OP deserves +rep for this thread. It isn't often that a post sucks this hard taken sarcastically or seriously. That takes skill, not to mention style. Congrats on a truly awful post. You're going places.
The problem is that there is no competition in Houston, it's very strange that there is only one newspaper.
I don't think all of them suck, I don't agree a lot of times, but their job is to sell newspapers or hits......so, sometimes they have to stir up controversy. DD
Actually this applies to all news outlets. Sports or not. For instance, last year when Aaron Brooks took over for Rafer Alston he struggled a little bit at first (besides taht first game) His scoring and assists numbers weren't great, serviceable, but not great. Jay Mariotti on ATH then said, in support of the Rockets mind you, that Aaron Brooks has been playing out of his mind and we were contenders. Honestly, at the time I thought we were contenders, but the notion that Brooks was playing out of his mind was so far fetched and flat out wrong that I could do nothing but laugh. That's just one example, there are many others. It just makes you think, if they know so little about what I DO know, how much do they know about what I don't? Then you have guys like Solomon who have NO idea what they're talking about. Its easy to become skeptical of so called "journalists" and "experts"
Most are fine, so long as you understand where they're coming from. Some have inside scoops, some flip what the organization wants the people to hear, some are analysts, some are good at making phone calls around the league, some are a mix. Different writers have different aims. Others are just unadulterated garbage with absolutely zero merit. Generally speaking, if they are purely op-ed style, you better LOVE how they write and what they think....or the majority of their pieces will bug the fool out of you. Blinebury was a curmudgeon with no insight or information, Justice is a complete clown that is an embarrassment to his profession, Sam Smith hasn't produced a piece grounded in fact or information since the mid-90s, etc. Solomon occasionally has nice pieces giving a good perspective....but he's been a mess since the McGrady saga kicked up. Killed himself as an Apologist...and now it looks like he's straight bitter towards the organization and fans. Those pieces make a lot of sense for the Lastros or Texans, but are unfair directed to the Rockets.
Maybe I'm the next King Soloman. Who knows, I'd write pieces just to piss off people like you, just to see how you react. :grin:
Sports Illustrated and TNT are not "major newspaper sources" and may not even qualify as the "journalism" you reference in your original post. And if the NY Times' sports section actually did report that T-Mac was going to be anyone's saviour, then who is anybody to argue that they don't suck?
I don't think most CFers have a problem with journalism, just lazy journalism and blatant disregard for facts in favor of sophomoric bash-pieces or shameless fluff. These are the idiots who do no research and write articles not based on any sort of fact or intelligent discussion of a relevant topic, these are people who are getting paid reasonably well to write 3rd rate documents while members of this board could publish books with wealths of information pertaining to several engaging topics.
Yeah, several members on this board could definitely compile a basketball book together...moes, you could even write the foreword. The book could be called 'The Clutchfans Tome of Basketball' or something like that.
I'll add on a little to this - I think the biggest problem most of us have with modern journalism is people who don't properly use the access they're given. The most blaring example I can remember of this is Jesus Ortiz, who formerly covered the Astros. Once a year, he'd write a blog subtly asking the "is Drayton racist?" question. And when called out on his idiocy, he'd always hide under the mask of "I'm not saying that's what I think, but it's a question of many of my readers." And it seems that's to an extent what Jerome Solomon is doing here. The problem is, guys at the Chronicle shouldn't take the approach of average Joe off the street, who might see the Rockets' 42-40 record and not understand the unique circumstances. Yes, Jerome, I can see what the Rockets' record is, and I know they're not in the playoffs. I know that's not the goal. The thing is, he has constant access to every player, to Daryl Morey, to Rick Adelman, and loads of other contacts throughout the league. He needs to use them and tell/explain a story that's not beyond obvious. There are plenty of unique angles and circumstances about this particular team. Talk about them. This is just, as moes said, lazy journalism for the purpose of a sophomoric bash-piece.
I think the OP is some zombie who believes whatever the media tells him. Lacks the ability to look up facts and try to debate any of it. Just believes it. Most CFers have something called a brain. We have the ability to use the facts we know to dissect the opinions of the media. We watch the Rockets regularly, follow the Rockets regularly and are more informed about the Rockets than the national media or some idiots opinions. As for Shane Battier not making the All-NBA defensive 1st team last year being a "travesty." Is it wrong to believe that Battier last year was a better defensive player than LeBron last year? In terms of defense and defense alone, anybody who watched Battier play last season would not believe so.
Simply put, now that everyone has at least C-grade entry level tools right at their fingertips whether its blogs or fan sites like Clutchfans, or video cameras on their phones, everyone can at least pretend to approach things like the experts do. No 97% of people arent as good as the experts, but through the internet venues people can see some of the similar framework the experts work in. So if a professional journalist writes something that “I can see myself doing that”, first it means we’re now able to recognize maybe what journalists use to “get away with”. Maybe having all the physical tools and resources , the fancy cameras and studios to made themselves appear more expert than they really are. It also means “I can see myself doing that” is of course an idicator of low quality work. They’re SUPPOSED to be way better than us. No more coasting on by, the readers are smarter and you gotta work to impress them. Tough but its how it goes now. I've never had issues with sports journalists that much. I've wondered by people here were always so upset with them. I've never cared about "national respect" and all that stuff except during the title years when it was blatantly obvious No Jordan = No Coverage. It just makes me want to watch the actual games more and draw my own conclusions.
A lot of journalist and analysts that are actually pretty good at their jobs are criticized here on clutchfans. Not a big fan of Feigan and Soloman though (Friedman gets two thumbs up).
Lol, some of those writers are badmouthing the Rockets for no reason. It's not like this team this year had high expectations to begin with, however we are still get trash talked regardless.
As far as media goes, I get my basketball news from Kelly Dwyer, my sports radio fix from Matt Jackson, and my Rockets-specific info from fritz...er, Jason Friedman. Everybody else can go to hell.
