Curious Media Quotes – It is all about perspective

Media NCS Basketball98

If NC State wins, I am happy and I think that it is a “good thing.”

If NC State loses, I am sad and think that it is a “bad thing.”

I admit it. I am also just a fan. I am not a journalist. You are reading StateFansNation that admits our bias. You are not reading something from a site that presents itself or strives to achieve impartiality as a part of journalistic integrity.

With this said, I am shocked at how many news organizations have allowed their reporters to deterioriate the quality of their stations due to gross informality and bias.

Let me give you a specific example as a differentiating distinction.

When a good media outlet like WRAL-TV starts reporting a story, they usually set the perspective of the story up front. For example, after Saturday night’s NC State win over Miami they may have said something like, “It was the type of game that NC State fans seemed to experience in Reynolds Coliseum with regularity but that has been void in the RBC Center. But, on Saturday night Wolfpack fans were treated to an ACC Classic in a win that Sidney Lowe and his program desperately needed and the results were almost unbelievable. Jeff Gravely has more”.

You see, they set the perspective of the story as NC State-centric. They didn’t PRESUME/ASSUME that their audience were NC State fans nor did they take a personally vested position in the Wolfpack.

Before I get into this, let me explain that I understand that folks at the WWL like Stuart Scott have made delivering sports news with obscene homerism more accepted. That doesn’t mean that I have to like it. But, Scott’s localization of his love for Carolina using his presence on a national network is almost ‘accepted’ because it is his ‘schtick’. He tries to be a Carolina fan. Additionally, he ADMITS it; he doesn’t try to hide it or deny it to the public or to himself. This is different than the kind of inexcusable hidden bias that many reporters and media outlets deny because they are too biased or too dumb to recognize it. (The mainstream example here is the grossly liberal leaning mainstream media that haughtily proclaim that they cover the news in an unbiased manner. LOL!)

So, after State’s big win on Saturday night I had the ‘pleasure’ of watching a couple of sports highlight shows and was disgusted and perplexed at the manner in which the news was delivered. I thought that I would share two very disturbing situations with you.

(1) On “Sports Saturday Night” CBS WBTV-3 in Charlotte I could not believe how downtrodden and sad the woman (whose name I never got) was who delivered the Carolina-Maryland highlights Her tone of voice, little comments and general perspective were all massively pro-Carolina without just coming out and admitting it. This is where I get pissed off and actually can accept Stuart Scott; because Scott ADMITS his bias and does not hide it or ususally imbed it into something that otherwise is presented as hard news or impartial.

I know that you can’t get the sypmathetic tone and variance of emphasis on certain words from reading the following quote so I tried to give you a little commentary in parantheticals. Note the difference that WBTV just assumes that everyone is a Carolina fan and it was just a bad day for everyone! Just read this as if you were a Carolina fan delivering the news to TarheelNation and you will hit it dead on:

It is certainly the day fans knew would come eventually but wish it never did (so sad tone). North Carolina (with increasing excitement in the voice) the number one team in the country falling to Maryland at home today and breaking that undefeated streak at 18-0.

Gary Williams and Maryland – unbelievable to watch there (said with a little surprised laced prominently with disappointment) – upsetting the #1 team in the country 82-80.

Then they switched over to the Duke-Clemson highlights and started with a picture of the crowd before the game cheering the UNC score making the commment “guess who was happy about it?” in a sarcastic tone. Then she threw in a snide “Go figure?” while starting delivering the Duke highlights with significantly less conviction and emotional investment as Carolina’s highlights were delivered. OF COURSE Duke’s reaction to Carolina’s loss is worth reporting when you have a core focus on UNC and don’t realize that it is irrelevant if you aren’t so focused on the Tarheels.

Ultimately, Duke “edged out of Clemson” when the Blue Devils won by thirteen points! I guess it is all in your perspective.

By the way, after this chic admitted that she went to UNC-Charlotte during their highlights, they showed some of State’s highlights and didn’t even show Gavin Grant’s steal and winning basket! There was more significantly amazement that Carolina lost to Maryland than the manner in which NC State won.

(2) The second experience totally threw me. During ESPN’s “opening tip” to their late “Midnight Madness” show that started at 12:40am ET host Scott Reese made the following quote:

“Unbelievable finish with NC State and Miami. And I mean unbelievable in not such a good way. You’ll understand when you see how this one wound up.”

What the *#^&# does that mean?

I am not kidding here. I am not leaving out any words. The only people in America that would think that the amazing game and finish on Saturday night was “not such a good” finish would be the dozen Miami basketball fans that exist, most gang members in America, and people that hate NC State. Not only would NC State fans think that they finish was great, but any impartial college basketball fan without a dog in the fight must have been scratching their hids in bewilderment when they finally saw the highlights and wondered what was NOT GOOD about that finish?

I don’t know Scott Resse. Don’t have a clue. But, he did a great job of providing us with a crystal clear example of just piss poor reporting on Saturday night.

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Media NCS Basketball

98 Responses to Curious Media Quotes – It is all about perspective

  1. john of sparta 01/22/2008 at 8:19 PM #

    winning does not equal more coverage, other than more playoff/bowl
    games to cover. compare Boston College to Notre Dame this year.

    J-school alumni don’t guarantee biased coverage.
    there’s lots of J-schools.

    $$$ makes more coverage. market makes more coverage.
    blogs don’t make money for stockholders.

    favorable coverage is a direct reflection of the SID. period.
    “the media are like children. as long as you play with them,
    they will play along according to YOUR rules.” old quote.

  2. cowdog 01/22/2008 at 8:21 PM #

    Good question…must refrain from that worn out take.

  3. JeremyH 01/22/2008 at 10:04 PM #

    wow, in a quick GT vs. NC State promo it was Hubert Davis that said nc state is a talented team that needs to get on a roll; mentioned JJ Hickson talented freshman and also the Miami win. Capel must have had a talk with him ; D

  4. MrPlywood 01/22/2008 at 10:09 PM #

    Adding to wufpup’s post from way up there, in the same Weekly Watch section on ESPN.com that Katz made his comment about Miami “giving the game away”, there’s also “especially in the way [Miami] lost to NC State by giving up four points in less than two seconds.”, and Doug Gottlieb tosses in a mention of HWSNBN just for good measure, trotting out the old “never truly appreciated in Raleigh despite five consecutive NCAA bids” line once more just for kicks. No mention that his ASU team just got drilled by Stanford.

    For better or for worse, one of the things I really enjoy about a big win for one of my teams is reading about the game afterwards. I like to relive it, dissect it, revel in it. I don’t necessarily feel the need to be validated in any way, but it is frustrating to see a good win like the Miami game (good by implication, not necessarily execution) dismissed so easily with the negative tone. And then to see the oddly positive and optimistic tone taken about Maryland, speculating about whether they can knock off Duke this weekend or not. What?

  5. JeremyH 01/22/2008 at 10:16 PM #

    ^^does that affect the voting for AP and ESPN poll? because we did not get one single vote after beating a ranked team. I guess the mid majors have changed the landscape.

  6. redfred2 01/22/2008 at 10:40 PM #

    Um, I watching ESPN and just wondering how the Bulldogs of Gardner Webb would do against Bruce Pearl’s team?

  7. turnoffthetv 01/22/2008 at 11:03 PM #

    I read the AP article on the pack’s win the other night against Miami and I know all about the pack’s “Unlikely” win and the “Fans that had booed the team off the court in the last game at the RBC”.

    Here’s a good AP article for UNC’s next victory at the Dean Dome—–

    “And after the fans had booed the Heels off the court at halftime in the most recent game at the Dean Dome, Tonight, The Heels pulled out an ‘unlikely’ victory against the ‘Ghetto Boys’ and had much not to cry about.”

  8. redfred2 01/22/2008 at 11:31 PM #

    I guess Gillespie is a pretty good head coach at Kentucky because his team just knocked off #5 Tennessee, but I’ll swear, I liked him better on Laverne and Shirley.

  9. choppack1 01/22/2008 at 11:45 PM #

    As if on cue, WRAL brings up some old memories:

    http://wral.com/sports/story/2336207/

  10. Dr. BadgerPack 01/23/2008 at 7:50 AM #

    Part of the media problem is simply volume. Every network needs 10 analysts. Every little rag needs a couple of columnists. Every website needs their designated “snuff” bloggers. The more positions, the lower you have to go on the intellectual totem pole. Now, there are basically two ways to sell media: quality and sensationalism. If you are at the bottem end of the aforementioned pole, how do you think you’re going to stick around? It should then come as no surprise that State, and Duke to an extent will bear the brunt of assault. If you have to sell by pissing people off, there are a few rules. Ingratiate yourself to the largest fan base; enough people have to want you to stick around. Still, you have to piss off enough people to generate interest and State, with our very large following and alumni base (and, to a lesser extent Duke) are perfect targets. This is also why you’ll rarely see folks snipe at Wake– why bother when the alumni base is a spread out 50 or so thousand (that is the last number, roughly, i recall seeing– State by comparison last I looked had around 500K living alumni).

    So when you combine low-end hires with the need to still produce sales, you get, well, this as your result. Juvenile writing, both stylistically and intellectually. I wrote better stuff than some of this crap writing for my local paper years ago. When I was freaking 12 years old.

  11. RAWFS 01/23/2008 at 8:20 AM #

    Not even the Devils are immune to the WalMartization of the fan base.

    That’s why going to a football game in Durham is a real treat. Why? Because it is mainly the Iron Dukes and grads from over there that come to their games for one reason: they love their team and support it. Every time I’ve interacted with Duke football fans, even when State lost to them, they’ve been great folks. YMMV, of course.

  12. El_Duderino 01/23/2008 at 8:47 AM #

    TO Rabidwolf and Lush…

    I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.

  13. TNCSU 01/23/2008 at 9:19 AM #

    Johnson will remain the starter tonight:

    http://wral.com/sports/story/2335070/

    I’ll stick to my original prediction that I think Javi will be the starter by the end of the season – even if Degand was not hurt…I’m glad to see Johnson giving us some good minutes. I do feel both are improving with every game.

  14. Classof89 01/23/2008 at 9:22 AM #

    Its a whole new ballgame over at the N&O since McClatchy bought them, but even before that, I think they were giving creditable coverage to NC State…some of you guys are forgetting that during the Gator Bowl season they started doing a special wrap on the outside of the sports page every Sunday devoted solely to NC State’s game. Unfortunately, the week after they started that, we lost three in a row and dropped completely out of the National and BCS picture. Then, during the weekend of the Gator Bowl, they flew thousands of N&O’s down to Jacksonville and set up N&O paper boxes around the city.

    Folks who are so quick to cry bias need to realize that when we have a program of national significance in any sport (as UNC and Duke do in hoops) then the N&O and every other media outlet will jump on board lock, stock and barrel. As long as we are an also-ran (and a pretty mediocre one at that) we will have to be content with major media attention limited to the home-state (and, for the most part, home town) newspapers.

    Know what sort of game story you get in the Boston Globe if you are a college basketball team not in New England and not in the top 25? Zippo. Nada. When I was in grad school up there in the days before the internet, coverage was limited to the score, listed in the “national scores” section of the stats page (sort of like you’d get the St. Bonaventure score in the N&O).

    I suspect some of you trashing the N&O have never lived outside the Southeast where, indeed, they truly don’t give a hoot about NC State.

  15. Wulfpack 01/23/2008 at 9:53 AM #

    ^That’s spot on.

    Stop whining. Some of you are acting like a bunch of whiners from the school just down the road.

    The only way to secure great press is to give the press something significant to talk about.

  16. PacknSack 01/23/2008 at 9:55 AM #

    Man, it doesn’t pay to only check this blog in the morning.

    Maybe winning won’t solve anything. But this notion of an “angry media” is just paranoia at a fever pitch. My whole point is that I don’t think the media is unabashedly biased against the Wolfpack, but perhaps the bias is in our heads and manifests itself in how we read.

    Seriously, this thread was started based on what the weekend sports anchor on a Charlotte station said and the inflection in her voice. Inflection. We’re talkin’ about *inflection*. If that’s not a paranoia, I don’t know what is.

    And Choppack, nice catch on the 1990 game. I thought Carolina’s 1-win seasons were 1989 and 1990. I’ll run a correction on page 16D 😉

  17. packgrad2000 01/23/2008 at 9:59 AM #

    I think our local media is in a very unique situation since there are 3 ACC schools so close to each other, yet they are supposed to be unbiased. I lived in Columbus, OH, recently where they didn’t have to be unbiased and definitely weren’t. On Saturdays during football season the TV anchors would wear their Ohio State garb – those silly Buckeye necklaces and everything. I often wished there was only one school in NC that mattered, but oh well. Of course Ohio State is a somewhat unique situation in that there is really no other big competition in the state, at least for football. Most states have 2 BCS schools, or at least the ones that matter.
    I think the N&O does a much better job than the CH OBS of at least trying to be unbiased. Probably because we’ve been irrelevant for the past 15 or so years though.

  18. pacman23 01/23/2008 at 11:40 AM #

    “There’s no other way around it, King screwed up and cost his team the game.”
    Ah, come on now, the score was TIED when Gavin stole the botched pass.
    King only cost his team a chance to win the game, in double OT, no less. And I’ve got to believe, if that’s where we ended up, we still would have pulled it out!

  19. Pack84 01/23/2008 at 1:48 PM #

    If you don’t believe a school’s SID plays a LARGE part in how you are portrayed in the MSM get a load of this:

    “Longtime readers know how much time I’ve spent around Carolina and Roy Williams over the years, know how much respect I have for his accomplishments (I even wrote the guy’s Hall of Fame induction program piece), and know that I’d be psyched to write a UNC championship story for Sports Illustrated in April. (Journalists don’t care who wins, but we do appreciate teams that provide good reporting access, and Carolina is one of the best.)”

    El linko: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/grant_wahl/01/16/the.bag/index.html

  20. Classof89 01/23/2008 at 3:06 PM #

    I keep hearing rumors and vague allegations about our SID, but have never seen anything specific. Can someone provide some detail as to how our SID is not serving the school well? (and you will have to excuse for not finding particularly credible reports from the folks who run or moderate “internet news sites” such as this one or Pack Pride, which I know have probably gotten into tiffs with the SID on not being treated the same as traditional media, and, therefore, have an ax to grind on this subject…

    If the complaint is she doesn’t give access to the sidelines, media room and the free buffet to everyone with an NC State blog or internet site then, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to lose too much sleep over that…

  21. RAWFS 01/23/2008 at 4:12 PM #

    ^ A local sports anchor, whose name I won’t divulge, remarked to me less than two months ago that “NC State’s sports information people are very difficult to work with. Getting access to coaches is harder than anywhere else. Maybe Duke with Kryzewski, but you can always get an interview with an assistant over there. If I say anything about them they don’t like I get the cold shoulder.”

    That quote was written by me verbatim moments after he said it. I wanted to make sure I got it word for word. Reason I don’t name him is that 1) I don’t want to make his job any harder and 2) it was not in a formal interview where the subject knew he was on the record.

    This was an ANCHOR who is on the sports desk of a local TV station every night twice, Monday through Friday.

    I’ve heard the same thing, more or less, from print reporters too. I know some of the guys who write for SFN have too, they’ve said as much before.

  22. burnbarn 01/23/2008 at 5:51 PM #

    ^ maybe they are difficult to work with b/c of the way the media in general has treated us overall in the past.

    I do think our Sports info dept is missing excellent opportunities to perhaps change that perception, but it seems if there can be anything negative about us then it certainly will be.

    Would you go back and play nice with that snake? I’m just saying….

  23. Deucepeters 01/23/2008 at 11:22 PM #

    What’s up with the “most gang members in America” comment? Make humorless, off-base stereotypes much?

    And worry about our kids and coaching staff, not the media. If we help put a good product on the floor and field, everything else will seem much more agreeable.

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