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Monday, November 2, 2009

Sports / Media The Mainstream Media (Further) Castrates Itself

Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 12:00 PM

Westword has the story:

Denver Post Beat Writers Told to Stop Making Game Predictions

For as long as most of us can remember, beat writers at the Denver Post have been allowed to make game predictions about teams they cover—but no more...

...When Klatt and Kreckman asked Klis if he thought the Broncos could defeat the Ravens in Baltimore on Sunday (which, unfortunately, they couldn't—or at least didn't), the Post staffer explained that his supervisors had concluded that offering picks about a team beat writers are supposed to cover in an even-handed way potentially undermined their objectivity in the eyes of readers.

But doesn't forbidding writers from talking about the outcome of a game potentially undermine their ability to be interesting in the eyes of readers?

Columnists "paid to offer their opinions" at the Denver Post may still remark upon who they think is going to win a game.

Via Romenesko.

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Comments (7) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Isn't that part of sport analysis? "Team X will probably beat Team Y because Y has a weak offense."

Posted by mdurango on November 2, 2009 at 12:15 PM

Can't side with the local team: that might alienate the fans of the other team -- who might make up a larger online market share than your locality!

The future's so bright I gotta wear...
...blinders.

Posted by Timrrr on November 2, 2009 at 12:36 PM

The Denver Post has been circling the drain for a long LONG time.

Posted by slaggy

on November 2, 2009 at 1:13 PM

Slaggy, while that may be true, their circulation numbers are way, WAY up - thanks to the Rocky Mountain News going TU. Kinda exactly the same position the Seattle Times is in.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on November 2, 2009 at 1:27 PM

As soon as the Denver Post gets better coverage of soccer, their ad revenues will pull up.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 2, 2009 at 1:42 PM

@ #4 - Your point being...?

Posted by slaggy

on November 2, 2009 at 2:16 PM

Oh thank you! Someone needs to be honest about the real reason the mainstream media is tanking. It's BORING. We don't need more blood and gutts, we need more interesting news coverage, more in depth and challenging things to think about. But we only seem to get more and more mundane depravity.

Posted by ScreenName on November 2, 2009 at 8:43 PM