There’s a huge difference between what Shaughnessy wrote today, and something like what Rob Bradford wrote. When I need something more visceral and opinionated, I’ll go elsewhere. When I want the facts and even-handed analysis, I read the likes of Alex Speier. Opinion and drama-hungry people are going to say that the beat writers are too soft, while those who want the facts and don’t care about all the manufactured drama are going to say that the columnists and hosts are too hard.ĭo we want them all to be the same? All hard or all soft, no middle ground? I’m OK with a mix. They’re not about the technical aspect of sports.īut in looking at the question, who is the media? The beat writers or the columnists/talk show hosts? They’re very different. They’re about drama, about storylines and pounding a topic that is going to get people fired up. I won’t say that the columnists and sports radio hosts are too hard on the teams, but I will say that they’re focused on entirely the wrong things. It’s their job to get facts and report on that is happening with the team, leaving their own opinion out of it. It’s not the job of the beat writer to be “hard” or “soft” on the teams and athletes. It’s a question that can’t be answered in generalities. I wonder if Shaughnessy plans on sticking around till tomorrow night and heading into the Dodgers lockerroom.ĬSNNE is also running a question today – Is the Boston media too hard or too soft on the athletes it covers? and asking for comment feedback. Of course today, he’s got a ripjob on Adrian Gonzalez, Dan is out in LA right now, but the Dodgers are in Colorado. It’s one thing I will give Dan Shaughnessy credit for: when he tears someone up, he will show his face in the locker room. If Felger actually went into the locker room, and attempted to ask some of these questions, I’d grudgingly give him respect for doing so, but I can’t see it. Me and Bradford, we’ll go down together, arm in arm to the clubhouse so we can ask those questions. When they come back in town next week, why don’t you go do that.įelger: Maybe I will. So when I was down there, I think for the most part, I did ask those questions, and if I was covering the Red Sox, I would ask Dustin, at least once just so he could deny it about that picture, it’s not an unfair question.īorges: I’ll tell you what. But I think when I was a beat reporter, on balance, I asked those questions, I mean I almost got beat up by several guys, including a guy you carried water for, out in Oakland right now, in Richard Seymour. But they don’t.įelger: You’re right, I could make a trip down there. Or you could go on a day game, or a Saturday. But I see your point.īorges: How about 2:00 to midnight? Or 10:30 whatever time it is they get done. But I mean, when you say I can…well….I’m on 2:00-6:00, the locker room is usually at 2:00, so to say I can go down there any time isn’t exactly accurate. Absolutely.įelger: Telling other people what to do. Where you been?įelger: ( smirking) It’s a fair point, I’m much more comfortable here. Nothing stops you from going to Fenway Park and asking any question you want, anytime you want. The easiest thing in the world is to sit in a studio somewhere telling everybody else what they should ask and what they should say, and boy I got some big ones when I don’t have to do anything. That led to this exchange between Ron Borges and Felger.īorges: Well, I’ll say one thing in defense of Alex and his colleagues over there: Michael, if you want to ask those questions, you can drive over the Fenway Park whenever you want. Then comes the topic of the picture that was allegedly circulating of Dustin Pedroia next to a sleeping Bobby Valentine, and Felger is apoplectic that no one locally had the stones to ask Pedroia about it. How more and more, they’re becoming interchangeable, which according to Ron Borges isn’t such a great thing. They also talked about lines being blurred between columnists and beat writers. Alex Speier, one of the most even-keeled professional, talented writers you’ll come across, answers calmly that in fact most of those questions have been asked. CSNNE had a segment last night – Beckett finally gets challenged by a reporter – and Michael Felger (who didn’t even like the Simers bit) is critical of Red Sox beat reporters for not asking tough questions. LA columnist TJ Simers has become a hero to some here locally because of his childish attempt to rile up Josh Beckett after his start on Monday.
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The screeching over the Red Sox continues with now talk turning to media-on-media crime. What is: a headline you perhaps never thought you would read?