Todd Turner has put the word out in his blog that he feels the internet chat rooms, and message boards are hurting the program by being too negative. Pretty interesting stuff, and for one thing it shows how out of touch he and his administration may be with this type of new world media.
I started this blog to be positive about Husky Football because I think UW, and the football program is on the right track in a long rebuilding process. I too got a little tired of all the ridiculous negativity elsewhere, but that negativity is also protected under something called "Freedom of Speech" which is vigourously defended by the US constitution. We all have the choice to self censor what we don't want to read, and we all have the choice to voice our comments whether positive, or negative...that goes for this blog too.
This is a blurb from Bob Condotta's blog over in the Times.
In particular, he says in one sentence that UW fans need to display "blind enthusiasm." In another, he writes that "negativity'' in "internet chat rooms and radio talk shows" is counter-productive, especially that which is "mean-spirited or unfairly criticizes our program.''
Todd, there is only one way around all this, win some football games, and the negativity will dissapear over night. You can't expect a program that was mismanaged for 13 years before you took over to rebound over night, and that includes the opinions of the suporters too. It goes both ways.
Is Todd right in saying that the negativity hurts the program?
He is absolutely right, it does, but it happens everywhere, and you should be concentrating first on repairing a badly frayed relationship which the UW has developed with the traditional media first before you go knocking the internet sites such as Dawgman...etc.... . The traditional media is the ring leader in all this, and every article is written with a negative disclaimer that you are restricting access too much for writers following the football team.
What you need to realize is the negativity while unfortunate is an accurate barometer of what is happening with your paying customers, and fan base in general. Rather than complain about it, try harder to take care of the problems that our creating the negative perceptions....use it as a tool to get better. Put a positive spin on it rather than complain about it....you can do it!
Once again I think most people look for negative rather than the positive, and that is why tabloid journalism has grown so much in the past decade, it would all be great if the majority showed blind faith and loyalty. Honestly that would help heal the program faster, but it isn't realistic in most quarters in the real world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I, for one, get the majority of my news in an aggregated form from internet half-brains. A lot of it is gleaned from the regular news sources but the bias is seen through by the bloggers and a clearer and more honest picture emerges. The newspapers are trying to maintain their relevance as is television news, but objective reporting without an agenda is winning the day. It depends on who you trust. Don't get me wrong, there will always be a bias when reporting on the local team, but facts win in my opinion over whining about a lack of access. As far as dawgman, yeah, they complain a bit about access but that's mainly on the message board and rarely if at all in a published article. IMO they're getting more access than I expected and they've handled it well.
I've always had what I consider blind enthusiasm for the Huskies. I'm not as close to the program as some of those that do complain so maybe that makes it easier for me to be patient. I agree with a lot of their points, but does complaining really do any good? I'm not quite sure where to draw the line between fans alienating the administration and vice versa.
Do you really think it's Turner's fault for the frayed media relationship? I lean toward a difference in the coaches' personalities. Romar's accessible, Willingham is but is a pretty understated personality and although I don't think things will change a whole lot when he becomes succesful here, it would help a lot if the local media, and Willingham, try to find a happy medium, cultivate one another to find a comfortable place. The wins will come, I think, but let him get things started his way. It's probably still quite a shock for the papers having to adjust from previous quote machines to actually having to work for a story.
I liked ORDawg's post on dawgman today, and that kind of criticism, or as I prefer to term it, advice, is great. Things like that need to be said, as do a lot of the replies on the thread.
I hope some of that made sense and if not, oh well. There are probably things I'm forgetting to address but my fingers hurt. Hope you make it to chat. It should be a good game! Have a great time during the remainder of your trip!
cheers,
Dick
I agree, the access is improved, and better than I expected...still the local media expresses their negativities about access on almost a daily basis.
I think both sides have some work to do to make it better...and I see progress each day.
TT returns emails, Hedges returned nothing personally...that is a huge step in the right direction. TT is a quality person and admin who is going to get it done.
Post a Comment