Midweek Thoughts, Media on Media Crime Edition

Since there’s nothing of interest going on sports-wise around Boston, the continued efforts by some of the on-air media “personalities” to stir things up and make themselves the story makes sense. Right?

The sad fact is, good old media on media crime gets people’s attention. It gets them talking about the outlets, about the personalities, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Except for the consumer, perhaps.

The last week has seen plenty of media fights, some more compelling than others.

If you missed it, (how could you?) here’s what’s been happening:

Kirk Minihane vs CSNNE (and Fred Toucher, Tony Massarotti and Dan Shaughnessy.)

Minihane said that Fred Toucher and Tony Massarotti went to the powers to be at Comcast SportsNet and asked them to keep Minihane off the air.

He also stated that Dan Shaughnessy has actively been trying to screw him over and cause him to lose work. Mostly because Minihane calls him Shank. Bart Hubbuch also factors into this, after he took the clip of Minihane saying that Roger Goodell should be “murdered” and put it on Twitter, leaving out the part where Minihane said he was joking.

Minihane, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan did an expletive-filled podcast on the topic where Kirk let loose on his enemies and what he feels they’ve done to him.

Dennis touches on his long-standing hate-feud with Gene Lavanchy as well.

Mike Adams vs Mike Mutnansky

This one is harder to judge. Whereas it’s clear that Minihane is legitimately pissed off, the episode with the evening duo on WEEI is somewhat less clear. Perhaps that’s due to Adams past – the stunt where he “locked himself in the studio” to get the evening job – comes to mind.

Last Friday night, as the show opened, Mutnansky griped about Adams going to management complaining about Mut’s performance. He jumped on Adams for not talking to him face-to-face before going the bosses. Adams acted hesitant to engage, but when he did, he unloaded, saying that Mut had been moping around ever since he was demoted from the mid-day show, and resents having to be on the evening show, which has Adam’s name on it. He said he didn’t have the heart to go to Mut because he just has his head hung all the time. Mut attacked back saying he has a family to support and that Adams should’ve been a man and talked to him about it before going to management.

After the initial storm, and when Adams had put him back in his place, Mut said he expected to be fired and “will probably be selling insurance in New Hampshire by next week” He also told a caller twenty minutes after the segment that he handled it poorly.

Adams was pretty brutal on him and obviously angry for about the first hour. He called Mut unprofessional several times, adding that it was the most unprofessional thing he’s heard in twenty years of broadcasting. Told Mut to go home numerous times and take the night off. When Mut refused, Adams threatened to go home himself.

Then it was over.

Adams calling out someone else for being unprofessional is pretty ironic. While he’s been steady since getting the evening job on WEEI, it was pretty much his last shot after blowing numerous gigs in the late 90’s-early 2000’s. (Anyone remember Mike Adams in the morning on 1510 the Zone?)

It’s hard to tell – I have to imagine Mut is probably unhappy with his current predicament, but this episode seemed a bit contrived.

Mike Reiss vs Mailbaggers

This one isn’t on the level of the two above, but Reiss announced that you won’t be seeing the mailbag each Tuesday anymore.

As he mentions, the landscape has certainly changed in the 10 years that Reiss has been doing reader mailbags. Twitter among other things, allows for interactive exchanges between the media and fans. But I wonder if there is more here. Is this Reiss stepping back a bit from the ESPN machine? Is he tired of the sports-radio fueled questions he has to answer every week? Is it because it is the same people every week? (How many times can you answer the same type of questions from “Jake in Vancouver?”)

ESPN vs Patriots

Oh yes, ESPN is still at it. In an article entitled Why the Carolina Panthers can win Super Bowl 50  by David Newton, he starts out this way:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The last time the Carolina Panthers started a season with five straight wins, they made it to the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.

They lost 32-29 in February 2004, although some that were with the Panthers’ organization then still believe the Patriots gained an advantage by illegally taping Carolina practices prior to the title game in Houston.

It’s funny. ESPN goes after Mike Reiss and gives his piece a “tighter edit” when he is simply pointing out erroneous information on another ESPN article, but this sort of thing is allowed to stand.

What’s puzzling is that the above statement has absolutely noting to do with the premise of the article.

Also, if you haven’t heard:

Tom Brady vs the Media

Brady has acknowledged that he’s scaling back his media appearances. He’s declined both times the Patriots were on NBC this season to appear after the game – a fact that NBC has made certain to point out to anyone who will listen – and his midweek sessions and postgame sessions have been noticeably shorter.

On Dennis and Callahan Tuesday morning, Brady explained why he’s lightening his media load.

Boston Herald vs their Readers

So how did this work? They have a meeting to plan the relaunch of their website – Hey guys, let’s make it look exactly like Boston.com!

Though I’ll say this, it’s can’t really be worse, performance wise, than their last site, which inevitably froze up any computer I accessed it on.

Boston Herald Sports.