Wednesday, July 5, 2017

BLOG: Barstool Sports At It Again

There is now one thing the leader in ALS advocacy, Pete Frates, has with the legendary author and creator of the fictional troublemaker, Tom Sawyer, Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain. The pair have had their deaths erroneously reported.

In the author's later years, Clemens was on a speaking tour overseas in London when it was reported the writer was seriously ill. The rumor grew and a large newspaper organization actually, wrongly, printed his obituary. Naturally this got back to the author and thus the quote "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Compare what happened 120 years ago to today when Boston Globe reporter Mike Barnicle incorrectly reported that ALS patient and advocate, Pete Frates lost his battle with the disease Monday morning. Barnicle, allegedly, got his information from a "close family friend" but it was wrong. Later that morning, Boston Herald columnist and friend of the Frates' family, Steve Buckley went on Kirk & Callahan and clarified that Pete was still with us. The following day Pete, himself went to Twitter and responded in the best and only way possible:
The Pete Frates' wrongful death announcement saga comes on the heels of a credibility of media between Barstool Sports and traditional media outlets. For those of you who aren't aware, Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski went on WEEI last Thursday publicly questioned Barstool's credibility. Sitting by his pool with a drink in his hand, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy called out Dombrowski, through Facebook Live, and demanded an apology.

Once Barnicle's tweet was proven wrong it only added gas to the fire. Pete Frates' younger brother, Andrew, took to Twitter and snarked back that he never met Mike Barnicle and "that [the Frates family] only deals with credible sources like Barstool Sports."
Credibility is not the issue in this entire feud. It doesn't matter if the statement is correct or not, Dombrowski's job in that situation was to defend the decisions of his manager and coaching staff and it came out wrong. Portnoy jumped on Dombrowski's poor response calling him a liar, a rat and demanding an apology.

If Portnoy is waiting around for a response from Dombrowski then he's going to be waiting a long time. Dombrowski, along with the rest of his baseball operations staff, have more important and pressing needs than to address sophomoric name-calling from Portnoy. Listening to the wise words of his public relations staff (that's what they get paid to do), Dombrowski's going take a page from the movie Frozen and "Let It Go."

Second of all, Dombrowski was doing exactly what Portnoy was doing. Portnoy was protecting his baby, Barstool Sports, and the people that work for him. Dombrowski was defending his own people, he just chose the wrong words. It all comes back to language. (Now time for a shameless plug, if you haven't read my last blog on why language is important for effective communication.)

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.pngBarstool Sports is like The Daily Show. It's sports satire. It is a men's lifestyle blog where people - mostly male sports fans - go to get their fix on sports. It's not designed as your traditional main stream media. Just like The Daily Show is comedy entertainment coming from recent news stories, political figures and media organizations. Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart even told the audience not to come to the show for their news when he was informed many young adults were getting their news from the Daily Show.

Sure both will break news stories from time to time but they are entertainment driven. Their goal is to entertain the audience.

QUICK EDITOR'S NOTE AND ANOTHER SHAMELESS PLUG: Since some of this blog included Pete Frates go check out an older blog from 2014 at the start of the Ice Bucket Challenge. 
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