It's quite telling when the message board commenter's have a better take on the abysmal 49ers/KPIX agreement to remove Dennis O'Donnell off the weekly highlight show and insert Kim Coyle as the new host.
And that's not really the story here. It's the apparent ho-hum reaction by the SF sports media, which seems more fixated between the lines and not concentrated on just what transpired between the area's #1 sports entity and its chief media partner.
..Some analysis:
*The 49ers: I don't think this petty episode got directly to Jed York's desk, but I do believe the inner-workings had to catch a little of his ear. At least I hope so. A hands-on owner who defines the front-office and is supposed to massage these types of things was no where to be found. That's not good.
*Mike Singletary: Singletary hasn't earned the right to bully a TV sports anchor, especially when the anchor was clearly over his head and flustered to the max. At the end of the now infamous interview/Jack Nicholson-'you can't handle the truth' ferklempta, O'Donnell looked as if he just got out of a root canal session. When your 0-2, (OK, technically 0-1) you have to gut it and do these weekly obligations. First off, Singletary gets paid for this and should know better. Now its apparent, he and the team want no part of O'Donnell, which only makes O'Donnell look better and the 49ers and Singletary look even worse.
*Dennis O'Donnell: My first reaction to the interview was that Singletary made "mincemeat" of DOD, and he did. O'Donnell received a heap of praise for "remaining calm" and asking "fair questions." Huh? Sure, he was great at letting Sing take control and on the verge of popping a mental cork, but a really good interviewer would have cut Sing off and TAKE CONTROL---"Hey, Coach, please, there are legitimate questions about your hand-picked OC, (Jimmy Raye)--the fans deserve to know...", etc., etc. Sure, its easy for me to tell O'Donnell what to do, but c'mon, that's pretty basic and I don't care that it was an "in-house" interview.
*KPIX-CBS5: OK, where do we start? You cower to a bully and undermine your #1 sports anchor. How must O'Donnell feel? Yeah, I know the 49ers have some "editorial control" over in-house 'stuff like this, but THIS involved a legitimate inquiry into the goings-on of the Seattle game. It wasn't a Q and A about the way Brian Jennings long-snaps--it involved what every Bay Area football fan wanted to know and if Singletary is going to do these type of shows, then he either has to answer, or ask to move on, (which had he done, there'd have been no brouhaha.) KPIX has no balls, pretty obvious that the 49ers pull the strings here. The end result is now we have Kim Coyle replacing DOD. Kim Coyle. I better not say anything more.
*SF media: Where's Ira Miller when you need him? Miller, the longtime football writer for the SF Chronicle, would have gone ballistic over this. He would have been right in the face of the PR guy in Santa Clara and asked what was going on, but unfortunately, David White is NOT Ira Miller. I love Matt Maiocco too at Comcast, but yo, Matt, where were you? You do a great job at covering the team's X's and O's, but as for this sorry episode, you were AWOL...and Kawakami and Lowell Cohn? This is right up your alley and you chose to write about the offense. That's OFFENSIVE. The truth is, all of 'yous, owe your readers, your viewers, your listeners BETTER than this sorry display. But then again, I think I already said as much. Maybe its only me and the commenter's who get it. You guys don't. Sad.
**Late note: Yes, Gary Radnich did chime in on his KNBR show and good for Radnich to defend his friend, DOD. He should have gone after KPIX.
*And this lovely diddy from Kawakami: "I can understand KPIX caving in to the 49ers, and the 49ers seeking a different interviewer, and the show goes on. Money gets made. Not by me, but ain’t that always the case?" Oh Tim, You have to be better than that, don't you?
*Finally, Cohn on the matter, (a little late, but better late than never)
Singletary DID have O'Donnell replaced..nobody else. Only his whining that he was baited is the reason KPIX and 49ers even cared what went on that show.
ReplyDeleteAnd to read Kawakami's blog was a spectacular letdown. One of his own devoured and he's non plussed..it happen's everyday,blah ,blah. Well,it DOESN'T happen everyday and he should have stood up for O 'Donnell..even Radnich has taken an anti corporate position,for once in his life.
You don't seem to understand that the KPIX gig is basically free advertising for the 49ers. Hard to get too excited about an advertiser wanting to control the advertising. What's amazing is that some people think it's anything but promotion.
ReplyDeleteIt is about jobs. Reporters now want to keep their jobs. The news biz is dead. Appeasement is the way to go I guess.
ReplyDeleteSingletary is the most despicable coach I have seen because he is placing his players under the bus except himself. Reporters prefer to call him an inspirational figure but to me, he is a coward.
The York/49ers Organization controls the message that gets out to the public. If the Yorks don't like the message...they shut it down, plain & simple.
ReplyDeleteHaven't you all heard...0-2, and "Moral Victories" is the "New Message" in 49er Country this week. Heck our Local Media has even rehabilitated Alex Smiths Quarterbacking skills...he almost Joe Montana like. Our Media in the Bay Area are Enablers, for people who can't see what is really happening here.
Rich, last week the Chronicle had a Poll, called "Ok, who do you blame" after the Seattle/49ers debacle. Here are the results...
The Yorks...15%
Mike Singletary...21%
Jimmy Raye...15%
Alex Smith...20%
Nate Clements...1%
Michael Crabtree...4%
Me, for believing in this team...23%
The people have spoken, yet our Local Media coddles the 49er organization. If this were the East Coast the Yorks would have been ran out of town 3 Years Ago!
When are people going to stand up to this politically correct,wimpy,scared ,vanilla,neutral & downright pathetic attitude & approach towards being critical of anyone of color,homosexuality or someone overtly religous?When someone is wrong they are WRONG!He should be called out on his behavior not just on that interview,but on his entire tenure, i.e his erratic,selfish,brazen,childish,self-righteous attitude he has displayed on & off the field.
ReplyDelete*KPIX undercut their principal sports anchor by their lack of trust. You always publicly stand up for your people, even if there is a whipping in private. Dennis is now dead meat. The station has effectively destroyed his credibility.
ReplyDelete*No other sports writer is anxious to get close to this story because they all live in fear that team management will cut off access. No access, no easy stories. That's why there are few, if any, hard-nosed sports reporters still working in SF mainstream media.
*Other news outlets are not immune; kowtowing is endemic. A former KCBS radio anchor was once chastised for asking a question about a then-current sports controversy during the station's daily John Madden interview. Madden became petulant on the air; the anchor was advised to back off. (KCBS and KPIX are CBS O&Os, but this did not involve anyone at KPIX or corporate level.)
*KPIX has lowered the cone of silence on the DOD incident. ("It's just that a**hole blogger.") Well, guess what? A**hole bloggers are part of the reason why old media have lost much of their audience and readership. It may be too late for KPIX to salvage anything from this gravely bungled incident, but top managers there are no dummies and a post-mortem may result in better crisis communications in the future.
It was a bungled situation all around, but interesting to note that Ira Miller actually did chime in over on Cohn's blog about this, and his view is not nearly as vitriolic as Lieberman suggested it would be. It's actually rather matter of fact. He states that it was a paid segment, with editorial control on the 49ers side, and that anyone expecting piercing journalism in that spot is kidding themselves. There might be a hint of disgust in his responses regarding how things are today, but he wasn't raging against the machine and asking for answers.
ReplyDeleteYeah,I somehow did get a response from Ira,and it was sort of pretty much of a much ado about nothing, reaction.
ReplyDeleteThe problem was..it wasn't nothing. If it was Coyle replaced by another no talent like Joe Fonzi because Singletary wanted that..no headlines,just a footnote. It was that a 20+ year in the local bizz main sports anchor was TOLD what to say on air,and when he refused in a polite way,was then backstabbed by KPIX to make an oddball football coach happy. THAT is not a regular news story.
And that Kawakami took it so lightly..well he like Rich, might not be an O'Donnell fan. If Monte Poole had been replaced..it hits Kawakami's S-fan.