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Premium – Last week was a crazy week around the New York Football Jets.
For one thing, there is certainly a shortage of sources with names.
You had the Thomas George story with all kinds of Jets sources.
You had the Adam Schefter story with all kinds of Jets sources.
There was a Metro New York story quoting a player saying management quit on the season.
You had Manish Mehta jumping in with a Jets source leaking on John Idzik.
Welcome to the Wild, Wild West of sports journalism in 2014 and beyond.
I’m not going to point any fingers here, just analyze in general terms.
I know the lay of the land in that locker and building, and I just don’t see all these sources.
I have a good feel for who knows who, and also a good feel for who chirps a lot and who doesn’t.
And I’m telling you, the amount of sources being quoted in these stories don’t exist to that degree that you would be led to believe, reading these features.
Now in 2012, when Mehta had a field day, to his credit, and he broke a ton of stories, he did have coaches talking to him.
As Mike Francesa said, it was the worst kept secret in the world that Mike Pettine was his main source.
Pettine did a skillful job of cultivating a support group in the media to help improve his profile, and possible lead to a head coaching job.
Look at today’s big news that Johnny Manziel is going to start for the Browns. Jay Glazer broke it. Just like he broke that they were staying with Brian Hoyer last week.
I can’t prove that Pettine was the source here, but he has a great relationship with Glazer.
And Pettine certainly got what he was looking for with the help of some big-time media contacts – he’s an NFL head coach.
Pettine was shown the door at Florham Park after that leaky season
And a concerted effort was made to shut down the leaks.
So how do you explain all these stories with Jets sources recently, when the owner wanted this stopped? Four different stories with Jets sources over the last week.
Here is the deal, and I’m not pointing at any given person, but reporters could make up source quotes, and there is almost no way to stop it.
And considering writers are losing jobs left and right, do to a dying newspaper/magazine business, I suspect there are writers trying to make themselves seem valuable, to hang on with white knuckles to any gig they can get
And clicks on websites equals value these days. These kinds of stories get clicks.
I asked a couple of Jets officials if there is anything they can do if they suspect quotes are being made up, and they said they can’t.
I wish they could.
But they are right, it’s almost impossible to do anything about it.
The only thing I advise the reading public to do is read these reports with a grain of salt.
I suspect in some quarter, there are things being made up, or the very least embellished.
December 9, 2014
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