Media Bias

[BonnieBengal]

(11-02-2015, 09:51 PM)jowczarski Wrote: Media bias is always interesting to read about for a guy in the media. I grew up on the Southside of Chicago where White Sox fans would measure the inches of copy printed in the two papers and compare it to the Cubs. I also grew up with the Jordan Bulls, where nearly nothing negative could be written. I grew up with it, and I get.

Now I work in the media. I look out to my former residence in Green Bay and see fans going crazy over a negative story on Letroy Guion, who the Journal-Sentinel uncovered is basically a bad guy who has gotten off previous crimes due to his status as an NFL player. Packers fans can't believe the local media would dare write a bad thing about their 6-0 team! But largely, you won't see too many bad stories on the Packers. Why? They're winning.

I feel we at Cincinnati.com are fair. We've addressed the problems in the secondary and run game. I've talked to Clark Harris after each blocked kick (more on that Wed in the Walkthru). We addressed Bodine's bad snaps in camp (we didn't get to him today). But when a team is 7-0, the best team in nearly 30 years -- let's be real, most of the media is going to be favorable because that's what happens when you win.

Now, as for the national types. I get you there. Most national publications picked the Bengals to fall off (we didn't, because we knew). But in reality, those guys don't know much. I'm not saying they don't work, but they're trying to consume info on every team, have a #HOTTAKE, and they have their preconceived notions. Winning changes that. They're 7-0. Honestly, they should be 9-0 going into that SNF game against Arizona, which - guess what - will be billed as a "potential Super Bowl preview!" and there will be a ton of national love. Just the nature of the beast in that regard.

I agree that the national media has a lot of teams to cover and can't have extensive knowledge of them all, all the time.  But there were so many 6 - 10 predictions for the Bengals before the season started that I really thought they were all just repeating each other without doing any research.  I remember up until a few years ago, there would still be articles about the Bengals and their discipline problem, even long after they fixed it.  I think that was an easy topic for a lazy sports writer who would rather play golf that day.  Just copy statistics from the thousand other articles, trash the Bengals, and you are basically done.