Can I Call Your Parents? Media Beefs

[pbmax]

Another sports media beef yesterday. TJ Lang tweeted this batch in the early evening:

TJ Lang ‏@TJLang70 13h13 hours ago
Man a reporter calling a players parents and asking them for their opinion on what's wrong has to be an all time low.

TJ Lang ‏@TJLang70 13h13 hours ago
And lying to the parents by saying the player gave him permission to call.

TJ Lang ‏@TJLang70 13h13 hours ago
Weasel.

Internet outrage follows. Lang does not provide any other detail. Aaron Nagler checks in with a Retweet of a joke:

Aaron Nagler ‏@AaronNagler 13h13 hours ago
"Dear Mrs. McCarthy, we'd like to know if your son is going to take over play calling, and what's wrong at 1265" Probably next @WhatRUTinkin

Tom Silverstein, Tweet now deleted, checks in to insult Nagler telling him he doesn't know anything journalism. Everyone climbs on Spoon as if he had just outed himself. He responds to one with some cryptic detail:

Riles @Riles23
@TomSilverstein @AaronNagler my journalism degree never came with classes that said you should lie to someone's face but that's just me.

Tom Silverstein ‏@TomSilverstein 13h13 hours ago
No one lied.

Riles @Riles23
@TomSilverstein then someone should call TJ and clear the air because that's not what he's saying.

Tom Silverstein ‏@TomSilverstein 13h13 hours ago
I have.

Referencing the Tweet that started this thread (insult of Nagler) Spoon says he has deleted the insult Tweet to Nagler:

Tom Silverstein ‏@TomSilverstein 13h13 hours ago
It was dumb of me to get involved in a Twitter war. I never do it & I shouldn't have done it this time. I apologize.

[Cleft Crusty]

Cleftcrusty@packerrats 10h9 hours ago
All these birds tweeting their funny songs. Clefty never twitters away. Only hard-boiled journalism #oldschool

@Crustykid@Cleftcrusty 10h11 hours ago
G'pa, why did you have me write that silly tweet? And for the last time, we don't have a can of hashtag for you to eat

[pbmax]

Now its easy to read that as Silverstein having called Lang's parents at least to apologize, if not for the original call. But this story gets picked up by CheeseheadTV, starts around 35 minutes in: http://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/packer-transplants-live-150

Nagler responded to Silverstein's insult with:

"Methinks the colleague doth protest too much."

Corey Behnke speculates that Michael Cohen was the reporter who called, in part, because of the O line (especially Sitton) freezing him out after the wrote the LeTroy Guion story back in October. Sees it as part of the same beef, and that Spoon is just defending a guy on his own paper.

Nagler says he has talked to Silverstein and hints (online as well) that he knows who called. He says the fact that the reporter said he had permission to call the parents from the player is in dispute. What is not in dispute is how stupid a move it is. Doesn't seem Silverstein or McGinn's speed. Maybe new guy Cohen.

But this comes as prelude to the second tidbit, reported on radio by Paul Imig of FoxSports I think. That Rodgers lit into Demovsky for the Olivia Munn, trouble in paradise, story about why the QB is struggling. A story that was actually published (unlike Lang's parents so far) that contained fact and sourceless speculation specifically about Munn, pegged on a quote from an agent who doesn't know any of the parties involved.

[mraynrand]

Corey Behnke speculates that Michael Cohen was the reporter who called, in part, because of the O line (especially Sitton) freezing him out after the wrote the LeTroy Guion story back in October.

If true: How stupid do you have to be to think this is a good idea? You're already hated for writing a hit piece (true or not it doesn't matter), and the solution is to go through the family? :roll:

[Cheesehead Craig]

Does this mean that the local media is as desperate as the team is now to figure out what's wrong?

[Fritz]

Does this mean that the local media is as desperate as the team is now to figure out what's wrong?



This means either A) the team is circling the wagons, growing closer and bonding, making the media the bad guy, and will rally as a result, or B) that the team is desperate and distracted by stupid issues, and thus it's all going into the shitter.

[pbmax]

Does this mean that the local media is as desperate as the team is now to figure out what's wrong?

Desperate yes, but desperate for a new angle because the team, other than injury news and moving the location of a coach during the game isn't giving them much of anything to go with.

The only thing I can imagine calling the parent's for is a human interest piece about the effect of a losing streak on the players and their families. But that doesn't seem that interesting. Seems like a fishing expedition looking for a player who said one thing publicly but another privately.

I am surprised they haven't played up Sitton's "the offense is predictable" complaint more.

[mraynrand]

I am surprised they haven't played up Sitton's "the offense is predictable" complaint more.

That would have been too predictable.

[denverYooper]

Another sports media beef yesterday. TJ Lang tweeted this batch in the early evening:

TJ Lang ‏@TJLang70 13h13 hours ago
Man a reporter calling a players parents and asking them for their opinion on what's wrong has to be an all time low.

TJ Lang ‏@TJLang70 13h13 hours ago
And lying to the parents by saying the player gave him permission to call.

TJ Lang ‏@TJLang70 13h13 hours ago
Weasel.

Internet outrage follows. Lang does not provide any other detail. Aaron Nagler checks in with a Retweet of a joke:

Aaron Nagler ‏@AaronNagler 13h13 hours ago
"Dear Mrs. McCarthy, we'd like to know if your son is going to take over play calling, and what's wrong at 1265" Probably next @WhatRUTinkin

Tom Silverstein, Tweet now deleted, checks in to insult Nagler telling him he doesn't know anything journalism. Everyone climbs on Spoon as if he had just outed himself. He responds to one with some cryptic detail:

Riles @Riles23
@TomSilverstein @AaronNagler my journalism degree never came with classes that said you should lie to someone's face but that's just me.

Tom Silverstein ‏@TomSilverstein 13h13 hours ago
No one lied.

Riles @Riles23
@TomSilverstein then someone should call TJ and clear the air because that's not what he's saying.

Tom Silverstein ‏@TomSilverstein 13h13 hours ago
I have.

Referencing the Tweet that started this thread (insult of Nagler) Spoon says he has deleted the insult Tweet to Nagler:

Tom Silverstein ‏@TomSilverstein 13h13 hours ago
It was dumb of me to get involved in a Twitter war. I never do it & I shouldn't have done it this time. I apologize.

Is that what Wilde was referring to yesterday?

[pbmax]

Is that what Wilde was referring to yesterday?

You mean the why don't I Tweet much anymore? Or the one where he stood by Demovsky's character?

I think they both referenced the last few days, Lang and Munn, respectively. The internet really went after JSO after that Lang Tweet and Demovsky was getting some serious feedback as well.

But I'm not sure that is the entire answer. He disappeared for awhile after his wife lost their third child, understandable, to say the least. And I am not sure he ever was online as much even after the season started. He has a new job as well. Get the sense that all of it plays a role in being offline.

I didn't find much useful in that Cheesehead TV podcast, but I think Nagler is right that reporters are not equipped for becoming the focus of the story. Perhaps some time with Ari Fleischer would help. Mostly, I think they understand its better for them to not be noticed and shutting up is the easiest way to do that.

[Fritz]

You mean the why don't I Tweet much anymore? Or the one where he stood by Demovsky's character?

I think they both referenced the last few days, Lang and Munn, respectively. The internet really went after JSO after that Lang Tweet and Demovsky was getting some serious feedback as well.

But I'm not sure that is the entire answer. He disappeared for awhile after his wife lost their third child, understandable, to say the least. And I am not sure he ever was online as much even after the season started. He has a new job as well. Get the sense that all of it plays a role in being offline.

I didn't find much useful in that Cheesehead TV podcast, but I think Nagler is right that reporters are not equipped for becoming the focus of the story. Perhaps some time with Ari Fleischer would help. Mostly, I think they understand its better for them to not be noticed and shutting up is the easiest way to do that.


Reporter: Mrs. TJ's mom, is your son's shoulder injury the reason he's been playing so shitty lately?

Mrs. Lang: As a matter of fact, Corey Linsley's mom and I have been over and over the last few game tapes to try to figure our why those boys have been playing like shit. They're just not picking up those middle blitzers. Me, I think it's mostly on Corey, but you'd have to ask his mom about that.

[Pugger]

GB P-G and JS are morphing into The National Inquirer. :roll:

[Patler]

Is this the article stemming from the call to parents that Lang was complaining about? It appears to gave come from a long interview with Lacy's mother, and quotes her extensively about a lot of things:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/packers22-b99619847z1-352790091.html

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It seems a piece with it, but really has no relation to Lang that I can see. Unless they were canvassing for candidates to write about the effect of losing and injuries on a player and their family's reaction to it.

Though Lang did have to curb a problem with drinking. Maybe they were going to link eating out and drinking?

[Patler]

It seems a piece with it, but really has no relation to Lang that I can see. Unless they were canvassing for candidates to write about the effect of losing and injuries on a player and their family's reaction to it.

Though Lang did have to curb a problem with drinking. Maybe they were going to link eating out and drinking?


Was Lang talking about HIS parents, or just the parents of some player? That was never clear to me.

[pbmax]

Was Lang talking about HIS parents, or just the parents of some player? That was never clear to me.

I assumed his, but it could have been Lacy's.

[esoxx]

Where's the beef?