I do not dispute his facts & I like what he has done so far. I guess my point is that I read that story as having a negative spin to it ...this is just as bad as cheer-leading. For example, he could have mentioned (as i believe you or he did already in an earlier article) that we had to battle so many injuries. Heck we had 4 different guys give us snaps this year. I must have missed the mention of Zak Kennedy, etc. . I did see him mention of a tweet (which is really just a thing for me). Tweets belong here on the board, not in a paper. Also mentioning Pelini went 5-6 is fair game, mentioning he missed the play-offs is sliding a bit more negative (as the point is obvious), but I understand that casual readers may not know this. However, to then move on and give us a month-by-month breakdown in the next paragraph yet, was going too far.
Look I understand a few things about writing and how newspaper stories usually do not even resemble actual writing. The idea is to be factual and quick. However, let's look at editing for a second ...count the number of items in that article that are negative & put them on the left side of a page. Then do the same for the positive YSU/Pelini comments made and place them on the right. In this article, I think the right side of your paper would be empty ...then so should the left side. Many editors used to demand this.
Again I have no stake in this, but any beat writer needs to establish themselves as a fan of the teams they cover.
No, a beat writer absolutely does not HAVE to be a fan. Most editors will tell you that's the last thing they want. Can someone who is a fan write objectively about a team he covers? Sure. It happens every day in probably every press box in America. But it is not a prerequisite and it should not be obvious in stories that the writer is a fan. It doesn't work that way in journalism.
That said, yes, it's better for everyone when the teams we cover win. More people will want to read about winning teams and it helps the relationships go better if all our questions aren't about why the team didn't win. See: Cleveland Browns. A reporter can want the team to win for all of those reasons, but he can't cheer for the team. That's why I won't wear a YSU hat/shirt to a game. Or OSU garb to an OSU game. Or Browns stuff to a Browns game. Even the appearance of cheering in the press box or in your coverage is unforgivable.
Also, I will argue until I die that facts are not positive or negative. They're simply facts. Someone's perception of them can be positive or negative, but that's different. Further, we didn't need to mention Zak Kennedy in an eight-inch story about Bo Pelini calling those UK rumors ridiculous. The story was not about any individual players. But how YSU did overall in Pelini's first season was, and is, relevant.
And to be fair, if those rumors weren't already out there and being tweeted and retweeted locally, there would be no need to follow up on them with Pelini to either confirm or deny their veracity. That's one of the things I dislike about social media, but that's how it is today and we adjust accordingly.
