Dave Kindred on Twitter

Jay Cutler was being (probably unfairly) maligned by everybody in Chicago during that game. People were burning his jersey in the parking lot. If you were writing about the NFC Championship and you didn't mention that, you weren't doing a very good job.

My favorite player tweet reaction was from Asante Samuel, who was bitterly critical of Cutler, declaring that you just have to get it taped up and play.
Asante suffered a Grade 2 MCL this season. Sat for three weeks.

 

And that's the kind of stuff that most writers at the game could have easily found out (if they didn't already know) to provide some context. Same thing with MJD, who sat out the end of the season with a bum knee when his team was still alive for the playoffs. Instead, the "facts" posted on Twitter were reported because, well, they fit a pre-existing narrative regarding Cutler.

 

You're making one hell of a generalization. Every NFL writer I know is active on Twitter and follows numerous players and other NFL writers. So if they aren't directly following somebody, they're seeing the meaty tweets re-tweeted right on their screen or on their phone. They don't have to go to Pro Football Talk. All the tweets are delivered immediately to them. If Mark Jones-Drew or Asante Samuel rips Jay Cutler, most NFL writers immediately see those tweets in their account, since you're seeing what all the people you follow re-tweet.

The notion that most writers went to PFT to read this stuff is absurd. Have you ever covered the NFL? Are you on Twitter? If you took the time to watch it in action you'd know you don't have to go to some blog site to see this stuff. It finds you. Instantly.

 

I don't buy this one bit. Bill Plaschke opines on the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals. Is he an expert on all of those? Hardly. An expert on any of them? No.

I'm not sure what the advent of the new social media is bringing. But I don't want to go back to the day of relying on the Rocky Mountain News columnist (if the paper were still around) as the authority on the subject.

 

I might rely on certain seasoned reporters to be authorities on specific topics or areas of interest. But I never much approach columnists that way. Authority? No, just someone who could give me an entertaining, maybe thought-provoking take on a topic. Columnists who carry themselves as if they truly are experts across a wide range of subject matter, and newspapers who market their columnists that way, aren't fooling anyone.

BTW, I think Plaschke earned himself enough baseball chops through the years to be considered an expert when covering a World Series.

 

I said a veteran columnist's opinion "mattered." I didn't say the columnist was "the" authority on the subject. I believe that if a columnist covers the local hero for years (say Plaschke on Kobe, Paige and Lincicome on Elway) and is not a reliable commentator, he hasn't done his job well.