Chicago 'reporter' Ricky Morrissey indicates in a recent article that ND is 'no longer a plum job'. Then makes up a bunch of stuff and implies things and uses message boards as sources to prove his point. No, I'm not going to link to it.
"Notre Dame yearned to land a big name". Who is this "Notre Dame" you speak of Mr. Morrissey? Do you mean the administration? The BOT? The AD? Or do you mean the message boards and the blogs? The students? The alums? And if you mean any of the latter groups, did you do a representative survey? Did you find out in a quantitative way what "Notre Dame" wants? Nope, you didn't. So please quit making things up.
And by big names, you know this meant Urban Meyer? Jack Swarbrick or Jenkins told you this? Or you know that means Bob Stoops? You were told this by, who? You literally have no clue what went down with this search, yet you act like you were a fly on the wall in all the meetings. Yes, it would be LOGICAL to ASSUME that ND's leaders went after those guys. But since when do assumptions do anything but make an ass out of you and you?
I'm sick of 'journalists' making things up and not being held accountable. This coaching search was a 'plum' example of it. So many 'sources' giving out such great detail, and 99% bunk. Isn't it a journalist's job to do fact-checking, to report the actual FACTS? NO? Shocking.
So first Morrissey implies that he knows what "Notre Dame" wanted, and then he asserts that those people that ND wanted didn't want Notre Dame in return. But he has no clue if the job was even discussed with those guys, and he has no clue if those guys wanted it (but maybe a deal couldn't be worked out, or maybe a wife doesn't want to move her kids from school). He's just guessing and supposing, using message board posts as facts, and that's just not good enough.
This isn't really about a single article, it's about the entire process of journalism, and how it's gotten completely whacked out (especially in sports). Mr. Morrissey clearly sucks at his job, but so do most writers today, so can we really blame him?
Yes, we can.
This is an out-of-nowhere rant, and I could probably go for another half hour. The state of journalism sucks. There are so few places you can turn to for a fairly objective, at least rational, and well-sourced article or report. It's freaking sad.
I don't claim to be anything close to a journalist. And I'm pretty sure that we're a lot better than most at fact-checking and doing our research. We're just a couple fans that enjoy college football and especially ND, and we don't get paid a dime and (clearly) have had no formal training. And we're at least meeting the standards of 'real' journalists. Isn't that kind of bad?
By Trey December 11, 2009 - 11:35 am
Journalism has been dead for a long time, which is why so many papers, mags, and tv stations. Reporters are no longer objective and no one wants to get ‘news’ from cheerleaders with an agenda.
The biggest explanation that i can see is that news is so stubbornly defiant to any sort of real change. Only a handful of papers are out on the internet, and even the ones who are have less content than the print forms. The mindsets of reporters is also stubborn in that they take the angle that no one who isnt trained like they are could never be a real journalist like they are. Uts an elitist mindset that is proven false by blogs, like this one, that offers the same amount of insight, but is much more readily available and usually much more objective.
Ive sworn off print media for quite a while now. Who needs this garbage they pu out?
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By SDI December 11, 2009 - 11:40 am
I’ve read numerous articles in the last few weeks that talk about how Kelly will have to recruit more defensive talent to come to Notre Dame because the cupboard is bare on D. Even a cursory look at the recruiting rankings would show that 8 or 9 of ND’s defensive starters are a four star recruit or better.
These dudes are just lazy, lazy, lazy. They already have a job that only requires them to sit on their ass, read about sports all day, and then bang out a short, citation free article and they are still too lazy to spend 5 minutes googling a few facts before they spout off.
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By Bad Kermit December 11, 2009 - 2:13 pm
Rick Morrissey is arguably the worst of the assemblage of terrible Chicago sportswriters.
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By Mark G December 11, 2009 - 2:24 pm
I read Morrissey’s article on the train this morning, and had the same reaction. He is just repeating blather he has seen on blog sites.
Even worse was Telander’s article a week ago, where he went off on a rambling tirade about Notre Dame and its arrogance (how everyone, according to Rick T., knew when Charlie Weis was hired that he would fail, etc.). Telander ended with predicting that whoever ND hires would also fail.
I know Morrissey is an idiot, but thought Telander was smarter and better than that. However, he has always disliked ND. Must be a Northwestern thing.
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By The Biscuit December 11, 2009 - 4:44 pm
Was accosted by a NW alum the other day about how much he hates ND now, for various reasons. Not sure what the beef is by NW fans, other than the fact they’re pissed that no one in Chicago gives an F about their program, no matter what.
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By SDI December 12, 2009 - 7:18 pm
Biscuit–here is my least favorite, hackneyed, stupid line that gasbag “journalists” regurgitate without even considering: “ND will never be great again it because can’t get talented players because they don’t want to play somewhere with such crummy weather”. Despite the fact that is demonstrably false by a simple review of any recent recruiting class rankings, it just isn’t logical. Think of all the powerhouse recruiting schools that are located in cold weather places–Michigan, Ohio St, Penn St to name a few–don’t hear anyone saying those schools can’t recruit good talent. How about Boise St, Cincinnati, Iowa, BYU, Pittsburgh–they all seem to be doing ok which either means they are getting talented players or that talented players aren’t the end all be all. You ever been to Boise in November? Not so warm. Eugene and Corvallis, Oregon are two of the grayest, most miserable places in the continental U.S. in the winter and they seem to be able to land quite a few talented players.
And what about the converse of the argument, if warm weather is so important, than teams in warm weather should be able to rake in the talent and whoop ass right? Well, how about UCLA? San Diego St? Stanford, Cal, South Carolina, Miami, Florida State, Auburn, Clemson–these schools should all be returning to the top five any year now according to the theory? It’s just lazy and stupid and yet it gets repeated ad nauseum.
What do USC, Florida, Alabama, and Texas have in common besides warm weather? Great coaches who are great recruiters. End of story.
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By DJ December 13, 2009 - 12:14 am
Morrissey? Nice guy, really. Also as dumb as a stump. He and John Kass need help tying their shoes in the morning.
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