Vernon is so full of droppings. He seems not to understand what winning big does. It creates the overwhelming consensus that what is being done is being done the right way. Has he ever been in town when the Tigers sucked? Here when Tic Price coached? Did he read the papers and the Tiger board then?? Forget that Cal and the basketball team have achieved beyond almost all expectations these last few years, is recruiting elite players from every part of the nation, has established a basketball relationship between the Tigers and China --- there must be more bad new printed about the team - otherwise you're a sad, little, biased, homer.
From peewee's blog (his take) ->
http://chrisvernon.blogspot.com/
Quote:Yesterday I addressed the idea of Memphis media not wanting to report negative things about John Calipari and the Tigers. Somehow (as evidence by my email) this had been twisted to where I said that reporters know about things and do not report them. This is not what I said, and in fact the audio is below. What I did say is that it is very hard to criticize, or report the negative, and still maintain the access you need to do your job.
Let me give you an example (and let's make this about USC so nobody accuses me of anything)...
Player A pulls up to practice in a brand new, shiny Mercedes. He is wearing diamond stud earrings and a Rolex and is counting hundred dollar bills when he walks in the door. As a reporter, do you look into how this player could possibly have that much money at his disposal? Do you really want to know?
Do you see where I am going with this? Now somebody from out of town might be shocked and say "gee, how is this happening?" But if you are local and your job is riding on a program and your readers are fans of the program, do you really want to know? What is the end game? You bust someone and bring down a program? You better be ready for death threats (that is not a joke) and you better be ready to find another job. That is reality. This is what I am talking about from the point of view of someone who covers sports for a living. I was not trying to be trying to be a jerk, or trash anyone, I was trying to bring a broader understanding of the media and how it can work.
What I brought up above may be an extreme example, but one that brings up the legitimate point as to why negative things are more likely to be written from the outside and out-of-towners are more likely to dig into things. They do not have to deal directly with the repercussions of their stories. Again, I understand.
I know that every reporter fancies themselves as objective beacons of journalism. I actually defended the non-criticism of local teams on the level that you have to be able to do your job and most fans don't care if the coverage is balanced.
So let me be clear... everything that I said regarding Dan Wolken and the coverage of the Tigers was all in reference to the above explanation. When my thoughts were met with "he is full of it" "that is garbage", the hilarious- "I write negative things like the riot and Robert Dozier" -it was the pinnacle of defensiveness. My initial diatribe was not even about Dan Wolken, it was about the Memphis media and the landscape as a whole, he took it personally.
Outside of Geoff Calkins, find me criticism levied against John Calipari from the Commercial Appeal (on court, or off court) in the last 2 years. Balanced coverage would be criticism and praise, right? There is only praise and the staff spin on every topic printed in our paper here (or at least 99% of the time). If that is what is considered balanced and objective coverage, then I am wrong about this.
I was not trying to make anyone upset, I was simply giving my view on Memphis and the media and the challenges covering the local teams can present. Initially, I was not even critical, I just said that this is the way things are.
So just for clarification.. the audio of what I actually said is loaded
He is full of it and that is garbage.
Chris Vernon and Jeff Goodman are sleeping together.
To passive aggresively defend Goodman and take jabs at Dan is just plain dumb...vernon is not a journalist, he's a mouth that gets paid to entice people to call his show...He's an idiot with a microphone no different than winebooger...just sorter
What has Cal done that would be considered negative that should be reported as such?
I don't have the specific articles in front of me, but I know Dan took some heat from me and everyone else last season with several of his articles that were viewed as "anti-tigers." Dan didn't hesitate to call out players whose attitudes were poor and he questioned Cals motivational methods once or twice. Even Vernons examples here are insulting. He states that this example is about USC (I'm assuming Mayo), but the references to rolex watches and hundred dollar bills and Mercedes is going to make some people reading this assume he knows something about Memphis that he isn't saying. He is implying that Dan and the crew see these things going on in our program and are too scarred to report on them. Believe me, with his buddy Goodman running around, there are no rocks left to be overturned, if there was dirt on us, it would be in every paper in the country. Like Dan said, Vernon you are no journalist.
good gravy - how old is Vernon...guess what, life as a grown up surrounding college athletics is what it is...is he on a crusade to change everything - from AAU on up? If not, then get over it - what point is there to be made? Unless he is going to shine the flash light on all major college programs, then the point is moot...he believes Goodman, who has already tripped over his words more than once, and if he believes in him too much, it is going to tarnish any credibility he has...
Who actually cares what this bush league talk show host has to say about anything? This is the problem with people like Vernon simply because you have a radio show and 2 or 3 of the same people call-in on a regular basis (most likely his 2 or 3 friends he has in the world) does not give credence to his opinion and especially does notrequire such a lengthy response from a guy that should consider himself lucky to have a so-called "job". By the way, the only balls he has probably ever touched are the ones between his legs and certainly not a basketball, football, baseball....
I have a two word response to that waste of blog space - Gary Parrish.
Quote:Outside of Geoff Calkins, find me criticism levied against John Calipari from the Commercial Appeal (on court, or off court) in the last 2 years.
translation:
Noone at the CA
(except the lead columnist) writes anything negative about the Tigers.
yeah, that makes sense.
what an immature little tool.
MemphisNate Wrote:What has Cal done that would be considered negative that should be reported as such?
Irrelevant - doesn't matter since Vernon is talking about the
"Memphis media not wanting to report negative things about John Calipari and the Tigers" he is not saying that
"reporters know about things and do not report them." See??
honestly, besides doing a blog on the memphis edge other lil things dan does that we fans like...but when it comes to being a journalist/beat write for the tigers, i see no difference from wolken to gary parrish...
why does verno only say "the last 2 years"...why won't he go back to "the last 5 years" when his buddy was doing the beat?
i'm really curious if there's a relationship between wolken and parrish. i'm suggesting parrish is in verno's ear and verno is parrish's puppet!!
ask verno to find a local media that is similar to our market that doesn't do what he says memphis media does. and then when he doesn't have one (and he already knows this) then ask him "why even mention this"...and then he'll say, " i wanted the pub cause i'm losing ratings" and then we say "you're sad strange pathetic lil man"
bad pub is good pub i guess
its obvious lil ol verno opened his mouth and cashed a check he cant cover. now he decides to try and explain himself... only problem is his explanation sucks.......
Am I to assume from his blog that Vernon believes Memphis players are taking money? I see no other explanation for using that "hypothetical".
Why doesn't Vernon hold the CA to the same credo when it concerns the ut mens basketball program? They have had thir fair share of drug busts, arrests, car crashes, etc... on the hill , that never see the light of day in the Memphis paper . It's funny how subjective people/writers/radio hosts become, when their team is the one in question. Let a player on the Memphis team get a speeding ticket and it practically lands on the front page.
MemphisCanes Wrote:Am I to assume from his blog that Vernon believes Memphis players are taking money? I see no other explanation for using that "hypothetical".
i've heard parrish say on the show that the only difference from rose and mayo was that in mayo's circle someone was cut out of the loop. and the main reason the shawne williams incident had "disappeared" was because "they" took care of the guy so he dropped the case. FWIW
Tiger21 Wrote:Why doesn't Vernon hold the CA to the same credo when it concerns the ut mens basketball program? They have had thir fair share of drug busts, arrests, car crashes, etc... on the hill , that never see the light of day in the Memphis paper . It's funny how subjective people/writers/radio hosts become, when their team is the one in question. Let a player on the Memphis team get a speeding ticket and it practically lands on the front page.
Because this isn't Knoxville.
Not the point Drew. The Volunteers get big time coverage in the local paper, accept when it's an incident that does not shine a positive light on their program. Wheras, in k-ville, good luck finding a Memphis Tiger box score.
Tiger21 Wrote:Not the point Drew. The Volunteers get big time coverage in the local paper, accept when it's an incident that does not shine a positive light on their program. Wheras, in k-ville, good luck finding a Memphis Tiger box score.
exactly...if you are going to plaster the front page with UT football game stories and whatnot, then you have to cover the negative as well...what else is the reasoning for giving such coverage for positive events - because as Drew says it's not Knoxville...