Jellyfish
Jun 2, 2008 Dancing With the 'Tards, Houston Chronicle, Little Dickie Justice, Pancakes McTard, Richard Justice is a talentless hack., Righteous Indignation, Token
If you’ve been following the comments on Jerome Solomon’s “Will the Texans win eight games” blog post, you are (a) as bored as I am and (b) no doubt aware of the back-and-forth that has transpired between Solomon and Mark (1Tex) as well as between Solomon and Solis.
Long story short, Mark took Solomon and the Chron to task for being so needlessly negative and pointed to a pro-Texans article from the Dallas Morning News as proof of getting better Texans coverage elsewhere. Solis then added that the Chron’s negative approach and subpar coverage of the team was why so many people were anti-Chron at this point. Solomon fired back that the same article had been posted on the Chron, that the Texans coverage on the paper was not negative, and that Mark and Solis sounded like they were whining.
Mark and Solis each responded, basically pointing out that Solomon was missing the bigger point here, to which Solomon replied that there was no “point” and likened the idea that people agreed that the Chron sucked to the KKK. (No, seriously.)
In all, it was your typical “Chron writer gets defensive about how poorly the paper covers the team” discussion. It would event be post-worthy were it not for this line from Jerome:
Courage to run what you say? You are nuts if you think I don’t run comments from people who disagree with me.
That’s good to hear. I mean, one wouldn’t want to think that Jerome was selectively approving comments in order to avoid having his argument shot down. Nope, he is better than that; he runs comments from people who disagree with him.
Unless those comments come from me or BFD.
Right after Solis’ first comment, BFD wrote the following:
Cmon, there’s really no reason to try and use logic on this here site. Wasn’t it JS who called Texans fans morons, or something similar, last year? Pancakes was “liveblogging” the Saints game last year, but obviously wasn’t watching the game. And RJ still can’t let go of his unrequited man-crush of VY.
The coverage here is pathetic and condescending with a bunch of reporters who are more excited about the Cow-pokes than they are the team they are supposed to cover.
That was written at 11AM on Sunday. As of 1:40PM on Monday, it still hasn’t been posted. Shortly after BFD, I added a comment of my own:
I also agree with 1Tex. It’s no secret among Texans fans that the Chron’s coverage of the team is horrible. Heck, look at any Texans blog, Texans message board, or just talk to any fan who cares enough to follow the team on a daily basis.
Obviously, Jerome misses the larger underlying point that 1Tex is making–the Chron’s coverage of the Texans should BLOW AWAY Texans coverage on other news outlets, yet it never does. At best, we get the same “oh, the team isn’t that good” tripe that we get everywhere else in the ether of the internet.
On top of that, we get a DALLAS COWBOYS BLOG on the Texans main page. Between that, a guy who lives to make insipid videos, a writer that will never forgive the team for not drafting Radio Young, a piece of eye-candy that has never once written anything remotely insightful, and a guy who literally called the Texans fanbase “losers” last year, it is little wonder that Texans fans feel like the Chron’s coverage is subpar.
I think every Texans writer at this paper should thank the deity of his/her choice that there is not a another major daily paper in Houston.
That comment also to that internet comment graveyard in the sky. I would have chalked it up to our being a collective persona non grata at the Chron and left it at that, but Jerome had to go and make it sound like he wasn’t filtering. So I emailed him, asking where my comment was if he was so willing to run opposing viewpoints. He replied that the problem was my inclusion of the atexansblog.com URL in my header.
Fine, I sent a new comment, basically mirroring my last one with some added responses to what he’d written in the interim and I was sure to leave my URL out. I was even somewhat friendly in this version.
I also agree with 1Tex. It’s no secret among Texans fans that the Chron’s coverage of the team is horrible. Heck, look at any Texans blog, Texans message board, or just talk to any fan who cares enough to follow the team on a daily basis.
Jerome misses the larger underlying point that 1Tex is making–the Chron’s coverage of the Texans should BLOW AWAY Texans coverage on other news outlets, yet it never does. At best, we get the same “oh, the team isn’t that good” tripe that we get everywhere else in the ether of the internet without much in the way of additional, insider-type articles that a local paper should provide.
On top of that, we get a DALLAS COWBOYS BLOG on the Texans main page. Between that, a guy who lives to make insipid videos, a writer that will never forgive the team for not drafting Radio Young, a piece of eye-candy that has never once written anything remotely insightful, and a guy who literally called the Texans fanbase “losers” last year, it is little wonder that Texans fans feel like the Chron’s coverage is subpar.
*****
“And to say that the Chron’s stories on the Texans are shrouded in negativity is a bit disingenuous, considering the team has never had a winning season.”One has nothing to do with the other, Jerome. You don’t have to have a winning season for articles following your best season to date to remain positive about the upcoming year. The team was .500 last year and, for the first time ever, seems to have most of the pieces in place to challenge any other team on any given week. Given that, which makes more sense–to talk about how the team has a better chance than ever to win at least 9 games OR to keep pointing out how they haven’t won 9 games in any previous years?
“Journalists are not supposed to write like fans of the team and say all is well when things are falling apart.”
Nor are they supposed to keep talking about how Mario Williams is a bust and wrong pick when he is dominating opposing teams and making the people who drafted him look like geniuses. They are supposed to write objectively about what is actually happening. So, when things AREN’T falling apart, by your rationale, the writers should not suggest that they are. (Unless you really think things are falling apart right now, which is a ridiculous assertion.)
Look, I don’t disagree that the paper should not aspire to be Pollyanna Sunshine 100% of the time. And I don’t think that negativity is necessarily the biggest problem facing the Chron (though it is certainly an important issue). The problem, as I see it, is that (a) the coverage provided that is good is–more often than not–written by the AP or someone unaffiliated with the paper and (b) the stuff written by Chron staff reeks of negativity so often that the occasional piece that isn’t gets lost in the mix.
That was two-and-a-half hours ago. Still, nada. About thirty minutes ago, following the brilliant KKK mention, I added:
The KKK comment is ridiculous and does nothing to further the debate. If you can’t see why it doesn’t work in the context of this debate–I can already hear you typing “no it’s not, both are examples of people with similar opinions”–then this conversation is pointless.
As for arguing that Solis’ (and others’) OPINION is wrong, how can you take that stance and still argue that people shouldn’t call you an idiot because you don’t like MMA? Your OPINION is that MMA is not entertaining, right? You back it up with other opinions–that it is about violence, that it is boring–but in the end it is still nothing more than opinion. And opinions are a matter of taste, not a matter of fact that can be argued.
Oh, wait, I forgot that it was perfectly acceptable for Chron writers to be hypocritical. See, e.g., Justice’s positions on Mario.
Of course, since you still haven’t posted my last comment, despite my removal of the URL, I doubt this one goes up either. And, yes, that is a thinly-veiled challenge.
I won’t hold my breath that either of these gets posted.
In the end, I can’t even pretend like this is surprising. After all, both BFD and I have taken many, many shots at the Chron and its staff over the past 13 months, so I guess they are justified in shutting us out of their comments if they want to. Whatever. Just don’t sit there and pretend like you are running all of the comments, even the negative ones, when you most certainly aren’t. THAT “is a bit disingenuous,” Jerome. If the people in charge won’t let you run DGDB&D comments, then say so. Hell, I’d have more respect for you if that was the case. Otherwise, I am going to assume that you and your cohorts are spineless and incapable of anything resembling the rational debate you claim to be willing to engage in.
