Brad Marley's Blog

Revenge of the Weekly Grab Bag of Links - 10.31.09

You probably think I have a ton of links saved up since I haven't posted a weekly grab bag of links since early September, right?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your thinking would be incorrect.

Truth is, work and baby preparation have gotten in the way of reading.

But with a week of little-to-no sleep on the horizon, I should have more time than I need to stay current on my blog reader.

For now, these will have to do.

• You don't mess with Montana's Communications students (Deadspin) - When Montana's football coach told his players to stop talking to reporters from the student newspaper, the student newspaper relatiated by covering the team's opponents. The coach has since allowed players to talk to the paper. Communications students 1, jocks 0.

• 5 Social Media Disasters (Penn Olson) - The headline says it all, really. Learn how Honda and Taco Bell handled social media the wrong way.

• An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All (Wired Magazine) - This is an article every parent-to-be should read. The topic of vaccinating your kids is polarizing, to be sure, but when the facts are laid out in a straightforward fashion, it's easier to make a decision.

• The Robots Are Coming! Oh, They're Here (Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com) - A group of students at Northwestern University have created a bot that writes game recaps that "captures the overall dynamics of the game" using stats from the game. It's called Stats Monkey, and I'm wondering if they set out with the intention to eliminate more jobs.

• Inside the NHL's social media innovations, growing pains (Puck Daddy) - This article explains how the NHL is actively trying to engage its fans (and fans-to-be) on social networking sites.

As always, you can see all of my links on my Delicious page.

The Detroit Free Press didn't make up story about U of M.

I had a few final thoughts I wanted to add after my recent posts around the allegations against the University of Michigan football team, mainly that Michael Rosenberg was just doing his job, same as if I picked up my phone and called a reporter with a story idea or my wife inserted a pic line (I hope I'm spelling that correctly) into her patient.

But then the Detroit Free Press addressed them and, well, there's really nothing left to add.

If Michigan lost to Western Michigan last Saturday, I suspect this issue would have grown to epic proportions in Ann Arbor and beyond, but winning tends to sooth the savage beast.  I guess we'll have to wait until after next weekend's game against Notre Dame to pick up the story where we left off. (Kidding.)

Anyway, here's the Free Press' explanation of how this story came to be.  Worth a read, no matter which camp you are ensconced in.

Why We Need (a form of) Newspapers

The recent allegations against University of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez provide a great example of why we need newspapers and journalism, in one form or another, to survive.  

MGoBlog, which bills itself as "a somewhat comprehensive Michigan sports blog," has been following the story closely these past few days as more information about the investigation comes to light. (If you have not been paying attention, blogs are kind of popular.)

But we can't expect -- and the blogger doesn't try to indicate otherwise -- that a blog written by an alumnus of the University of Michigan would be objective. It would be like a Christian blogger reacting to new evidence that Jesus Christ didn't exist: their words only serve to lather up the faithful.

Journalists, on the other hand, abide by a professional code of ethics that states "public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy."  It is their job to find the truth and report to the public.  

And that truth can sometimes manifest itself as players on a college football team who were fed up with a program that, in their minds, is breaking NCAA rules.

It doesn't matter who the coach is, which school it is, or what their record is.  If journalists are given information that the public deserves to know and, after thorough research, is deemed legit, they are obligated to report it. 

We may not like it, and we may not agree with it, but without it, we would all just be preaching to the choir, and how interesting would that be?

University of Michigan scandal brings out public's mistrust of media.

I cannot stay quiet on this issue.

In light of the recent investigation by the Detroit Free Press into the University of Michigan football program's alleged NCAA rules violations concerning off-season workouts and in-season demands, a lot of people are completely skirting the real issue by chalking this up to lax editorial standards.

Some have promised to never read the Detroit Free Press again; others have decided this is a case of a newspaper throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks.

Essentially, those looking at the world through maize-colored glasses are appalled that a reporter would investigate a potential story, and are quick to dismiss this as another example of shoddy newspaper work.

Breaking news: That is what reporters and newspapers do.  They report.

This is real news.  Six sources that seem to corroborate each other is legit.  There is no escaping that fact. 

Yet, this underscores the main concern: somewhere along the way, we got this thought in our heads that newspapers only exist to out-sensationalize each other in order to sell the most copies; that newspapers are no longer trustworthy and should be taken out to the woodshed.

In the rush to keep up with blogs and wikis, spelling errors and erroneous quotes have muddled our thinking into the impression that we'd be better off without newspapers.

Really?

Without newspapers, Kwame Kilpatrick is still in office.

Without newspapers, Richard Nixon successfully covers up the Watergate scandal.

Without newspapers, Kenneth Lay gets away with millions.

I'm not saying we need to save the newspaper as we know it. It can still evolve and serve a purpose.  And in the grand scheme of things, a football scandal is unimportant.

But the day we stop entrusting these watchdogs to keep watch over our cities and root out corruption is the day we, as a society, give up.