I Hate Pittsburgh Media
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Bob Pompeani and Charlie Batch have my full respect. These other clowns I wouldn't pay to wash my car. Is our city just too small to have better journalist? We have one of the best journalism schools in the country in Point Park ..
The fact that Pitt doesn't have a journalism school is a big part of the problem.
Saunders and Kozara are good, Kozara is especially insightful into the game itself. Probably the best in town.
I don't follow Pomp or Batch.
There's a huge swath of garbage below those guys that varies from Dulac (lazy and doesn't add value) to Madden (mean, liar, and outright troll).
Having lived in a bunch of cities in the last 15 years - DC, Vegas, Philly, and Atlanta - I can definitely say that Pittsburgh has the worst local sports media of my lifetime.
I don't follow Pomp or Batch.
There's a huge swath of garbage below those guys that varies from Dulac (lazy and doesn't add value) to Madden (mean, liar, and outright troll).
Having lived in a bunch of cities in the last 15 years - DC, Vegas, Philly, and Atlanta - I can definitely say that Pittsburgh has the worst local sports media of my lifetime.
I'm a Pitt alumnus who spent decades in journalism, including working for one of the nation's largest and most prestigious newspapers. The thinking at the time (the mid-80s) was that it was better to teach undergraduates to be good writers and excellent critical thinkers. Hence, there was (and probably still is) an English Writing major that was required to be paired with a second (dual) major. In my case, that was business.
The Pitt writing and business degrees have served me exceptionally well -- so much so that I don't think a journalism degree was necessary.
Furthermore, Pittsburgh is and was a medium-sized media market. Unless you're from Pittsburgh or particularly love it there (which I did), most ambitious and talented journalists eventually want to move on to bigger (or more financially stable) media markets.
IMO, Pittsburgh media really suffers from two related problems:
- The "Rival School" problem
- a ton of the local media went to schools which have an active animus toward the local college (e.g., Syracuse, Penn State, and WVU).
- a ton of Pittsburgh residents went to those same schools
- reporting can pretty safely attack the local school, since both the writers and the audience seem to want that.
- This leads to a lot of truly biased and sometimes even hack coverage of the local school.
- Provincialism
- Pittsburgh, and I love it, is not a big place. People in the US don't think about Pittsburgh very often. And it's sufficiently far from the major media centers that if you go to Pittsburgh, you are unlikely to go much further in your journalism career.
- So the local reporters can't really appeal to a national market. Thus they need to fall back on pleasing the local audience even more, which leads back to the problems in #1 above.
Pompeani and Batch our hard to watch on Steeler Preseason games and if Bob replaces Bill as play by play on the radio that will be disappointing.
I stopped ingesting sports media for the most part ten or so years ago. That crap is worse for you than diet pop. Back then it didn't seem to me that Pittsburgh was much different than any other city. It's garbage everywhere. I blame ESPN. Something happened to them through the 90's. They went from great and making sports better in the late 80's to being total trash and ruining everything they covered by 2000. I think they were the trend setters to all these over the top attitudes and all the vapid takes in lieu of enlightening coverage.
Pittsburgh is a major city though. Its hard to believe that it doesn't have a journalism school, being there are many opportunities for internships and jobs. Are there other major cities that don't have journalism schools? Does Duquesne or CMU?
I was hoping that when Karlo left Pitt he would latch on with a local media company. Dorin is pretty good but man do I hate 93.7 the fan. I want to listen to him but I can't stomach the rest of them. I used to like Zeise but I've soured on him too.
I just too many people on here judge "sports journalists" with how favorable to Pitt sports. Pitt sports obviously doesn't move the needle or there would be more (and more favorable) coverage of it.
So this is not aimed at you specifically, but to everyone on this forum. Being a homer for Pitt does not mean you are a competent or good sports journalist.
Finally, Pittsburgh has fallen as a media market. Sure, at one time it was a "medium sized", but it was big medium sized market. Guys like Cope and some of the old guard had some national gigs like Sports Illustrated. Even Ron Cook was asked to be on one of those ESPN Reporters shows. But the market has shrunk and also, "shock" journalists and yelling/screaming/hot takes have replaced alot of the people who are objective sports journalists.
Totally agree!! I've lived in several cities and I can without question say that the Pittsburgh media is comically worse than any media I've experienced....AND IT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE!
Are you sure you just weren't as emotionally invested in the teams playing in those other cities, so you're indifferent to how they cover the teams?
Nope he is right, but I think it's because Pittsburgh is actually a very boring city known for very little beyond the Steelers and well.....Steel. Other posters hit the nail on the head when they said they pander and obsess. They don't really do their homework on stories. There is a reason a fat blob like Mark Madden is so popular here.
I traveled a lot and most of it was driving. I was shocked at how different it was in other cities. Like, nobody carried the water for the local teams but most of the media types were also fair and realistic with any criticism.
pittsburgh is a pro market city, as is the media. they just dont care about college athletics and it shows in their coverage and knowledge. This isnt even a pitt thing because i've seen many PSU fans and wvu fans in the city make the same complaints.
they say pittsburgh media loves pitt, we say pittsburgh media loves psu meanwhile, the pittsburgh media doesnt really care about either..
they say pittsburgh media loves pitt, we say pittsburgh media loves psu meanwhile, the pittsburgh media doesnt really care about either..
Not even - it's just not the Pitt coverage, it's the coverage of all the sports in the area.
Mostly terrible everywhere I've been, but I'd put Pgh below the line for sure.
Plus, basically the local tv, radio, print here use PSU as their hr ....
Plus, basically the local tv, radio, print here use PSU as their hr ....
I'd say this is the truth. The sports media here is truly awful, without a doubt. Even local guys on national sites, like Kaboly, are terrible.
That said, there's way too much insecurity here about the media hating on Pitt. They do a bad job on all of the teams, and I don't think there is any bias. They are just piss-poor, period.
A poster above talked about market size, and I think that is valid. I know what some media people make around here, and it's not much. No wonder most of them are in foul moods all of the time. Anybody who is good is leaving to make more money, and only the dregs are left behind. We all know that Starkey and Dunlap aren't sniffing jobs in Philly.
I mean, they have journalism, but...Bob Pompeani and Charlie Batch have my full respect. These other clowns I wouldn't pay to wash my car. Is our city just too small to have better journalist? We have one of the best journalism schools in the country in Point Park ..
yeah, the anti-pitt rhetoric is nonsense. many times, 93.7 has wanted to talk pitt football or hoops and no one calls in so they go back to stiller or pens talk. i cant blame them, no one calls in, on a caller - dominated sports talk format show, and well there you have it.
they bring up psu or wvu football, no one calls in either. they'll have James from state college call in or do a segment with Huggins and same thing, in does not bring in callers to keep the subject going. no one in pittsburgh is calling in to discuss psu, pitt or wvu football, same thing with pitt hoops and the hosts cant carry a segment of talking about it without calles.
we will talk about the backup pens goalie situation in october or who is the safety opposite Minkah all day for weeks but talk about the upcoming pitt or psu game, no chance.. just a pro city mentality. college sports is amateur hour in this city with the average sports fan..
the callers dictate the topic sadly, not the hosts. which if you think about, is pathetic and brings up ammo for this city's sports media being weak but that's for another thread..
I've been told it will be Rob King replacing Hillgrove but hell idk
In the Fan's defense. I mean, Bostic was cohost this AM this week. Dorin is a morning host. Zeise is on with Starkey almost constantly. Mueller and Poni, despite what people try to project, are pro Pitt. It is so much more Pitt friendly. Just Pitt doesn't move the needle.
The NFL is the giant, it is the EPL of this country. And the Steelers are Liverpool or Man United. So not only is it an NFL city, but you got one of the 3-4 most iconic franchises here. So they make the rules as much as I and you hate it. The Penguins since 1985 have had the best player in the world on their roster more times than not, and have won more Championships than anyone else (at least tied). So that's a pretty big legacy now. And the Pirates operate when there is no competition for most of their season, so yeah they are going to generate interest.
I would love to have more guests on to do deep dives into NIL and these conferences, etc....but people's eyes glaze over and they get bored, rather talk about Sid Bream or who is going to challenge for the backup holder for the Steelers.
Earlier this year I happened to be in the car running some errands on a Saturday morning. And for some reason as I was flipping through the channels I stopped on Pompeani's radio show and left it on for a few minutes. Bob was talking about the Pirates and how they should be signing some free agent batters. This was mid-March, so it's not like there were a whole lot of guys out there, but caller number one suggested, apparently with a straight face, that the Pirates should offer Joey Votto a one year, $10 million contract. Which is surely one of the most absurd things that anyone could have suggested that they do.
And maybe Bob is too nice a guy to tell the guy that he's an idiot, but instead of telling him that Bob tells him that they could use Votto, but that price might be a little too high (yeah, ya think?). Instead, Bob was pissed off, I mean really pissed off, because if the Pirates would just offer Cody Bellinger a one year, $17 million contract he'd take that in a heartbeat, and shame on the Pirates for not doing so.
A couple days later, Bellinger signed a deal with the Cubs. Three years, $80 million. And with an opt out after year one, when he is getting paid $27.5 million.
I wonder, when that story came across the wire, if Bob thought to himself, man, I was a real idiot for thinking that he'd sign a one year, $17 million deal with the Pirates, to the point where I was pissed off that they weren't doing it.
Probably not.
I like Rob. Good man. Shared a coffee in line at Cub Scout camp 15 years ago.
Next time you should each get your own coffee
Too many people around here just look at the population of the city — that means nothing! Pittsburgh has an enormous amount of suburbs, many of which would be part of the city in other areas of the country! It’s the size of the metro area that counts! Allegheny County has 1.23 million people! We are the 37th largest metro area in the country! To put that into perspective, Las Vegas is the 43rd largest metro area, Cincinnati is the 44th largest, Kansas City is #45, Columbus is #46, and Cleveland is #47.
Joe Starkey is an ass clown
I am sure there are fine people there doing good work, but Point Park isn't going to appear anywhere on the list of even say the Top 50 journalism programs in the country
I don't think that's right (the US government says that the Pittsburgh metropolitan statistical area is 27th, so maybe a typo?), but I wonder if you realize that it wasn't really all that long ago that Pittsburgh was a top 20 metro area.
If recent trends continue Pittsburgh will fall behind Sacramento and Las Vegas down to 29th before the end of the decade.
This is... not a compelling argument for Pittsburgh as a major city.
But to be fair, I don't consider Vegas, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Cleveland, or Columbus to be major cities, either.
I think that’s a fair statement. I have a Master’s degree in from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York and I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning Point Park as a top or even good journalism school. Some journalism schools, like Columbia, Missouri and Northwestern, are strong across the board; others, like Syracuse, are strong in one area. But, I never have heard Point Park mentioned in any area.
I also think it's because a lot of Pitt fans kind of got tired of some of the crap they were spewing about Pitt, too, and just stopped listening.
I remember those commercials in the 80's for the Columbia School of Broadcasting!!! Not affiliated with CBS.
meh, I really wish the Steelers would look outside the box and consider a national search. Their hires are mostly lazy.
