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My comments are based on the article:

Who is UAB President Ray Watts? Doctor, son of Birmingham and a man under fire

I just posted this in an earlier thread but wanted to make the point a little more salient:

This looks like to me that they are taking a play out of the political communication playbook. The goal of the article is to humanize Watts and the paid comments are being use reinforce this and his "character" while negatively labeling UAB football and its supporters. The term they are using against us is "UAB football socialists"; I wonder how much focus grouping they did for that term...

They are going to use this in attempts to turn public support against us, and going to repeat it over and over and over again to try to make it stick to us and our group as whole.

When we see them try to use that label we need to reject the label and refute their claims using any of the valid points we know to be true about our athletic program.
In many cases we may not even want to address this because it could change the message away from what Watts has done and alter the media agenda to "football class warfare" or something like that.

For example:
1) many athletic programs do not turn a profit. Mainly due to non-revenue sports.
2) UAB football made was not a money loser.

They are probably going to be trying to take their label of us to the airwaves soon so be ready to call in if needed to refute this.

(12-14-2014 06:42 PM)dblaze Wrote:  My comments are based on the article:

Who is UAB President Ray Watts? Doctor, son of Birmingham and a man under fire

I just posted this in an earlier thread but wanted to make the point a little more salient:

This looks like to me that they are taking a play out of the political communication playbook. The goal of the article is to humanize Watts and the paid comments are being use reinforce this and his "character" while negatively labeling UAB football and its supporters. The term they are using against us is "UAB football socialists"; I wonder how much focus grouping they did for that term...

They are going to use this in attempts to turn public support against us, and going to repeat it over and over and over again to try to make it stick to us and our group as whole.

When we see them try to use that label we need to reject the label and refute their claims using any of the valid points we know to be true about our athletic program.
In many cases we may not even want to address this because it could change the message away from what Watts has done and alter the media agenda to "football class warfare" or something like that.

For example:
1) many athletic programs do not turn a profit. Mainly due to non-revenue sports.
2) UAB football made was not a money loser.

They are probably going to be trying to take their label of us to the airwaves soon so be ready to call in if needed to refute this.

Oh, I'm ready.

(12-14-2014 07:05 PM)Matrix Wrote:  

(12-14-2014 06:42 PM)dblaze Wrote:  My comments are based on the article:

Who is UAB President Ray Watts? Doctor, son of Birmingham and a man under fire

I just posted this in an earlier thread but wanted to make the point a little more salient:

This looks like to me that they are taking a play out of the political communication playbook. The goal of the article is to humanize Watts and the paid comments are being use reinforce this and his "character" while negatively labeling UAB football and its supporters. The term they are using against us is "UAB football socialists"; I wonder how much focus grouping they did for that term...

They are going to use this in attempts to turn public support against us, and going to repeat it over and over and over again to try to make it stick to us and our group as whole.

When we see them try to use that label we need to reject the label and refute their claims using any of the valid points we know to be true about our athletic program.
In many cases we may not even want to address this because it could change the message away from what Watts has done and alter the media agenda to "football class warfare" or something like that.

For example:
1) many athletic programs do not turn a profit. Mainly due to non-revenue sports.
2) UAB football made was not a money loser.

They are probably going to be trying to take their label of us to the airwaves soon so be ready to call in if needed to refute this.

Oh, I'm ready.

Cool. If you do radio a call-up be sure to quickly and concisely address this as the issue and get back on Watts!

Watts - as a doctor - is not the point of attack.
It is Watts - the UAB President - and the decisions he has made in that capacity who is the person we have a grievance against. He has apparently bought whole cloth, the BOT position that UAB cannot be a great medical school on the graduate level unless it destroys its football program operating on the undergrad level.

Come to think of it, the BOT might be right about their campus. The Crimson Athletic Department is almost the ONLY department operating "in the black" on that campus. Were it not for increasing tuition and other "fees"by almost 50% since 2008, and on track to make the 100% mark by 2018, they might have a huge financial problem there as well - in everything EXCEPT football.

I mentioned it in the other thread, but we don't need to be so hasty to call things like that article part of the PR campaign. al.com has been doing well to aid in our effort by continuing to cover our plight and posting the occasional opinion pieces in the lulls. I don't want to discredit or label any of the writers there.

That said, I don't even think a lot of the trolls/PR people in the comments section even need to be challenged by this point. Any attempt on their end to obscure the truth only brings about something similar to the Streisand effect, and the talking points were hollow to being with.

(12-14-2014 10:46 PM)Hopeful Wrote:  I mentioned it in the other thread, but we don't need to be so hasty to call things like that article part of the PR campaign. al.com has been doing well to aid in our effort by continuing to cover our plight and posting the occasional opinion pieces in the lulls. I don't want to discredit or label any of the writers there.

That said, I don't even think a lot of the trolls/PR people in the comments section even need to be challenged by this point. Any attempt on their end to obscure the truth only brings about something similar to the Streisand effect, and the talking points were hollow to being with.

Very much agree with this.

If we get to talking about Watts having a PR campaign or say that people working for him are filling the comments section, we get back to sounding like those same old paranoid UAB fans, always blaming the Board of Trustees because we can't sell tickets.

Be careful how you carry yourself. Stick to the subject at hand. Don't get sucked into a long winded defense.