You will get nothing and like it, Orange-Man.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Your Daily Dose of Newspaper Bashing: DMRegister.com

I don't want OPS to have all the fun...

The DMR has given its writers space for "blogs." These are generally used for mindless drivel, usually completed with a question put in boldface type. These questions get to the deep-seeded questions of life, such as, "Are the ISU placekicker's YouTube music videos good?" (Hint: No.) Of course, nobody answers.

Sean Keeler has already been targeted this week, but his "blog" posts from Big Ten media day were truly the greatest sign of where the state's largest newspaper has been heading for years. A quick recap:

July 31: Keeler toes the company line on the Big Ten Network (without mentioning a large number of Iowans likely won't even have a chance to get the network) and tells us Brett Bielema is funny without actually quoting anything within 12 miles of comedic. He finishes by telling us Ferentz is about to speak, then refusing to report on anything El Capitan had to say.

August 1: Keeler does something which is at the same time completely unbelievable and entirely predictable from the DMR. He somehow finds a way to turn Big Ten Media Day into a story about Iowa State. In other words, the ISU-related posts outnumber the Iowa-related posts AT BIG TEN MEDIA DAY.

A quick rundown of the subjects of Keeler's blog posts in the past month:
  • Iowa State - 3
  • Big Ten network - 2
  • Barry Bonds - 2
  • John Deere Classic -1
  • Brett Bielema - 1
  • The Cincinatti Post (which doesn't even exist anymore) - 1
  • The University of Iowa (which does, at least outside of 7th and Locust) - 0
But, to give Keeler a break, maybe he's leaving the Iowa blogging to Randy Peterson. The creepy-looking Peterson (the tan of George Hamilton combined with the hair of Tony Kornheiser) told us on August 3 he would be "blogging" from Iowa media day. He then posted once on the event, just to tell us how he hates media day.

He also writes an inexplicable post on next season's (that's 2008) game against Maine, chastising anyone who fails to see the beauty and grandeur of Iowa throttling a I-AA team. Forget, for the moment, that Iowa played Montana last season without any serious complaint from ticketholders. Instead, focus on the fact that Peterson, like Nancy Clark before him, sets up a straw man and knocks him down; nobody is complaining about Maine yet, if only because we're too busy complaining about having to close against Western Michigan.

Just goes to show: If you want actual blogging on Iowa sports, the last place to look is the state's largest newspaper.

2 comments:

Adam J said...

Randy Peterson's gaze is where souls go to die.

I'd always assumed he was a, y'know, normal-looking guy (as newspaper writers go, anyway), and that I could dislike him on the merits of his subpar writing.

Now he introduces the element of fear.

JHC said...

Looks like Skeletor just got back from Phoenix.