With the Pittsburgh sports talk show wars heating up, WXDX's Mark Madden booked a tremendous lineup of guests, a "Cavalcade of Stars", in his words, to coincide with the debut of 93.7 The Fan last week. The lineup was like a who's who of Pittsburgh sports personalities, featuring A-listers like Sidney Crosby, Ben Roethlisberger, Jamie Dixon, Dick LeBeau, and Jack Ham; but it was one guest towards the end of the cavalcade that would end up causing the most stir of all.
During an interview with MMA star Frank Mir, comments made by Mir to Madden about fellow MMA'er Brock Lesnar wound up traveling far beyond Pittsburgh - and today they wound up on the front page of Yahoo! - a lofty achievement for a story in any field, let alone one that originated from a Pittsburgh talk show.
What was all the buzz over, you ask? It would be this statement from Mir, which rocked the MMA world, to say the least, with my emphasis added:
"A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct, I'd rather go ahead and say what's on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC 'Oh, the guy is a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him.' If I don't mean it, why is it even coming out of my mouth? ... I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person. I want to break his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That's what's going through my mind."
Crazy, Tyson-esque stuff indeed from Mir, and I can definitely see why it caused such a stir in the MMA community. But I have one bigger question: where has the Pittsburgh media been on this international story that started in their own backyard?
Remember this story? Not a memorable moment for ESPN 1250, in retrospect. But I'm not bringing it up for reasons of accuracy or to embarrass the station. These things happen. I'm bringing it up because it spread like a bad case of poison ivy through Pittsburgh news outlets and beyond as soon as it was reported.
I'm not saying that interest in Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar comes anywhere near that of a potential Steeler coordinator firing; rather, my point is that the local media has come to the point of virtually ignoring any real news to come out of Madden's show.
Of course, I'm looking first in the direction of Bob Smizik of the PG. Smizik's blog has become a sounding board for local sports media talk - a rarity among Pittsburgh news outlets. But coverage of Madden on Smizik's blog has been practically non-existent. For a person who prides themselves on coverage of the local sports media scene, Smizik's silence on Madden has been deafening, other than a few casual mentions here and there. No mention of his "Cavalcade of Stars", no mention of the Mir incident that spawned from Madden's show, no mention of Madden's revealing interview with Big Ben, nothing.
It's been well-documented that the two are not exactly best buddies. I think the 2008 Smizik article, "Madden's unbridled act hits new low", would be Exhibit A in that discussion. But personal relationships aside, news is news. It shouldn't be put through a filter of who likes who. Maybe the fact that Smizik is writing via blog instead of a regular column gives him more leeway in the area of what he covers and what he doesn't; but to his readers, who clearly represent a huge interest in sports radio news, he's doing them a disservice by ignoring any Madden news. Of course, no one else in Pittsburgh seems to be willing to mention Madden either, so Smizik is definitely not alone in his stance.
Personally, I've never hid the fact that I've been a longtime Madden listener, even if it costs me points with some of you. But that doesn't stop me from mentioning his competition either, as witnessed most recently by an article I wrote praising Ron Cook and Vinnie Richichi's interview with Frank Coonelly on Wednesday. And I have certainly not agreed with the majority of Cook's opinions over the years.
I've been on a kick lately of saying that the changing media landscape has been a big victory for Pittsburgh sports fans, because the quality and quantity of talk, guests, and news has all been stepped up a notch since The Fan launched. The outlets that end up with the most comprehensive, interesting, and coherent thoughts are going to succeed, and the others will eventually fall by the wayside. Media consumers will ultimately be the judge of who is reasonable in their coverage and who pushes certain agendas. Sometimes, I just wonder if all of the people in positions of power actually realize that.
No need to hammer Mir for crossing idiot line [Yahoo!]
Mir says he wants Lesnar to die: Will he get suspended or fined? [Yahoo!]
Mark Madden [105.9 The X]
Madden's unbridled act hits new low [PG]
Bob Smizik's blog
During an interview with MMA star Frank Mir, comments made by Mir to Madden about fellow MMA'er Brock Lesnar wound up traveling far beyond Pittsburgh - and today they wound up on the front page of Yahoo! - a lofty achievement for a story in any field, let alone one that originated from a Pittsburgh talk show.
What was all the buzz over, you ask? It would be this statement from Mir, which rocked the MMA world, to say the least, with my emphasis added:
"A lot of individuals are so worried about being politically correct, I'd rather go ahead and say what's on my mind than to sit there and come up with some PC 'Oh, the guy is a great fighter and I have a lot of respect for him.' If I don't mean it, why is it even coming out of my mouth? ... I want to fight Lesnar. I hate who he is as a person. I want to break his neck in the ring. I want him to be the first person that dies due to Octagon-related injuries. That's what's going through my mind."
Crazy, Tyson-esque stuff indeed from Mir, and I can definitely see why it caused such a stir in the MMA community. But I have one bigger question: where has the Pittsburgh media been on this international story that started in their own backyard?
Remember this story? Not a memorable moment for ESPN 1250, in retrospect. But I'm not bringing it up for reasons of accuracy or to embarrass the station. These things happen. I'm bringing it up because it spread like a bad case of poison ivy through Pittsburgh news outlets and beyond as soon as it was reported.
I'm not saying that interest in Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar comes anywhere near that of a potential Steeler coordinator firing; rather, my point is that the local media has come to the point of virtually ignoring any real news to come out of Madden's show.
Of course, I'm looking first in the direction of Bob Smizik of the PG. Smizik's blog has become a sounding board for local sports media talk - a rarity among Pittsburgh news outlets. But coverage of Madden on Smizik's blog has been practically non-existent. For a person who prides themselves on coverage of the local sports media scene, Smizik's silence on Madden has been deafening, other than a few casual mentions here and there. No mention of his "Cavalcade of Stars", no mention of the Mir incident that spawned from Madden's show, no mention of Madden's revealing interview with Big Ben, nothing.
It's been well-documented that the two are not exactly best buddies. I think the 2008 Smizik article, "Madden's unbridled act hits new low", would be Exhibit A in that discussion. But personal relationships aside, news is news. It shouldn't be put through a filter of who likes who. Maybe the fact that Smizik is writing via blog instead of a regular column gives him more leeway in the area of what he covers and what he doesn't; but to his readers, who clearly represent a huge interest in sports radio news, he's doing them a disservice by ignoring any Madden news. Of course, no one else in Pittsburgh seems to be willing to mention Madden either, so Smizik is definitely not alone in his stance.
Personally, I've never hid the fact that I've been a longtime Madden listener, even if it costs me points with some of you. But that doesn't stop me from mentioning his competition either, as witnessed most recently by an article I wrote praising Ron Cook and Vinnie Richichi's interview with Frank Coonelly on Wednesday. And I have certainly not agreed with the majority of Cook's opinions over the years.
I've been on a kick lately of saying that the changing media landscape has been a big victory for Pittsburgh sports fans, because the quality and quantity of talk, guests, and news has all been stepped up a notch since The Fan launched. The outlets that end up with the most comprehensive, interesting, and coherent thoughts are going to succeed, and the others will eventually fall by the wayside. Media consumers will ultimately be the judge of who is reasonable in their coverage and who pushes certain agendas. Sometimes, I just wonder if all of the people in positions of power actually realize that.
No need to hammer Mir for crossing idiot line [Yahoo!]
Mir says he wants Lesnar to die: Will he get suspended or fined? [Yahoo!]
Mark Madden [105.9 The X]
Madden's unbridled act hits new low [PG]
Bob Smizik's blog
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