popular with what's good. There are a number of reasons why established media sites have more traffic that startup blogs that have nothing to do with quality of coverage. They get cross-media promotion and they have name recognition that's difficult to compete with, but that doesn't make them inherently better.

And while you're right that there definitely is a variety of offerings available for Cowboys coverage, that doesn't mean that the offerings themselves are equal. Or that the offerings available for the average fan are of sufficient quality.

Granted, the goal for money-making media companies is to increase readership, which is why their writers tend towards the sensational at the expense of the relevant. That makes the coverage more popular, perhaps, but it doesn't make it better.

It raises an interesting question, though. It's possible that the coverage the Cowboys get nationally contributes to the desperation the local media has to get attention. It might explain why they're so likely to take sides and to resort to name-calling and challenging the head coach in press conferences and the like. Forces them to effectively lower the nutritional content of their coverage in order to get the attention they need to maintain readership.

Whatever the cause, though, it's bad for quality.

Two words.

Pop Music.

It's dreadful. But it's what the average person hears everyday.

Now take into consideration what the average Cowboys fans wants.

They want the breaking news. They want the biggest issue going on with the team. They want to know why we won or lost in 100 words or less.

So to them it's quality because they get what they want. They are the biggest market, not us.

I hate to sound like Jerry, but it's all relative.

I will bring up a quick example. That stupid thing with T.O. where he called out Romo and Garrett on Twitter.

Some people on here thought it wasn't news. For me and you it really wasn't because we knew he was going to feel that way.

Yet the thread went to something like 20 pages. But a good audio interview with great stories and anecdotes from a guy like Drew Pearson is off the front page in three hours.

And we both know which has more 'quality' behind it.

It depends on who's definition of quality we are talking about and then giving them what they want.

We are the minority when it comes to 'Cowboys Fans' and what they want.

 

[burmafrd]

DMN and the rest of the so called professional media should be ashamed that Vela and other bloggers are so much better then they are. BUT they are not. Just goes to show that they do not care.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Speaking of not being accurate.

The DMN blog gets way more traffic that any other Cowboys blog.

BTB has those articles on their blog because they are a blog. The DMN has feature articles on their site under the Cowboys Plus section.

And the goal of BTB and the DMN Blog are completely different. So comparing them really isn't comparing apples to apples.

Here's the deal. You guys on here who hate the DMN Blog and things of that nature are such a small vocal minority. So because this group comes on here and talks about it some of you think it's this way for 'most' Cowboys fans.

It isn't and the numbers prove it. Trust me.

If anything the DC.com blogs are second to the DMN blog.

Your average fan doesn't go to boards or sites like BTB. And there are way more average fans than there are diehards like us.

But again, like I said once in this thread.

The choice is there and it's awesome to have that choice.

Yes, that's because they have much more resources, pump far more into advertising and have tons more name recognition that BTB and other forums do.

But regular fans could care less about these blogs. If they want breaking news information, they'll go to ESPN News or ESPN.com or the main DMN sports page on the web.

Believe me, editors and majority shareholders of Newspapers are trying to tap into the blogging market and make money off it. The problem is that they really have little clue as to how to do it and I don't believe they have talented enough writers/journalists to make it happen.



YAKUZA

 

[Zaxor]

I would really like to take a copy of what Vela writes and a copy of what tool time timmy writes and have the "average" fan decide which is more informative

Example

Tool time timmy: Roy "Coachable" Williams had problems connecting on several Romo passes this afternoon.

Vela: Newman had great coverage on Williams most of the afternoon and so was only targeted twice by Romo in the 11 0n 11 drill one which was a bit high and outside that would have been a tough catch and another that looked like it might have been tipped at the line of scrimmage.


To me the quality of Vela's reports would easily win

 

[adbutcher]

I agree with you.

I think the problem is there are too few true sports "reporters" anymore. These people would rather be an entertainer than a reporter. They want to be funny. They want to incite rage. They want to be clever.

They want to be columnists, but they don't have the talent. Jim Murray, they're not.

Good, solid news reports on games or camp practices are becoming more and more rare. So are good feature stories.

Instead we get 50-word blog entries with names wrong and poor attempts at being clever.

It might be this way at other places, but it's certainly noticeable with the people "covering" the Cowboys. I'm mainly talking about the ones from the DMN.

Chief you hit the nail on the head with your post.

I would only add that although the collective local Dallas coverage is lame, the readership/fanbase is partly the blame. When reading some of the mail bag/chat questions it is more then evident that DMN knows their targeted audience. Unfortunately, we ain't it.

 

[jobberone]

That's an odd reference.

I thought so, too. Some love for Ball.

 

[dcfanatic]

Yes, that's because they have much more resources, pump far more into advertising and have tons more name recognition that BTB and other forums do.

But regular fans could care less about these blogs. If they want breaking news information, they'll go to ESPN News or ESPN.com or the main DMN sports page on the web.

Believe me, editors and majority shareholders of Newspapers are trying to tap into the blogging market and make money off it. The problem is that they really have little clue as to how to do it and I don't believe they have talented enough writers/journalists to make it happen.

YAKUZA

Wrong again.

The DMN blog, and sometimes the Star, break stories all the time. Then ESPN and the National media get it.

The main page for Cowboys Fans on the Dallas Morning News website is the Blog. You have to know this.

You would think DC.com would break one every now and again. Rarely happens.