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More Newspaper Disrespect

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We here are mostly aware of how bad the Palm Beach Post's coverage of FAU sports has become in recent years. And with the departure of Ted Hutton from the Sun-Sentinel, the S-S's coverage has dropped sharply as well - especially online.

The Post continues to take its shots at FAU with little comments about attendance or the win-loss record, so I watched closely as the coaching scandal played out, figuring the Post would be all over it. Of course, it was, and rightly so. So, we'd assume the Post would have the game fully staffed, right?

Guess how many photographers the Post assigned to the game? None. The Post buried its coverage deep, deep inside the sports section with a story about the size of what a high school game would receive. It used a USA Today photo by a very good shooter, Steve Mitchell. The Florida Gators, who might not even get bowl eligible, enjoyed front page treatment.

At least the Sun-Sentinel had a shooter there - the equally as competent Jon Way - although it also buried its story. It did, however, include a sidebar.

Finally, I was almost glad I wasn't writing about the controversy or game last night after hearing the FAU SID sharply warn reporters that questions about the alleged marijuana and cocaine use by Carl Pelini and Pete Rekstis would not be tolerated and any distasteful (according to whom?) questions would result in the ejection of the reporter(s). It's been a while since I witnessed such official disrespect for the Fourth Estate in decades of writing and photo coverage.
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Bob Markey said

We here are mostly aware of how bad the Palm Beach Post's coverage of FAU sports has become in recent years. And with the departure of Ted Hutton from the Sun-Sentinel, the S-S's coverage has dropped sharply as well - especially online.

The Post continues to take its shots at FAU with little comments about attendance or the win-loss record, so I watched closely as the coaching scandal played out, figuring the Post would be all over it. Of course, it was, and rightly so. So, we'd assume the Post would have the game fully staffed, right?

Guess how many photographers the Post assigned to the game? None. The Post buried its coverage deep, deep inside the sports section with a story about the size of what a high school game would receive. It used a USA Today photo by a very good shooter, Steve Mitchell. The Florida Gators, who might not even get bowl eligible, enjoyed front page treatment.

At least the Sun-Sentinel had a shooter there - the equally as competent Jon Way - although it also buried its story. It did, however, include a sidebar.

Finally, I was almost glad I wasn't writing about the controversy or game last night after hearing the FAU SID sharply warn reporters that questions about the alleged marijuana and cocaine use by Carl Pelini and Pete Rekstis would not be tolerated and any distasteful (according to whom?) questions would result in the ejection of the reporter(s). It's been a while since I witnessed such official disrespect for the Third Estate in decades of writing and photo coverage.

Posted On: Nov 3rd 2013, 10:53 AM #320838


Its the fourth estate :cool:
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There was a better coverage of FAU from the New Orleans paper that was covering Tulane. They even covered the FAU's AD press conference at half.
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rook01 said

There was a better coverage of FAU from the New Orleans paper that was covering Tulane. They even covered the FAU's AD press conference at half.
Posted On: Nov 3rd 2013, 5:23 PM #320864

Well so did our local media sun sentinels dieter k covered pat chuns press conf at the half and has the video posted, and espn106.3 did as well
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Bob Markey said

We here are mostly aware of how bad the Palm Beach Post's coverage of FAU sports has become in recent years. And with the departure of Ted Hutton from the Sun-Sentinel, the S-S's coverage has dropped sharply as well - especially online.

The Post continues to take its shots at FAU with little comments about attendance or the win-loss record, so I watched closely as the coaching scandal played out, figuring the Post would be all over it. Of course, it was, and rightly so. So, we'd assume the Post would have the game fully staffed, right?

Guess how many photographers the Post assigned to the game? None. The Post buried its coverage deep, deep inside the sports section with a story about the size of what a high school game would receive. It used a USA Today photo by a very good shooter, Steve Mitchell. The Florida Gators, who might not even get bowl eligible, enjoyed front page treatment.

At least the Sun-Sentinel had a shooter there - the equally as competent Jon Way - although it also buried its story. It did, however, include a sidebar.

Finally, I was almost glad I wasn't writing about the controversy or game last night after hearing the FAU SID sharply warn reporters that questions about the alleged marijuana and cocaine use by Carl Pelini and Pete Rekstis would not be tolerated and any distasteful (according to whom?) questions would result in the ejection of the reporter(s). It's been a while since I witnessed such official disrespect for the Third Estate in decades of writing and photo coverage.
Posted On: Nov 3rd 2013, 10:53 AM #320838

I agree with you on the post generally speaking. However the coverage of yesterday's game as hardly buried for once, it was on the front page of the sports section today with a decent sized story for once.

Also don't agree on the sun sentinel coverage. Ted did a nice job and it did fall off for a bit when he left, but dieter IMO does a great job and I think has as much and in most cases more coverage than Ted had. Especially online…
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In order to not be "buried" in the paper you have to win!  There has to be interest in the program...like selling tickets to the game, buses and billboards aren't going to do it.  If you haven't noticed sports pages are almost pamphlets in the number of pages todays...Dieter has done OK, we were spoiled with Ted's blog content everyday and he created a community.  Dieter has 2 to 4 new stories per week.  I am not as upset of the coverage or pointing out the low attendance...maybe instead of the SID saying what the media can't ask, they allow anything to be asked without repercussions...maybe we do the due diligence (drug test in this case, hind site is 20/20) when we hire a high profile position and we won't be embroiled in scandal and worried about what the media may ask!
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Dieter has a lot of content on twitter as well, stuff he doesn't publish in the blog
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Both papers had the game story buried in the back of the sports sections.

As for winning, the Gators and Dolphins are both struggling, yet make the front page every time.

I must have been half asleep when I wrote "Third Estate".
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bmarkey said

Both papers had the game story buried in the back of the sports sections.

As for winning, the Gators and Dolphins are both struggling, yet make the front page every time.

I must have been half asleep when I wrote "Third Estate".
Posted On: Nov 3rd 2013, 11:56 PM #320872
The PBP sports section today had the gators on the top of page, FSU/miami in center and the outside right column of front page was FAU story, done by Greg Stoda, this carried on inside and there was an additional story as well. First time I have ever seen front page coverage of fau in a long time. Not sure why your paper was different…
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It's not just winning that gets teams more coverage, it's audience support. For teams like ours, there's no reason for media outlets to ramp up coverage if they don't feel anyone cares. In today's world it's all about metrics and tangible numbers. TV, radio, newspapers aren't just going to cover a lower-level team JUST because they are in their coverage area.

Bottom line, if us as hardcore FAU fans want more coverage we need to let these outlets hear us. How many of you have contacted the sports departments at the PBPost or Sentinel? Or the program directors at ESPN radio or local TV stations? Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Trust me that's how things get done. 

President of the No Homers Club. Keepin' it real since 2001.
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