Greenberg: Vikings should trade McCarthy

[comet52]

Sometimes I think that the whole sports media operation is in it to sustain itself with these ridiculous takes. Just create a feeding frenzy of outrageous takes that each can either comment on or just see who can push narratives that create engagement without really believing what they are saying. The ol' 'wink-wink' they know will rile up the lowest common denominators of social media for those views and clicks. This week have given me two examples of media members I didn't expect to stoop into the mire: Jay Glazer and now Mike Greenberg. Disappointing.

There isn't enough actual news to sustain a 24 hour news, and now social media information cycle. So now 90% of what's out there is manufactured bullshit, which gets recycled in an endless grade school game of "pass it on".

I noticed it years ago, before social media really took off, when guys on ESPN (back when I actually paid for cable LOL) would sit around and discuss what other guys on ESPN had said about some topic. That was kinda the point at which I checked out on their sports media circle jerk.

[medaille]

I think it’s also that real journalism takes time and effort, but audiences don’t really care about real information, because the things that they actually look at our click on are just things that innately make them react strongly. Why have a professional researcher spend time and effort trying to track someone down and have a real discussion with them, when you can just have AI or an intern speculate and offer an opinion that half your audience is going to take out of context and get pissed off about, and the other half feels like they have to throw their opinion into the ring on the matter.

[comet52]

I think it’s also that real journalism takes time and effort, but audiences don’t really care about real information, because the things that they actually look at our click on are just things that innately make them react strongly. Why have a professional researcher spend time and effort trying to track someone down and have a real discussion with them, when you can just have AI or an intern speculate and offer an opinion that half your audience is going to take out of context and get pissed off about, and the other half feels like they have to throw their opinion into the ring on the matter.

And that's the underlying sickness that is so corrosive. The reactionary stance that so many people take, some without thought, some to manipulate the other reactionaries. It's total dysfunction.

At this point anything I read or hear that seems designed to enlicit some emotional response, particularly "outrage", I question. Or ignore.

[MaroonBells]

Sometimes I think that the whole sports media operation is in it to sustain itself with these ridiculous takes. Just create a feeding frenzy of outrageous takes that each can either comment on or just see who can push narratives that create engagement without really believing what they are saying. The ol' 'wink-wink' they know will rile up the lowest common denominators of social media for those views and clicks. This week have given me two examples of media members I didn't expect to stoop into the mire: Jay Glazer and now Mike Greenberg. Disappointing.

The idea that the Vikings "should" trade JJ McCarthy is not a ridiculous or outrageous take. It's just an opinion, and one others have expressed, too. I disagree with it. You disagree with it. But Greenberg is welcome to it. And if he says it on camera, it's fair to post that on Twitter. 

What IS ridiculous and outrageous is re-writing the lede to say that Mike Greenberg thinks the Vikings "will look to trade" JJ McCarthy, which is what Pat Macafee's tweet said, even using quotation marks. And then that was repeated in a Tweet by SkorNorth I saw this morning: "ESPN's Mike Greenberg believes the Minnesota Vikings 'will look to trade' JJ McCarthy this offseason."

Greenberg never says that. Not once. Unless it was said outside of what was in the video, but I doubt it. It's this distortion of the truth that drives me crazy.