Terrific Read on Belichick's "Masterful" Handling of the Media

[Ian]

Spotted this on Forbes.com - great read if you haven't seen it:

Inside Bill Belichick's Masterful Game Of Media Manipulation

 

[Tony2046]

Boy. Borges comes off as a whiny twit in that article.


OT: can you increasethe spacing of the ratings? When using my phone I often hit the wrong rating. Either that or I could stick my finger in an electric pencil sharpener.

 

[Gwedd]

Nice article, Ian. Thanks for that find. And yeah, Borges does come off as whiny and petulant.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Why am I not surprised to see a Manza-Young whine in that piece? Thank goodness she's no longer with the Globe.

 

[Jackson 2]

Why am I not surprised to see a Manza-Young whine in that piece? Thank goodness she's no longer with the Globe.

As pointed out by one of the people commenting on the piece, Manza-Young ended up apologizing to Dobson and admitting her source fed her false information. Well, maybe she should have leaned on the old journalism practice of having a story like that one confirmed by at least 2 other sources, which she didn't. Of course, she's hardly alone in that department in this day and age when getting the scoop overrides such out-of-date standards. Hey, look at it this way: when placed in juxtaposition with how Mortensen handled being fed false information, Manza-Young at least had the integrity to apologize to Dobson. Of course, she didn't apologize to her readers, but that's a truly long-gone practice.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Why am I not surprised to see a Manza-Young whine in that piece? Thank goodness she's no longer with the Globe.

I don't get what was so underhanded w BB saying the Dobson story was false. How did he demean her? He refuted the story. Maybe she should have gone to him and tried to confirm it instead of him trying to smooth it out.

Wouldn't it have been smarter to remove the risk of BB damaging her credibility by going to him first?

She f-ed up. He knew it and scorched her.

Maybe if she actually did her job it never would have happened.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

As pointed out by one of the people commenting on the piece, Manza-Young ended up apologizing to Dobson and admitting her source fed her false information. Well, maybe she should have leaned on the old journalism practice of having a story like that one confirmed by at least 2 other sources, which she didn't. Of course, she's hardly alone in that department in this day and age when getting the scoop overrides such out-of-date standards. Hey, look at it this way: when placed in juxtaposition with how Mortensen handled being fed false information, Manza-Young at least had the integrity to apologize to Dobson. Of course, she didn't apologize to her readers, but that's a truly long-gone practice.

So Manza-Young was wrong, Belichick called her out on it, and she even apologized to Dobson.

But that didn't stop her from complaining in this piece about how Belichick tried to discredit her story. Even though she was wrong and he was right, she's complaining about him.

Thank goodness she's gone. Totally useless.

 

[Jackson 2]

So Manza-Young was wrong, Belichick called her out on it, and she even apologized to Dobson.

But that didn't stop her from complaining in this piece about how Belichick tried to discredit her story. Even though she was wrong and he was right, she's complaining about him.

Thank goodness she's gone. Totally useless.

What was there about my post that you disagreed with?

 

[Hammer of Thor]

After many years of covering Belichick, it’s not his annoyance with the press that Borges takes issue with, but the apparent enjoyment he receives from humiliating those who cross his path. “Many of the people who are so enthusiastic about how Bill Belichick operates, if they were working for him, their asses would be in the HR department in about 15 minutes. All of the things they’re cheering, they wouldn’t like it. They’d be crying about it,” he says.

Borges, after all these years, you *still* don't get it, do you? It's not all about you for heaven's sake. You are not Bill Belichick's employee. His players and his assistant coaches are. In a sport where morale means almost as much as talent, if his players hated him they would be losing. You see this all the time in the NFL. Instead, they go balls to the wall for him. Over 17 years, how many former players and coaches have ripped Belichick after they left? A dozen at the most? Out of the 1,000+ guys who have been on his roster at some point? Instead you have players admiring him for being straight with them and telling the truth. You have, "I'll do anything for you. Anything!" like Julian Edelman said after Super Bowl 49. To me, Belichick sounds like a hard guy to work for due to perfectionism and very high standards, but someone who is fair, respects his employees, and is willing to get down in the weeds and teach things when the employees don't know. That's not a guy who gets HR claims against him; maybe a "can you be a little nicer when delivering bad news" comment but that's it.

You know what you are, Borges, you and your media ilk? You are the outside regulators. You are the auditors. The necessary evil. You need to understand that. In the business world, everyone hates them. Some people treat them with more contempt that others. Imagine being at your job, but 1 hour every day an auditor or regulator stands side by side with you, watching you work and asking questions? That's what sports media is. Now imagine that this auditor or regulator has no real clue about what you do, but that person thinks they know it all. That's what you are, Ron Borges. Auditors understand this and still move on with their lives. Why hasn't this dawned on you yet?

I deal with this crap all the time on my job. I've been in my industry for literally 6 months longer than Belichick has been with the Patriots. It's involved a dozen of extremely difficult professional qualification exams that took 9 years of my life, plus daily work over the years, just for me to begin to understand this stuff thoroughly myself. And then I work directly with auditors who are fresh out of college and drew the short straw and got assigned the one area that gets brushed over in business school because, "it's too complicated, just learn everything else and then you can deal with this later in your careers if have to." We all understand and deal with it. But when we get this kid who is a know-it-all who thinks he understands things but really doesn't, whoa boy..... I wish I could be like Belichick in those instances! I totally understand where Belichick is coming from.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Belichick is the boss everybody complains about until they look around and realize they still have their jobs because their business is still making money and the rest are losing money and laying people off.

 

[Seacoast Fan]

The other thing drives me crazy about the media is people like Borges and Felger have no hesitation about humiliating athletes or coaches or even fans whenever they want to. They call them frauds, losers, quitters and whiners, etc. But God forbid anybody turn that criticism around to a member of the media. Not to bring up old stories but that was one of the things that drove me nuts about the Deossie story a couple of years ago when the video clip of emerged of him jumping on patriots fans. People called him a fraud and a hypocrite and Felger in particular went nuts about that. As if Felger doesn't make a living doing that.

 

[borg]

So Manza-Young was wrong, Belichick called her out on it, and she even apologized to Dobson.

But that didn't stop her from complaining in this piece about how Belichick tried to discredit her story. Even though she was wrong and he was right, she's complaining about him.

Thank goodness she's gone. Totally useless.

""He called Manza-Young’s report “completely false,” which she took as a personal affront.""

Guess BB is supposed to be more concerned about reporters' feelings than accuracy. I cannot think of a lower life form than "sports reporter"

 

[DarrylS]

Talk radio is not much different...just got home after listening to the dulcid tones of Rich Keefe, Adam Jones and Curly Haired Boyfriend am convinced that more people in this media market are permanently butt hurt because of their perception of how unfair BB is or he does not know what he is doing.

Their need to try to create controversy is greater than their need to be a fan.. they went on and on as to why #12 should not play tonite, how risky it is for him to play, on and on and on and on??..

 

[patfanken]

Talk radio is not much different...just got home after listening to the dulcid tones of Rich Keefe, Adam Jones and Curly Haired Boyfriend am convinced that more people in this media market are permanently butt hurt because of their perception of how unfair BB is or he does not know what he is doing.

Their need to try to create controversy is greater than their need to be a fan.. they went on and on as to why #12 should not play tonite, how risky it is for him to play, on and on and on and on??..

My tolerance level for Felger just hit a new low. I lasted less than a minute when he unveiled his newest Patriot contrarian rants

1. They compared Bellichick's record with all his other QB's with his record with Brady. Clearly there is a great difference in the 2. So now Felger suggests that BB's legacy is now in jeopardy if JG doesn't do well, because it will prove that it was all Brady and not BB.

2. BB is irrevocably harming JG's development both mentally and physically, by "catering" to Brady's need to play in these "meaningless" pre-season games.

I don't even know what to say about these 2 latest examples of click bait. Evidently its working because I seem to feel the need to comment on it.

To think that JG is that mentally weak that missing a couple of series in a preseason game will somehow damage him just shows how little they know about football. To think that Brady doesn't need the full speed work with what faces him, just confirms their football ignorance. You just don't walk away from the game for a month and expect to come back like nothing happened. Just look at the 3-9 example last week.

And that stat manipulation crap I mentioned first is SOOOOOOO catered to the football ignorant it incenses me no end. You don't know ANYTHING about football if you think that just one guy can be responsible for 13 years of 10 win seasons. And to think idiots like them will now give themselves the right to judge BB's legacy on a single 4 game stretch in September of 2016.

Don't forget that these are the same raging hypocrites that were pontificating about the upcoming major QB controversy after JG's excellent performance just a WEEK earlier. I can't understand how they can look in the mirror every morning. They have NO integrity at all. It's all about the clicks and what you have to say to get air time.

When I think about I can't even keep writing for fear I will drive my fingers through the keyboard.

 

[Koma]

The other thing drives me crazy about the media is people like Borges and Felger have no hesitation about humiliating athletes or coaches or even fans whenever they want to. They call them frauds, losers, quitters and whiners, etc. But God forbid anybody turn that criticism around to a member of the media. Not to bring up old stories but that was one of the things that drove me nuts about the Deossie story a couple of years ago when the video clip of emerged of him jumping on patriots fans. People called him a fraud and a hypocrite and Felger in particular went nuts about that. As if Felger doesn't make a living doing that.

A great example of that is Marc Bertrand calling Kevin Garnett out of shape.

 

[oldrover]

My tolerance level for Felger just hit a new low. I lasted less than a minute when he unveiled his newest Patriot contrarian rants.

Oooh... that reminds me... time to get in some target practice...

 

[DarrylS]

Remember when talk show radio used to be interesting and informative... now they want me to be mad about something, anything..

 

[Jackson 2]

Remember when talk show radio used to be interesting and informative... now they want me to be mad about something, anything..

So, so much of it is phony and contrived. Nearly all of them now express made-up viewpoints and spew stuff they really don't believe just to generate listeners and calls. The more outrageous, the better.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I would not want to be Felgie in a room when Ken walked in

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

""He called Manza-Young’s report “completely false,” which she took as a personal affront.""

Guess BB is supposed to be more concerned about reporters' feelings than accuracy. I cannot think of a lower life form than "sports reporter"

I'm going with Politician as a lower form.

not to make this thread "political"