I think that Fred's point is a really good one and it's getting lost on a lot of people and that is: the Boston media likes to think that they're brain surgeons and that their job is so important that no one is intelligent enough to do what they do, understand what they see, talk about what they talk about.
That's a pretty good point, but there wasn't a whole lot of that in Fred's rant yesterday. Edes wrote a column about Bobby Valentine, not about Toucher and Rich. He mentioned the question Rich asked as a vehicle of showing Bobby V's misguided belief that he's the best man for the job.
Edes didn't say anything negative about the show, or Rich, he just said it was weird for talk show hosts to be at a pre-game PC, and that if they were looking for a reaction out of Bobby V, (which I think it's insane to argue that they were NOT) that they probably didn't get what they wanted.
That's not being condescending, that's not sticking up for the "way things are done" and it's not some sort of warning that these yahoo radio hosts need to shut their mouths when the big boys are talking. It was a throw-away sentence and a half to make a larger point about Bobby Valentine.
This has been going on for at least 15 years, but when Bill Simmons started his site and put a face to the faceless bloggers (you know the ones living in their mom's basements), the Boston media assembled and railed against them (Simmons in particular). When message boards, such as SoSH, began to get popular it was "BOSTON MEDIA ASSEMBLE!" and again, they said that we were just "fans" who had no idea about the teams. Then when an athlete like Curt Schilling completely bypasses the middle man and talks directly to the fans (on this site, if you recall) the media has a huge hissy fit (remember Mazz' "Maybe I won't publicize his charity" comment). Recently when they started getting their lunch handed to them by the national guys about the Sox, again it was circle the wagons time and the national guys were just "shit stirrers making it tough for the beat guys" and "all of their stuff was blown out of proportion". Now it's time to gather troops and rip on a guy who made the unforgivable error of not waiting his turn and asking a question that may be a bit tougher than the usual "Hey Bobby, how about the Yankees tonight, huh?"
OK, but Edes didn't do that. And I got news for you, none of the other writers even mentioned that Rich was there. Edes was the only one, and he hardly was looking down his nose at Rich for being there. Not one other Boston writer has made mention of Rich's question. So I'm not sure what the "BOSTON MEDIA ASSEMBLE" idea has to do with this situation here.
Fuck them. These guys are so set in their ways and are so insular that any time something new comes down the pipe, they collectively shit their pants. And do they address the person face-to-face? No, of course not. They run to their computers and type up a passive-aggressive "story". As I've said before, I like Gordon Edes a lot, but this herd mentality of the Boston media is bogus. From the false "the Boston media is the toughest in the country" to the predictable, "I'm in the clubhouse, you're not and I know a lot of things" air of superiority that they have while on the radio or during chats, it's ridiculous. They're the incestuous middle-aged white male equivalent of the Plastics or the Heathers or whatever exclusionary teenage girl clique cliche that you can think of.
I don't necessarily disagree with any of this, but again, Edes doesn't do these things. Edes has called for Bobby to be fired several times this season, he has reported a lot on the clubhouse dysfunction, and he wrote a great column ripping on Lucchino's letter to the Season Ticket holders. He's hardly some front office mouthpiece.
Like I said these guys act as if they're doing God's work but in reality they're covering a dead-ass, last place ball club in the final days of death march of a shit season. It's a big deal that a host from a sports radio station asked Bobby Valentine a different question that didn't follow some bullshit protocol? And this is something that adults write about while they're clucking their tongues? Give me a break. They need some perspective on their lots in life. Badly.
One last thing, I'd rather listen to Rich's "off-the-wall" questions rather than read one more of St. Nick Cafardo of the vaunted and tough Boston media's idiot clown columns that run on Sundays in the Boston Globe. Apropos of something: do your fucking job, ask questions that mean something and quit carrying water for your buddies. How about that for a change?
Towards the end of the show I thought Fred was actually being totally honest when he said that T&R is not a sports talk show, they try to make people laugh in the morning. Rich might be the best production guy in the country, and if he asked that question and Bobby blows up then they have material until the end of the season, bits, songs, whatever, and their presence at the press conference was in part to ask a question from the fans but also in part to get a reaction from Bobby, I don't think there's any possible way you can deny that. If Bobby blows up, I doubt they go after Edes, because what Edes wrote really wasn't anything sensational or negative about them.
T&R aren't typical sports talk show hosts, and I think that what they do every morning is refreshing, entertaining, and overall fantastic radio. But flipping out on Edes like that was, IMO, an overreaction due to the fact that they didn't get the bit they wanted from Bobby.
