The Jets Beat Writers

[bronxbomba26]

So idk about you guys, but I'm absolutely sick of the Jets beat writers, especially Manish. This year some of them have just gone absolutely overboard and it's flat out ridiculous. I tweeted at manish to stop lying in his stories and he just blocked me. Flat out dumb.

What are your thoughts on what's been going on?



This article from gang green nation sums everything up perfectly. Fantastic job by their writer Scott Salmon

http://www.ganggreennation.com/2013/...e-media-plague

I have a bone to pick with "the media," but more specifically, the beat reporters that cover the New York Jets. I know they read this website, and some of them like to "borrow" our ideas for articles, so I know they're listening. Let me qualify this by saying that some reporters have been good, sporadically, throughout the season. But most have been horrible throughout. Here are a few of my complaints:

They don't ask questions about the game.

I know for a fact that some of the members of the beat (I too have anonymous and legitimate sources from within), do not know the first thing about football. This is why most of them, with one notable exception, do not actually write about the game. Instead, most focus on TMZ and personal-style articles. Sometimes it's good to "get to know" the players through their generally canned responses. But mostly, they're annoying and get away from the real crux of why you have a job, that is, the game of football. There have been numerous weeks this season when I don't think a single question was posed to Rex Ryan that related to the upcoming game, or even the preceding one. More often, they related to Tim Tebow, or anonymous sources, or whatever. But you almost never see actual X's and O's analysis from the beat reporters, or anything of substance. "Rex, Quinton Coples is being thrown into a complex playbook as a rookie. How do you break the playbook down for a rookie like Coples, as you did for Muhammad Wilkerson?" is a good question. So is, "Rex, Stephen Hill is having issues with catching the ball. What is the problem he's having, and how is it resolved from a coaching perspective?" "REX WHYYYY IS TEBOW (THE SECOND AND SOMETIMES THIRD-STRING QUARTERBACK THAT WAS INJURED FOR HALF THE YEAR) NOT PLAYING WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING US!??!!" is not. As we come into the New Year, please, PLEASE, give us more substantive questions about the actual game of football, instead of asking, I don't know, about Rex's personal conversations with players.

They're unprofessional.

If you follow the beat reporters on Twitter, you probably know how unprofessional they are. Generally, they are extremely snarky, especially when they don't get their way (which I'll get to more in my last point). Their comments include blasting Rex when he doesn't give them an answer they like, or mock the team through Same Ol' Jets comments, butt fumbles, "This awfulness is just unbelievable," and mocking individual players such as Tim Tebow, Jeremy Kerley, Shonn Greene, etc. It's one thing for fans to poke fun at the team they love. It's another thing for a professional reporter to mercilessly mock the team they cover. I went through a few of their individual timelines on Twitter for those examples, so while I'm not going to directly quote them, I think you get the idea.

They stir the pot.

Whether it's "anonymous sources" or confronting players in the locker room and nearly getting into fights, or literally chasing coaches out of the building, the beat reporters love to stir the pot and bake up controversy. After they do that, they then love to blame the Jets for being a circus. Now, that isn't to say the Jets don't often do really, really stupid stuff. They do. But if you look at, oh, I don't know, every other media market (and not just that, even with the New York Giants), you rarely see the media taking controversy like this, blowing it up infinitely, then blaming the team instead of themselves.

They use anonymous sources.

This is one reporter, in particular. As a general rule, anonymous sources are necessary in the media. It's how you get people to speak to you that would otherwise not. But when you nearly exclusively use anonymous sources, cherry pick quotes, and at the same time criticize the team for not being transparent enough, you're not only being hypocritical, you're destroying all credibility you have. Why should anyone trust what you have to say? When you never give an indication of who the source is, other than "team official," how does anyone know that official isn't a janitor, or worse, imaginary? There's zero reason to take anyone seriously that uses, as far as anyone can tell, pretend sources. Another point is that typically, the reporters confirm each other's reports. That never happens with this particular reporter. Is it because there is nobody to confirm them with? The so-called anonymous sources may be legitimate, but after being used almost exclusively, there is zero evidence to suggest that they are.

Their analysis is lazy.

All year long, the media mocks the Jets for talking too much, and for giving them milquetoast responses to their inane and repetitive questions. Since the season has ended, the team has gone silent as they self-evaluate. Before, they talked too much, and they were criticized for being undisciplined. Now they aren't speaking, and they're blasted for "not giving their fans answers." First of all, in my experience, the vast majority of fans don't care right now. They'd prefer to see answers through actions (hiring a new general manager and coaches) rather than the same banal answers. Do you think Rex is suddenly going to come out and say, "Tim Tebow is the worst. He's the biggest phony in the world!" now that the season is over? Come on. No, the real reason they're so, and excuse me for lack of a better word, butt hurt, is because now the beat reporters have to come up with their own analysis. For the first time as long as I can remember, the Jets aren't feeding them headlines on a golden spoon, accompanied with a side of controversy. And that makes the reporters mad, because now they have to do what every other beat reporter for every other team in the world has to do... work.

[nate2usmc]

They never make up their minds. Rex talks too much. Now he talks too less. Jets need to keep Rex. Jets made a huge mistake keeping Rex. Blah blah blah

[FoSSi984]

great article

[FoSSi984]

Scott Salmon for sportswriter of the year LMAO

[Strange famous]

Cant stand the guy.

He should be forced to fist fight Bart Scott

[SenorGato]

My anonymous sources tell me they suck.

[jetsforever]

Its been pretty well known that Manish doesn't know **** about football. I forget where I read it but other reporters apparently laugh at his knowledge of the sport. That's pretty hilarious.

[infamous46]

I tweeted to Cimini if he ever played pop Warner or high school football but he has yet to respond

The writers always talk about who should be fired, or cut, and about how bad someone is overpaid but the writers are so terrible they dont notice that they are on top of any list of people who should be fired and overpaid, they are so bad they should be volunteering instead of getting paid to write

And they are always last to report any news on the Jets I see fans break news before the writers and all their stories is like the guy up top wrote; it's stolen, or "borrowed" it's like they read other articles and grab a thesaurus

[bucktownanalyst]

They have a stick up their ***. I think the best part is that they claim we're the ones losing out. I'm enjoying this more than anything Rex has to say about Tebow.

[jetsfan28]

The Tebow "circus" would not have been a big story on any other team, until the New England game on Thanksgiving when it was clear that Sanchez needed to be benched and it was clear that Tebow was active despite not really being in a condition where he could play. Until then, it would have been a very small story, just like it was in Denver until he actually got the starting job. Rex said he wasn't the starter and Rex didn't start him, that was it, it was a non-story.

Same with a lot of other stories the last 5 years. Things that are complete non-issues are turned into national stories because of irresponsible journalism. I'm sick of it. It was true with the training camp "brawl" too.

[jetsforever]

Back up off my boy Rich!

[Kinkotheclown]

These guys are awful. They know zero about their sport and even worse, they are horrible writers. THey can't write a comprehensive sentence they misspell, they have now grasp of grammar and the way words work together. I now that many don't care about that and I wouldn't either, if their content was interesting or insightful. But it isn't. They write on a 2nd grade level, which is inexcusable considering "spell and grammar check" options and they write crap. They are not reporters, they are gossip columnists.
Every time I read one of their articles, a feel stupider for a period of time.
Luckily they don't say anything strong and accurate enough to cause permanent damage.
Espn is really no better content-wise but they have pretty pictures.

[yanksrock]

Best article I read all season. Thank you for that.

[ccugrad1]

You want to know why the Jets Beat Writers write what they do? For those that have watched wrestling and know who Eric Bischoff is, just look at the title of his autobiography and it will explain so much for you:

Controversy Creates Cash!!

Want to sell newspapers, especially in New York/New Jersey with Jets and Giants fans galore? Start writing stories about them that bring up controversial topics and create discussion. It keeps people engaged and wanting to read more. If you do at the right times, you can send the people into a frenzy and make them continue to reading!

It's a hell of an idea!!! We have our own here in the Jets forums-- John X Doe. He talks, and it sparks discussion and in some cases, controversy! He's pretty good at it!!!

[bronxbomba26]

Controversy Creates Cash!!

Exactly! But because they do that, we become the laughing stock of the NFL. As fans we should look to the newspapers and get mad at those writers for what they're making of our team.

Not to mention half the stuff they say is flat out lies.