I’m not sure I should be writing about this.

If we’ve learned anything about sports media members, it is that they’ll do anything for attention – good, bad or embarrassing.

Part of me still suspects that at least some of this Joe Haggerty weirdo column and the Kirk Minihane hit piece today was done for attention and that I’m feeding into that by writing about it.

On Haggerty – I find his reaction and excuse-making worse than his actual column.

First it happened because he was tired from working SO hard. Being at the ice early in the morning, and going all day and night and being on TV and then filing the column. Of course, all the other writers covering the team worked the same hours, and they weren’t inserting references to 13-year-old girls into their articles.

Then he threw his editors under bus, saying he just sent it along and figured he’d wake up to a heavily-edited piece. That’s professional pride at work right there. I know it sucks, but the editors have nothing better to do at 2AM, let them clean up my mess.

Then he went on 98.5 and played grab-ass with the Toucher and Rich show, downplaying the seriousness of it, like this sort of thing could happen to anyone.

He deserved to be called out on it, and he was, Deadspin picked up on it, Chad Finn wrote a post about it.

Haggerty’s words from the 98.5 interview, sort of say all you need to know about him:

“I made Deadspin. That’s always a great thing for a journalist. Excellent.”

Well, getting attention was his goal, he achieved it. It’s not like he’s purposely gone out and tried to manufacture a story and bring attention to himself by making it on Deadspin.

Then, this morning, Kirk Minihane weighed in – Hockey writer’s latest misstep hard to fathom.

Minihane acknowledges bad feelings between himself and Haggerty. He hits hard. He makes some very valid points while going so far as to call for a suspension for Haggerty. He also gets personal and it is clear that this whole column has been written because of the bad feelings he has for Haggerty. It is a personal hit piece.

I’m surprised that Rob Bradford and company at WEEI.com actually allowed this column to be published. Unless of course its all about the publicity and looking for clicks. Then it is understandable.

Then followed endless talk on both stations about this “story.” Dennis and Callahan behind their guy Kirk and Toucher and Rich supporting Haggerty. At one point Toucher discussing Minihane, said something along the lines of “Writing for a radio station is like jogging for an accounting firm” whatever that means.

Haggerty writes for a TV station. How is that any different?

There have been a lot of jibes thrown back and forth about trying “actual journalism” and questioning the “journalistic compass” and being “on the edge of trouble journalistically recently” as well as “journalistic indiscretions” and being “everything that’s wrong with journalism.”

In the end though, this is just taking sides and throwing rocks. Haggerty vs Minihane,  WEEI vs TheSportsHub, radio vs TV.

We’ve got the NFL draft starting tonight, the Bruins and Canadiens play game four tonight with the Bruins on the edge of a must-win situation, and the Red Sox finally reached .500 on the season.

And we have to talk about Joe Haggerty and Kirk Minihane?  Why am I writing about this?

THAT is everything that is wrong with the so-called sports media today.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

36 thoughts on “Embarrassment All Around In Haggerty/ Minihane Incident”

  1. Great piece, Bruce. Although to be fair to Fred Toucher, I’m not sure if you listened to his earlier comments, but he basically echoed your overall conclusion of how ridiculous that people are making a big deal out of this.

    He even (in what I thought was hilarious fashion) put himself and practically all of sports media under the bus in a rant by saying how nothing that they do really means anything or is of “importance”.

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  2. Good column Bruce, I can’t believe hacks would throw his editors under the bus like that. Could you ever imagine seeing that at a newspaper or news based website?
    Also why is everyone on the hub giving him a free pass? Yesterday Felger was making excuses and basically saying they don’t have editors at csn as good as the ones at newspapers. As a writer how do you not proof read your work?

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  3. To me, its the apparently fabricated quote from Chara being overlooked. How is this not more an issue? how many other things has he made up in the past? The guy is a buffoon, and a horrible “journalist” as he refers to himself. I’ve had personal experience with him and believe me when I tell you, this couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. A complete a-hole.

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  4. Didn’t this clown attack Heidi Watney back in 2011 for not being a journalist? CSNNE needs to fire his ass now. I like what Minihane did here. Much too often they protect their own. This was needed.

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  5. The dumbest part of it all, is that Game 4 between the Bruins and Habs is tonight and I had to listen to this garbage for the entirety of my commute.

    Both stations can screw as far as I’m concerned right now. I’ll just listen to music and podcasts.

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  6. I don’t see what the big deal is. Haggerty looks pretty lame for trying to blame anyone else, but in the end what did he do? It’s much ado about nothing – mediot douchebags attempting to bring each other down. Fred Toucher was right about one thing, that is, mediots (and I extend that far beyond the sports beat) take their jobs far too seriously. Beyond basic entertainment value, I have no use for anyone employed by or the existence of media reporting outlets. Broadcast the games, publish the stats and I’ll figure out the rest.

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  7. Kirk did it for the clicks, plain and simple. “His” show is getting clobbered in the ratings and any sort or controversy to get a few reads is what he wanted, and maybe got.
    As far as T&R comparing it to jogging for a an accounting firm, his point is clear that writing for a radio station means NOTHING, as in pointless, like big deal etc etc.
    I feel Kirk looks like a big fraud in this case. He is calling out Haggs, yet works with two guys who at worse may be racist, and at best certainly like making racially insensative comments whenever possible. Seems like he had a bone to pick with Joe Hags. Perhaps next time he will pick his battles a bit better.

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  8. I have to say that Haggerty’s routine has grown old. Never really been a fan of his. I agree that this needed to be done by Minihane. I agree that media people often protect there own. I like Toucher and Rich but have found myself listening to D & C more since Minihane joined the show. He brings an edge and isn’t afraid to go against what is popular to express his opinion. Does a lot better job than that fraud Haggerty.

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  10. Bruce,

    Haggerty’s original column is an easy one to figure out:

    Peter Gammons’ Twitter account wrote it and “BIG E.”, of Jared Remy “letters from prison” copywriting fame, edited it.

    Or, maybe Haggs was channeling his inner Hunter S. Thompson and doing a “Fear and Loathing in Montreal”.

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  11. always a big fan of, “Media on Media crime”…but I don’t trust these people as far as I can throw em’…like Bruce said, they love any kind of attention. Wouldn’t shock me at all if Hags and Kirk are having a drink together right now, yukking it up about the “Firestorm” they created

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  12. Don’t have a problem at all with Minihane’s takedown of Haggerty, especially after Haggs called Minihane a hack blogger “writing from his Mom’s basement” (paraphrasing) on CSNNE some years ago. This clown does realize that HE used to write for WEEI, right?

    http://www.weei.com/columnists/joe-haggerty

    This isn’t the first time Haggerty’s been called out for failing to do his job, either. In 2010, Haggerty was the scheduled Labor Day morning (6-10 am) fill-in on WEEI, along with Bob Neumeier. Only he completely blew it off–flat out failied to show up and didn’t bother calling ahead of time to say he wouldn’t be there.

    After Neumie and the producers spent a large portion of the show lambasting him for his lack of professionalism, Haggs eventually called the show 5 minutes before it was over with some lame-ass excuse for his no-show. Claimed his phone died and his alarm never went off, causing him to oversleep for 5+ hours.

    The truth eventually came out that Haggerty had in fact not overslept, but rather decided to blow off his WEEI obligation to attend a fantasy football draft. It was clear at the time that this was not another premeditated WEEI stunt (a la Mikey Adams locking himself in the studio) – Neumie was legitimately peeved.

    Take a listen to the archived ‘EEI audio for yourself: http://audio.weei.com/a/33993015/sleey-pork-chop.htm

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    1. Interesting.

      Finn’s chat yesterday had a # of questions about the incident. Chad had to keep saying that what happened is basically par for the course and that he seems to have pissed a lot of people off.

      We know how “circle the wagons” Boston Lodge members are. I see absolutely nobody running to defend him or to trash Kirk. That has to tell me that he’s really pissed off a ton of people here. When Finn was asked about it multiple times on his Friday chat, he hints that different people, off the record, have said the same:

      http://t.co/0X2dipvMin

      Have to think they’re not going to be renewing his contract there? The market doesn’t exactly have a shortage of people they could get to replace (DJ Bean/Matt Kalman/etc).

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  13. INTERNAL MEMO LEAK.

    ITINERARY FOR SPORTS TALK/ESPN TODAY:

    LETS SPEND ALL DAY TALKING ABOUT HOW TEAM’S PICK SUCKS BUT OTHER TEAM WON THE DRAFT AND SUPERBOWL BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY DID. OH, YEAH, THESE KIDS HAVEN’T EVEN GOT THE PLAYBOOK YET.

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  14. Interesting post via the way of PFT:

    http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/09/seahawks-bailed-out-after-missing-on-dominique-easley/

    Via the SeattlePI.com, the Seahawks were visibly deflated when the Patriots took Florida defensive tackle Dominique Easley 29th overall.

    If well, Easley would be exactly the kind of inside rusher the
    Seahawks covet. But the Patriots did too, which left them willing to
    move out of the first round altogether.

    Remember when Seattle was the “hot shiny toy”, especially by those who love to trash BB? I assume those same people will find something but, essentially, the Patriots took what Seattle would have done.

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  15. So Felger and Strawmanotti ranted for weeks between the Super Bowl and up until the moment that the Revis signing was announced about how Bob Kraft told them the Pats would do nothing in free agency…

    Than they ranted for the last week about how Belichick would definitely trade out of the first round and offer up the usual “excuses.”

    What’s next, Bill O’Brien offers up a 4th round pick for Ryan Mallett (they’ve screamed repeatedly about how there is no probability of this happening)?

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    1. Don’t worry, the new controversy is that the millions of people made of straw who were desiring for BB to trade down aren’t immediately calling Felger & Mazz to bash BB to death. That’s the very first thing Felger said today. HUGE surprise there!

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      1. Thanks for the update. These two guys never cease to amaze. I popped into the break room at work today and heard a snippet of Tony (someone had CSNE) on the TV. Phony was engaging in some hardcore self-congratulation, you see, Belichick finally took Tony’s advice on running a NFL franchise, after all of these years of Phony providing it for free on the airwaves and in print.

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  16. This is not complicated. If ANY writer fabricates a quote (or any part of his work) he should be terminated immediately. Haggerty is a lazy, unprofessional dolt who should have been fired, not because of sloppy editing ($&#@ happens), but because he made stuff up. Complete lack of professional integrity. Might be why nobody outside of his employer group likes or respects the guy.

    This is not the first time Porkchop has done some questionable reporting. Last year TSN out of Canada broke a story involving the Bruins (if memory serves I think it was related to Seguin) on a weekend morning and no more than an hour later Haggs puts out a story which parroted the TSN info but with a claim that he had the info confirmed by a “Bruin source”. Haggs added ZERO new information to the story. All he did was claim he ran it by a source and what TSN was reporting was true. There was no doubt in my mind, based on the way the story was written, that Haggs never spoke to anyone in the Bruin organization. He just quickly put something out to make himself look connected.

    I have no idea what CSSNE sees in this guy.
    Joe Haggerty has absolutely no integrity.
    No doubt Minihane has gotten too personal with this story but I think “professional” writers find dolts like Haggerty genuinely offensive to their profession….and I don’t blame them. I think we can all relate since most of us know of/work with unprofessional people like Haggs.

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    1. You obviously have an axe to grind and there is no proof that he fabricated anything. The entire uploaded piece needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It looks like placeholder text gone bad.

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      1. No axe to grind. Just an opinion as a media consumer. Haggerty is very unprofessional and Comcast can and should strive to improve their product.

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  17. Boston Sports Mediot Trolls (BSMTs) WARNED us (YOU!) that Seguin would be a finalist for the Hart trophy… How did that work out?

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  18. Obviously it’s a bush league thing to blame the editors, but just out of curiosity, did any editor at CSNNE actually read that column? Hags “wrote” it, but someone’s gotta look at it before it goes live, right?

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    1. Are you saying that BB looks bad because Pats internal info got leaked that basically says they think he’s a diva?

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        1. Ok, got it. Agreed. He’s probably not happy that info got out there. Assuming it’s legit.

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          1. Looks like it’s fake. I saw multiple people saying that the Patriots (and maybe the NFL) don’t use any of the abbreviations for the colleges that the “report” used.

            Someone clearly went through the trouble to learn how they’re done and maybe had a good idea of what one of the Patriots ones looked like.

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  20. IMO, the most interesting sports related (not media) story of the week is this one: http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/10900270/new-england-patriots-offer-jersey-guarantee-fans

    I think cognitive scientists, psychologists and marketers will be studying the outcome of this campaign for years to come.

    Can a semi-guaranteed discount (not a money back guarantee as one might expect before reading the details) on a future purchase increase sales?

    Like

  22. For those wondering how inaccurate mock drafts are?

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579550083354271384

    The results were grim. The average mock draft was correct—matching a player with a team in the right draft slot—on 3.92 of 32 picks. If you don’t count the first two picks, which many pundits handicapped, the average number of correct picks was 2.38 per mock draft. The overall winner was year-round draft site WalterFootball.com, which had eight perfect picks. (The Journal got three picks right. Whoops.)

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  23. Breaking: Change at WEEI: WEEI 93.7 and its parent company Entercom will announce changes to its midday program Monday. Lou Merloni, the Framingham native and former Red Sox infielder, will remain as a host of the program. He will be joined by two new daily co-hosts on the 10 a.m.-2 p.m. program: former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria and Tim Benz, a New England native who is currently a host on 970 ESPN Pittsburgh and the Clear Channel Pittsburgh sports director. http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2014/05/weei_to_shake_up_midday_show_lou_merloni_to_be_joined_by_chr.html?camp=twit:tatb&dlvrit=845880

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    1. Wow, interesting move. Fauria’s good. I know nothing at all about Tim Benz, but I doubt he could be as nonsensical as Muttansky. (Of course, Michael Holley did say repeatedly in 2012 that Daniel Bard would be an immediate upgrade over John Lackey as a starter, because there was no way he could be worse.) But with two smart former athletes alongside him, it might be less Benz’ role to have strong opinions, than to be able to manage a discussion. I’m guessing that’s what Entercom is looking for in going for a three-man, instead of a two-man, format. I’ll be listening.

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    2. My thought: If they were going to swap one, I think they picked the wrong guy, but I could never listen so I’d have no honest clue if only having one of the two would work.

      Q: They’re bringing an ESPN Pittsburgh guy? I’ll give a shot but just wondering if we learned our lesson on ‘transplanting’ someone to the market? The PR is already trying to tell us how “Boston Sports” he is (I remember the same with Salk).

      Thought: Is Fauria a direct response to “we need more NFL and football because of G+Z?” Many might agree here but I think he’s fine as a guest for a segment or two. As a daily guy? I could never get into him. He doesn’t have the flow to do 4 hours and daily. Part of me still wonders why Chatham is constantly ignored. Maybe he’s not a 4-hours a day, 5-days a week host, but..

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