John David Mercer-US PRESSWIRE
“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.” – William Tecumseh Sherman
Michael Carvell, your application for the position at the Montgomery Advertiser is being reviewed.
Carvell is the recruiting analyst for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and covers Georgia athletics with a particular focus on the University of Georgia Bulldogs. Lately, however, he’s spent more time trying to peddle a nonexistent scandal in a city hundreds of miles from his beat.
His most recent sortie into Tuscaloosa refers to the ‘grayshirt scandal’ in scare quotes, designed to excite pro-Dawg readers and whatever august body awards the Pulitzer Prize for Recruiting Columnists.
The body of the article links to one of al.com’s brilliant hit pieces works of investigative journalism as support for his persistent belief that Nick Saban is feasting on the tears of recruits whose dreams he has crushed, while presiding over the evil Alabama recruiting machine.
“The story that won’t go away,” blares the next scare quote. Perhaps it won’t go away because it’s generating hits and comments from lockstep followers of GCM* Mark Richt. Perhaps in some way it’s blunting the fact that, although these players wound up not signing with Alabama, they didn’t list Georgia as a second choice.
Or perhaps it’s just another case of the tail wagging the dog.
Everyone with a byline dreams of being the next Woodward and Bernstein, but in this day of media companies owning newspapers, most news is broken on Twitter and blogs, not the dailies. Yet the high operating costs of newspapers demand readership increases that can’t be made by simply reporting on city council meetings. Thus, sensationalism instead or reporting, and link bait instead of impartiality.
Either way, the ‘scandal’ won’t go away, because it’s not a scandal to begin with. But as long as the readers keep coming, the scare quotes will keep finding their way into the headlines.
*Good Christian Man
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Tags: Alabama, Featured, football, popular, recruiting
Alabama native, lifelong Tide fan and barbeque evangelist, Tony is the author of The Hater's Guide to Auburn, and the occasional short story, if you know where to look.
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I have had it with these writers. But, you can’t blame them, if I was writing for the AJC right now I would probably write about Alabama too. I mean come on, is there anything interesting at Georgia or Georgia Tech right now? haha. A columnist down in Montgomery did the same thing last week. Pretty funny, the guy from Montgomery is known for writing controversial pieces when ad revenue is down, guess they needed a spike to start off the year.
I have had it with these writers. But, you can’t blame them, if I was writing for the AJC right now I would probably write about Alabama too. I mean come on, is there anything interesting at Georgia or Georgia Tech right now? haha. A columnist down in Montgomery did the same thing last week. Pretty funny, the guy from Montgomery is known for writing controversial pieces when ad revenue is down, guess they needed a spike to start off the year.
@thatnickjones That sort of thing has its place, and continues to work. But it’s not journalism, it’s marketing. And should be treated with the same level of skepticism.
@thatnickjones That sort of thing has its place, and continues to work. But it’s not journalism, it’s marketing. And should be treated with the same level of skepticism.