sal's getting grumpier by the day

[KD in CA]

Cripes...Several years back, The Reds and WLW radio demanded that "drop-in" ads be voiced during a game. Things like "That was a Procter & Gamble put-out at 1st", or "Another Ford Dealers foul tip." It reminded me of Ralphie and his Ovaltine Little Orphan Annie decoder - "A crummy commercial. Son of a B*tch!".

 

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!!

 

Love that movie.

[Lofton80]

I think Sal has some realistic concerns in that blog. Teams will run at Ellison until he can win at the point of attack, likely not gonna happen. Checkdowns will be a problem if TE gets happy feet like last year. I have never been a Sal fan but I liked that blog.

[Heels20X6]

Couldn't agree with you more. For the last year or so, the "journalism topics" board on the sportswriting website I hang out at has read like the obituary page -- layoffs here, buyouts there, furloughs everywhere. (Not that this is confined to print media; just about everybody's hurting right now. It's just more obvious when familiar names and faces disappear from the local paper or TV station than when yet another factory padlocks its doors.)

 

And don't get me started on how they kicked Scott Pitoniak to the curb.

 

 

It's the sad state of media...I work for UBM / EETimes and though I was initially hired to just write technical articles on the components of consumer electronics, I now have to manage the video content, be a webmaster for multiple sites, act as an editor for contributed pieces, etc. etc. etc. And I'm STILL expected to write and TWEET (even though I find the whole thing stupid) to an audience....

 

I'm often wondering if working in media was a terrible idea...

[stuckincincy]

Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!!

 

Love that movie.

 

What a classic. It's still a rip.

[deep2evans]

Can't argue with much there, even if it contrasts with my optimistic tendencies. The point about the tight ends is dead on, as I can just see Jauron making excuses already about Nelson's lack of productivity. The fact of the matter is that our coaching staff has no !@#$ing idea how to utilize our talent properly (see Roscoe). Also, they consistently fall assbackwards into "good" personel moves such as giving Jabari Greer and Fred Jackson more playing time. You just KNOW that if injuries never occured those guys would be still be on the bench.

[Lv-Bills]

It doesn't have to be a glowing review. It doesnt' have to be a review at all. Sal is granted, nay, is PAID to have an access to the players that fans would PAY to have. He doesn't have to just report the facts. Well, I guess he has to twit them, but there should be PLENTY to write about: off the field antics, interesting insights into players' lives, I mean Christ, we're Bills fans and it's August, I'm sure a vast majority of us would LOVE to hear about Kyle William's summer fishing trip, or Felton Huggins quirky pre-practice routines, or even our midget trainer and his 14 border collies (obviously I'm making these things up, but you get the point).

 

Get in there, talk to the people, always have your recorder in hand, it's not that hard!

 

For Sal to write that there's nothing to write about seems pretty ass-backwards. I know we're in the waning days of training camp and for awhile it's just been a lot of the same, but still, DO YOUR JOB, everyone complains about how the news and entertainment industries have been merging, but this is one opportunity to use those powers for good!

I for one could care less about Kyle Williams fishing trip, or how much his wife loves infants. I could care less about Huggins' pregame antics or how many model Corvette's he collects. I could care less about any of these guys personally because I don't know them, and don't really care to know outside of what they can do to win games. If a Bills player impacts the quality of life of Buffalo residents or residents in their hometown, either negatively or positively, then yes, tell me about it. Otherwise I could care less.

 

Give me news on TO's toe. Give me news on Maybins status. Give me news on how Lee and TO are doing. Give me news on if the Bills have looked around the league to upgrade any positions. Give me news on how the Bills plan to stay viable in WNY. I can read that stuff all day long.

 

The fact that Sal wrote what he did, is because other than TO being in camp, this is pretty much the same Buffalo Bills team, lead by the same crappy, dull, head coach. The Bills don't release much info, nor do they really work hand in hand with many local media outlets, so you get stuff like this.

 

There was nothing wrong with what Sal wrote. And, if you want to know some of that other crap about personal Bills players, go to camp and ask them. It's not that hard to talk to them.

 

In Canton, I personally talked to Russ Brandon before the game from the stands. I talked to Scott Berchold (sp?) from the stands during the 4th quarter. Marshawn came over to the stands after halftime and grabbed my smoothie to fake like he was going to wash down his chips he was eating. And TO came over and said thanks for the sign we brought in. Donte Whitner came over to the guys next to us and shook people's hands down the fenceline. Derek Schouman came over after the game to tell my friend, that he actually knows only from facebook, thanks for the pictures and nice to finally meet you.

 

It's not hard. What Sal wrote is perfectly fine. He's bored. Just like most of the fan base, before TO got here.

[DrFishfinder]

Couldn't agree with you more. For the last year or so, the "journalism topics" board on the sportswriting website I hang out at has read like the obituary page -- layoffs here, buyouts there, furloughs everywhere. (Not that this is confined to print media; just about everybody's hurting right now. It's just more obvious when familiar names and faces disappear from the local paper or TV station than when yet another factory padlocks its doors.)

 

And don't get me started on how they kicked Scott Pitoniak to the curb.

I'm curious......the Miami Herald "actual tree-killing" newspaper is getting smaller in size (physical page size), fewer pages (a LOT fewer pages), more ads, less content and going up in price. They even offer a "detailed" TV Guide for an extra $1/month (detail like, "House gets sick"). In short, McClatchy is laying off staff, reducing everything from size to volume to content and is trying to increase the price of the newspaper.

 

Is WNY going through the same thing? Sorry....I know I veered from the topic....

[GG]

Is WNY going through the same thing? Sorry....I know I veered from the topic....

 

The entire newspaper industry is going through the same thing.

[crazyDingo]

Sal will never touch Sullivan as being the greatest Sourpuss columnist ever. Jerry has a sneer that would turn Sal to stone.

[Arkady Renko]

Dick Jauron says less and less every time he meets the press, which means he says less and less to you, the fans. Believe me, we try to get things out of him, to provide useful information, but he refuses to cooperate. I’ll say it again - he’d make one hell of an uncle, but he’s not an NFL head coach. His record stinks, and he just doesn’t understand the media game which is critical in this day and age of the 24-hour news cycle.

 

Is Dick Jauron a bad coach because he does not talk to the press or is Dick Jauron being a bad coach a non sequitur?

[Lori]

Which begs the question... how much is too much?

 

So you're hired to write articles. Then the news goes 24/7. So now you're writing an article every day. How much research and editing can be done in less than a day anyway? Then the internet age comes to fruition and you have blogs in between the daily articles. Because someone decided we need to hear people's informal thoughts in between the daily articles they're writing. Now, you have the tweets. Why? Because I have to know every waking thought in someone's head? What's next a direct live feed to a writer's brain? Am I the only one that would prefer fewer, better written/researched articles over daily useless tweets that have little redeeming value whatsoever?

Lot of people in the industry are asking that. One of Chuck Pollock's many proteges, Rachel George, is a preps reporter at a decent-sized newspaper in the Southeast. I believe when she covers a football game, she writes, AND shoots some video, AND uploads the audio from her postgame interviews ... hearing that, I can't imagine how she has any time left to, you know, actually pay attention to the game.

 

When Sal and I spoke shortly after the Dolphins game in Toronto, he listed his workload from that evening: gamer for the Web due at the gun, then a report card, short column, and 1,000-word gamer for Monday's paper. Assuming he actually hit the locker room and press conferences instead of relying solely on quote sheets, if he wasn't the last one out of the workroom (and sweating deadline by the time he finished), he had to be pretty close. Pollock also did the gamer/column/notebook trifecta (as usual), but for a Monday-afternoon paper, so his schedule wasn't quite as tight.

 

I'm curious......the Miami Herald "actual tree-killing" newspaper is getting smaller in size (physical page size), fewer pages (a LOT fewer pages), more ads, less content and going up in price. They even offer a "detailed" TV Guide for an extra $1/month (detail like, "House gets sick"). In short, McClatchy is laying off staff, reducing everything from size to volume to content and is trying to increase the price of the newspaper.

 

Is WNY going through the same thing? Sorry....I know I veered from the topic....

The entire newspaper industry is going through the same thing.

What he said. McPaper (USA Today) be damned, the Democrat and Chronicle has always been considered the flagship of Gannett's newspaper division ... which means just like every other Gannett property, it's been hammered with layoffs and furloughs for the last year, while the corporate honks sail merrily on their way. CEO Craig Dubow's bonus last year could have paid the salaries of several layoff victims, including Scott Pitoniak.

 

A few other notes:

Someone mentioned Pitoniak not having a regular beat. This is true; he was promoted from the Bills beat to columnist/features writer in 1990. For 18 years, he performed the same duties for the D+C that Sully does for The News -- writing a regular column, reporting and writing feature stories (many of which ended up on A-1, because they were that good), plus covering multiple Super Bowls, World Series, and Olympic Games. Indeed, he was one of only seven writers from across the country sent to Beijing by Gannett News Services last summer. No offense to either Leo Roth or Sal, both of whom I like. But in my opinion, Scott was the best writer in that department ... and perhaps the entire building.

 

(Whither Bob Matthews, you might ask? I have it on good authority that if Matthews set foot in the press box at the Ralph, most of the writers there probably wouldn't recognize him, his appearances in Orchard Park are so rare.)

 

Twitter can be a useful tool. The ESPN bloggers have it set up to post a link each time they submit a new story, and also cross-post that tweet to their Facebook accounts, all the better to send more pairs of eyes to the dot-com. Still not sure what they've got Sal doing is the most effective use, but I'll reserve judgment on that.

 

BTW, http://www.twitter.com/salmaiorana if you want to check it out for yourself. Others (copy/paste into Twitter's search engine): @John_Wawrow, @espn_afceast, @BuffFootballRep, @Buffalo_News, @DandC_Sports, @WGR550, @WECK, @writefielder (Pitoniak).

 

One more thing: when I asked him a couple of months ago, Sal said covering the Bills was still his favorite part of the job ... just not the offseason stuff. (This was during the TO-looks-for-a-house news cycle...)