Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Post-Gazette: Please Shut the Hell Up Already

I'm rather proud of myself, honestly. I called this post my last on the SuperRecruitChild Terrelle Pryor and I held out all the way until Super Tuesday. Not bad, I think.

Besides, this isn't a real Pryor post. Instead of giving you all some late breaking news about what Terrelle's mom packed him for lunch today, I'd like to do something a little more fun. Let's talk about what drives a supposedly 'real' newspaper (one that even Stephen A. Smith would read) to report and act like a bunch of idiots.

These two things happened within a week of each other:

"I'd say it's about 50-50 that I'll push things back," Pryor said.

Earlier this week, it seemed the race was down to Ohio State and Michigan because Pryor wasn't going to visit Oregon. If Pryor visits Oregon, the Ducks will still have a chance at landing him.

Pryor also said yesterday Penn State is not out of the running.

Who said Penn State was out of the running? How does Pryor not going to Oregon eliminate Penn State also? Why not just say, "the race was down to Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State..." instead of leaving out PSU and throwing in that random "they are in but don't have a chance" comment? Pryor has said a lot of nonsense over the past 6 months, even telling Rivals that Duke was on the list, but I don't remember him ever saying "Penn State is out." Great journalism, guys.

Anyway, then a week later:
Pryor, star quarterback at Jeannette High School, said today he is "80 to 90 percent sure" he will announce his choice at a news conference Wednesday.

But Pryor said he will not visit Oregon and the Ducks are out of the picture.

"I have to call them today and tell them," Pryor said.

Pryor said he will decide among Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, although Ohio State and Michigan have been the leaders all along.

Listen Post-Gazette: I know you don't like PSU. Every time there is news in your paper about football, it's always of the negative variety. Maybe Pitt has something to do with it, maybe not, but please stop this bullshit where you quote a kid who changes his mind about thing every 24 hours and then throw in a line like "Although Ohio State and Michigan have been the leaders all along." You make it read like he said this, yet for some reason you don't actually give us a quote, which makes me think you made it up. Why do this? It's not what other people have said*. Are you a recruiting service*? If it is what he said, why not just quote him? Because it's bullshit? Right, ok I get it now.

I'm no journalist (as you can see), but I'm pretty sure one of the things they teach writers is that it's best not to throw made up shit into a 'news' story.

The point of this isn't to argue that PSU is a frontrunner, it's to point out that, if anyone has a clue, it's not some writer at the Post-Gazette. If it is the Post-Gazette, it would be because they have a quote or credible source and would report it by saying something like "sources have reported"...the thing is the Post-Gazette doesn't do any of these things. They just say things like they are fact without telling you why they are saying them. That is what makes them garbage.


*Not that I believe these idiots either.

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