Warriors 'Outsiders' on NBC Sports Bay Area: Time To Call Napa State Hospital

I'M A CHARITABLE GUY; I ROOT FOR THE UNDERDOG. I love those rags-to-riches stories and I openly applaud creative thought and new things. Settling for the old guard and abandoning the idea of trying revolutionary content is against my religion.

That said and all, I recently watched, (more like, invested) a good chunk of time and effort (effort, because I knew in my heart that I would seriously hate, despise, severely loathe, use whatever phrase you like) this show, this adventure, called "Warriors Outsiders" on NBC Sports Bay Area.

I tried, seriously, please, give me credit for actually wanting to watch this tripe I had contempt for to begin with (without, yes, not even seeing it but I have tremendous intuition in projects like this) --somehow, someway, I would be wrong and that :Outsiders (Drew Shiller and Grant Liffmann, co-conspirators, pictured) would be plausibly awful and just slightly terrible) but I was wrong. How dare I even think that this hilariously bad video tofu would be merely uber-suckitis when it was so bad it was bad. I mean, bad, dude.

This is the Bay Area. We, theoretically at least, are supposed to have taste and possess strong virtue be it sports, culture, or news. Even in these bloated marginalized times you would think a bigtime player like NBC and its cable sports partners would be able to submit at least half-wit content and cable shit even if that content (filler programming, really) happens to be subsidized by a formidable partner like the Golden State Warriors who I guess gave the OK to this unmitigated bullshit because, well, it's their party and they'll cry if they want to. When you yourself get bloated and big like the Warriors are, then you allow 'Outsiders' and just hope they spread the brand and nobody gets hurt or offended.

There is plenty to offend if you watch Outsiders which if you do after a mere sniff, you need and deserve severe mental help and therapy immediately. A red button that connects Napa State hospital should be set up right away on your couch and your relatives should be informed of your sickness and deprivation. You are not allowed to walk the streets without a medical doctor monitoring your activity if you make it a point to observe Outsiders, so perilous and fragile is your mental state and capacity.

I could imagine if I was back at my high school watching Professor Kepler teaching all of us would- be television stars, future Rupert Pupkins, Boise sports anchors, Reggie Aqui, and the like, about projects. The 'Outsiders" remind me of this. The Outsiders look like a bad SNL skit performed by some after-work PTA parents' glee club in Plano, Texas.

The hosts here are supposed to look hip and gritty; have that wayward, non-garden-variety appearance of 'cool dudes' who thwart authority and get the inside dope, aka: Outsiders. Get it? NBC Sports Bay Area thought it would be really, radical, dude, that these two carcasses would hold us for multiple minutes. They'd be funny and interesting, slightly off base and entertaining. Sure, if you like making love to an aardvark.

Only Mr. Shiller, Killer, Miller, whatever his name and Liffman, Kiffmann, whatever, are not interesting. Nor gritty. Outsiders, Insiders, they are not worthy. And for guys looking like they're supposedly cool, in reality, they look like a couple of bartenders at a South of Market after-hour club, decidedly un-hip and ungodly boring and destitute.  In practical life, real assholes that score the drunk yuppie blond only when she regained her sobriety, told the dual assholes to take a hike and called her girlfriend to pick her up.

Yes, I'm hard on Outsiders. It isn't the fault of the double dudes NBC Sports BA put out an on-line ad for their project and decided on these two because the Fremont YMCA managers (Skip Doofus and Shep Budle) were not equipped after the first tryout. You would think Outsiders possess more street cred and viability but no sir.

Look, obviously I haven't gone into the details of what Outsiders is/was/willing to be. Why waste your time. It's a program devoid of specifics and only something, maybe, the booster club would like but I'd like to think the Warriors' fans have more taste and are more critical thinkers but I could be wrong here. Maybe I'm being hard, it happens from time to time.

Outsiders has a good ring to it and could possibly be a quarter educational. Drew and Grant could go to the bar at Chase Center with a fifty and see if they could buy two beers and have change left. Instead they volley for Draymond Green's sneakers and think it's positively hilarious --not exactly the drill but you get my drift.

Excuse me as it's time to circumvent life and detoxify myself from having committed any more thought or time to Outsiders. I need something stiff and strong, please help my cause.

415 Media Exclusive: Ahmed Fareed Leaving NBC Sports Bay Area for NBCSN in Connecticut

Ahmed Fareed

  FAREED LEAVING NBCSBA for NBCSN in Connecticut  --415 MEDIA EXCLU

I'm hearing from a good source tonight (Thursday) that veteran NBC Sports Bay Area anchor, Ahmed Fareed, is leaving the Bay Area sports cable behemoth and headed for NBC Sports Network / Connecticut.

There's no official word on why but the Greg Papa effect might be one reason as Papa is in virtual control on all three of its primary sports affiliates --49ers, Giants and Warriors pre and post game host --that's a lot of time allotted for Papa and some of the little people might be a little ticked off.

The official explanation will be the usual corporate spin but that's why you come here.

I was never a fan of Mr. Fareed but then again I'm no fan of a lot of people. The world will still survive.

Pogo: 'We Have Met...

Free content provided by the society of the Unites States of America; upon which, events like the one that took place on Wednesday is an ongoing cable edible we place in our belly and cozy up to like a sweet little pussycat.

Wednesday: Virginia

Yesterday One: Columbine

Yesterday Two: Virginia Tech

Yesterday Three: Aurora

And so on and so on: Sandy Hook Elementary School

The Players: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel

Pogo had it right.

Dish and Comcast Duke It Out Live, Local, and Beyond; It's Pouring Outside, Storm Desk Alert; Sunday 415 Media

 By now you know Dish Network and Comcast are feuding--it's about money. It always is.

And not just here, either.

The details on this dispute has become so public and hostile that one side has already began an on-air marketing campaign to get the public's ear.

Jim Nantz and Phil Simms have participated. As usual, the viewing audience gets lost in the shuffle. Never before has the interests of the consumers been so voided, I know, I know, I'm being naïve, it's all about the money and when it delves into the Benjamin category it loses all perspective.

I don't have Dish-- I'm a Comcast subscriber, but watching these two gargantuan companies duke it out is mildly amusing. Perhaps not if your a Dish subscriber, (and there's 20 million of those out there)--but ultimately it'll get settled when a billion here or there gets divied around.

*The weather outside is pretty gooey --time for "BREAKING NEWS" and "STORM WATCH" reports. Mill Valley, your blue jackets are about to invade the town. Get out the sand bags and load up the Starbucks.

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Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Part of Cable Conglomerate That Runs Bay Area TV Sports: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Let us today go about the business of elaborating on the function of one Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.


This is the one of the gazillions of Comcast affiliates around the country that has amassed a fortune in the brand of building around local sports teams and their ancillary, highly-lucrative revenue streams.


In short, a mini ESPN empire with a vast Pacific Ocean-size pool of empty pockets replete with cash and ready to spend.


There's nothing onerous here to report other than the fact that unlike ESPN-- which although has a built-in financial connection with many of its clients like the NFL and NBA, at least tries to perform basic journalistic pursuits even if it involves the integrity or denigrates the brand. We need only look at the excesses of various Athlete getting in trouble, obscure or non-obscure coach behaving badly, team owners outside of the NBA seemingly bent on hiring mostly white-male, non-African-American coaches. ESPN isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but they're good at faking it. And truth be told they're so big and Disney-infected you could argue that they have a legitimate reason why truth-telling and hard-nosed investigative sports journalism is not their biggest virtue.


Comcast and its sports tentacles, on the other hand, don't pretend to want to rock the boat. Don't mess with the franchises that butter your bread and bring food home to cook and place big cars and trucks in your garage. That part of their sports template has always been in the rear-view mirror. This isn't exactly groundbreaking material but it's worth noting because that element of the operation is never so readily apparent here in the Bay Area.


CSNBA blankets the professional sports apparatus; its clients include the SF Giants, Oakland A's and San Jose Sharks. It has highlight show and packages with both the SF 49ers and Oakland Raiders. Because its corporate owner, Comcast, owns NBC, it is allowed to have multiple tie-ins and show highlight packages involving the NFL.  Conglomerate it is. And controversy is not a wanted element to their content.


With CSNBA, it's the programming, stupid! And that's just fine and dandy but you can't have it both ways. You can't profess to be utmost objective in the local sporting life, particularly when you own a sliver of the Giants as CSNBA does. You can't be serious in making the case for your highly-publicized "Insiders", who essentially act as public relations liaisons for their respective team and beat. Question: When's the last time any of CSNBA's insiders broke any story of relevance outside of some in-house, between the lines/chalkboard, trade minutiae? The answer is never. Again, nothing sinister there other than CSNBA would have you believe they look to lead the light and break new ground in their sports coverage. Bullshit.


When CSNBA debuted in April, 2009, they took the Bay Area sports scene by storm. They leased big studios in tony South-of-Market office buildings. Built a gigantic newsroom and threw a lot of dough for droves of HD's, computer banks, fiber-optic gear and of course, pricey talent. Greg Papa was their first big local hire and soon after they brought in other highly-paid anchors, reporters, writers, editors, even news directors and producers. Papa's salary alone was slightly north of the $250K range.


Beyond providing their bread and butter content--Giants/A's/Sharks/College Football/Basketball games, CSNBA didn't stop there. They built state-of-the-art studios to televise their version of SportsCenter, "Comcast SportsNet Central", a highlight-induced program with accent on the video and short on personality. That was their intent. They went further.


They developed and created a daily sports show: "Chronicle Live", now Yahoo Sports Talk Live: (Full Disclosure): I have guested on the show and make my own booking requests on behalf of my blog, 415 Media.


The problem with the show then and to this day is that its participants say little or offer nothing even remotely controversial. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. And there's ample evidence to indicate that anything slightly negative conveyed by a reporter, a radio guy, whoever, involving CSNBA's local sporting interests would be met with swift disapproval from, say, the Larry Baer company. Nothing overt, mind you, but just enough to make sure that it was in the best interest of CSNBA not to disrupt the positive PR flow, again, not to rock the boat--bad for business. I asked earlier, has any of the Insiders actually broke any significant stories--I now ask you when's the last time any Yahoo panelist said something, anything!, of substance that moved the needle? This is not meant to belittle, to humiliate, to begrudge, to be mean and petty, it is merely provided to suggest that CSNBA wants it both ways; it seeks to create something bold and invigorating yet it really is nothing more than beige visual wallpaper with a few loud talking-heads who say essentially nothing.


Proof positive was during the Damon Bruce moronic anti-women sports rant, frequent guest, Ann Killion, the sports writer from the Chronicle, curiously said nothing about the Bruce affair. (Other than a few innocuous tweets) Coincidentally, Killion, was also a frequent guest on Bruce's KNBR talk show. To its credit, CSNBA did shows on the Bruce brainfart but again, nothing of substance, nothing that gets picked up by other media affiliates appeared. Not surprising.


What CSNBA does, mainly, to be fair, it does well. Some of its analysts are fairly good and informed and offer interesting, if not enlightening, material. And to be fair, since most of these talking heads are ex-jocks, they have to be careful. For every Vida Blue there's Rich Aurilia, (yawn) and Shawn Estes, (double yawn); On football, Dennis Brown, an ex-49er is a delightful surprise. Bill Romanowski says quite a lot but some of it gets obliterated by his overly-verbal tenacity. (Figure it out).


CSNBA has no doubt, for the most part, become a welcome addition to the Bay Area Sports electronic/cable/Internet domain. It has top-tier production values; its telecasts are mostly first-rate with a great residue of professionalism and expertise procured by GM, Ted Griggs, a widely-respected broadcast head. We just wish they'd be a tad more apt in the real-world sports arena and provide at least a spoon-size spread of humility.




That's not asking too much, is it?


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Howard Kurtz Meets the Press; CNN Washington Media Critic gets Grilled on Reliable Sources; Apologizes over Collins Screw-Up

Howard Kurtz, the media critic for CNN, and, until this week, the Daily Beast, has been in the news, not the kind of news that Kurtz probably wanted and most likely dreaded.

Kurtz screwed up royally on a story about Jason Collins. Collins, of course, is the NBA player who came out publicly in an article in Sports Illustrated that he was gay.

Kurtz wrote negatively about Collins in the DB indicating that Collins was once engaged and never mentioned it.

In fact, Collins did mention it.

Twice.

Sunday on "Reliable Sources", Kurtz apologized.

In addition, after his mea-culpa, Kurtz was scrutinized by two media reporters in the show's opening fifteen-minute segment. That's right--Kurtz himself went from interviewer to interviewee, in essence, being cross-examined for his latest series of journalistic foibles.

Sunday's show was fairly remarkable in its scope. A big-time, highly-paid media reporter looking and sounding utterly withdrawn. Indeed, Kurtz was placid and noticeably unnerved, (as he should have been). His demeanor was candid if not fully contrite. All the while saying he was sorry and essentially stating "I screwed up," he still offered fluffy excuses. ("We all make mistakes...In over two decades I've been right and my credibility is well-established.")

CNN has taken a PR hit lately over its error-plagued reporting on the Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent aftermath. Rightly so.

On the other hand, people and organizations; even vaunted journalistic cable news-gathering operations like CNN, make mistakes. For Kurtz, this is only his latest boo-boo. He's lucky to still have his TV gig. But he seemed genuinely sorry.

We'll give CNN credit for taking on the Kurtz issue with profound clarity on Sunday. Maybe this open mea-culpa could be a blueprint for future media shows down the road, for inevitably, there's sure to be many more mistakes.

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The Continued Abuse and Devaluation of Real 'Breaking News'; CNN and Cooper at Heart of Issue

It's happened again. We should not be surprised but when such a news-gathering stalwart logo gets abused time and time again, we have to talk about it.

Remember when "Breaking News!" was a time to stop everything and look at the TV monitor and listen to the radio. Today, it might be taking a turn to the Internet.

Well, the relic of real, breaking news has been further abused and devalued. I talked about this not so long ago. And that's a shame because "Breaking News" was cause for concern, a jolt, a retreat from your moment in life at home, in the office, whatever you were doing, you stopped and immediately went to see what was going on if you cared about the news. I mean, isn't that what we all do?

Now, once again, in light of the Boston Marathon bombings and the ensuing aftermath of stories about the brothers, their tactics, their plans, "Breaking News" once again became all too placid, for the most part, and hate to say it, CNN was the main culprit, with their top dog, Anderson Cooper, its greatest abuser.

Moreover, even when it was plainly apparent that nothing remotely was news nor was any of it breaking, CNN continued, (and continues without any shame), to routinely air "Breaking News" sounders and promos. That's simply irresponsible and downright misleading to its viewers and CNN, even in this lazy day of cable journalism, should know better.

This constant churning out of a hallmark news phrase has been marginalized and diminished. It's a shame that legitimate big and even-not-so-big, real, genuine, BREAKING NEWS has been de-legitimized. Viewers, rightly so, for the most part, have removed the urgency of that sounder from their mindset. It's just another baseless tag line that has been thrust into the cable forest.

CNN isn't the only suspect; Fox News is another co-conspirator. Local TV news stations have also added to the debacle. But CNN has a brand, a reputation, (which has taken a legitimate beating the past few weeks), and that's all but vanished.

A sign of the times that further muddies the already public skepticism of cable TV news. When there's real and absolute new developments, a real story, legit Breaking News, wake me up.

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Play Ball

Yesterday...


and Today




There's a whole lot of history in over a hundred years of baseball. I bet a lot of you forget that Al Michaels was in the Giants booth with Lon Simmons in the mid 70's...remember Lindsey Nelson? And the list goes on...Hank Greenwald, David Glass, Ron Fairly, (boo!!--he was a Dodger guy), Ted Robinson--don't forget Gary Park too.

I'm sure I left a few notables out but you'll remind me.


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Armstrong 'Confession', Oprah-Style

I'm not that interested in Lance Armstrong's apparent mea-culpa with Oprah and although I will watch the interview, I'm more fascinated with Armstrong's desire to come clean via the Winfrey channel.

I've talked about this on the radio show. I'm not a cycling fan and only paid attention to the sport because of Armstrong and his various conquests, personal and professional.

The fact he and his handlers chose Winfrey for his subtle confession says a lot about Armstrong. It's a well-conceived media process and I'm sure it's been calculated ad-nauseum. Pick a thoughtful host, hostess who will not pit-bull you; not that Oprah is a softy but she isn't Barbara Walters nor even Diane Sawyer. A sympathetic big star who will play ball, the Lance way, yes.

My point is that assuming Armstrong wants to get this off his chest, he could have gone, say, Steve Croft on 60 Minutes. That move, in and of itself, would have said a lot. Instead, he, (and several of his advisers, I'm sure) took the safe approach. And this won't be his last interview. After a few snippets of the Oprah piece gets aired, I'm betting he does another quasi-softy--probably Piers Morgan, perhaps a local Austin TV station and then let time do its thing. And hope, inevitably, his fans and even his foes, forgives him.

This is big business. And a very well-orchestrated media play written and directed by Lance Armstrong himself. Whether it works is another story. Time will tell.

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Five of the Most Annoying People on Cable TV

They constitute a healthy amount of ego; they gravitate and cater to that growing legion of folks who make up the lowest common denominator; they have enormous, inflated opinions of themselves and seem to think that what they spout out, (usually useless bits of tedious minutiae,) will make the world go round.

Not.

They are cable-TV performers. I use the word "performers" because they perform; nothing more or less. Real "journalists" usually end up on C-SPAN and take calls from the "Democratic line"

Performers get paid millions of dollars and might get to mingle with Roger Ailes.

OK, this isn't a scientific study, so let's begin with the almighty one to five:

BILL O'REILLY: Too easy, I know, almost like tearing wings off of flies, but Fox News' Billo gets more annoying by the day. And he gets away with it too. For a guy who graduated from Harvard, you'd think there'd be a bit more bite to this dog, but no sir. O'Reilly's hour-long self-congratulatory mish-mash is an amalgam of boorish interviews with innocuous leftist has-beens; pious, pissed-off  patoons, (Bernie Goldberg); and weekly riffs with ex-leftie "comics" whose careers tanked, so they conveniently veered right, (Dennis Miller.)

Somehow, some way, O'Reilly is the most-watched tonsil on cable; another indication of the coming end of mankind as we know it, and I'm going to give you the last word on that one.

**GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Another of the easy targets and, I mean, why pile on, but then again, between her claim to fame, (courtesy Orenthal James Simpson,) as a TV lawyer; her pointed and infamous participatory involvement into various murder cases, (Holloway in Aruba, for example) and her brown, toilet-paper kissfests with Sarah Palin, Van Susteren is way, way qualified to be uber-annoying, which she is about 99% of the time, but like Billo, her numbers are good, and in spite of occasional rumors she's looking to leave Murdoch's castle, she continues to droll on at Fox for the time being.

Oy vey.

ALI VELSHI: Who at CNN decided to make this miserable, pompous, bald-headed Canadien a leading voice? I mean, we already have Howie Mandel--isn't that punishment enough?...Velshi started out as a business reporter for the network, but some genius in Atlanta had the bizarre notion that Velshi would be great to be an occasional anchor. Why? Maybe its just because Velshi looks the part. He doesn't necessarilly say anything pertinent and his on-screen reporting amounts to nothing more than a shamwowish-type TV pitchman. Whatever.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Why is this man shouting? Seriously, if you could answer that question, you may just be invited to be a contestant on "Who wants to be a millionaire?...Matthews is a sort of Geraldo-lite; at one time, he used to be in the journalism club as an ex-political reporter for the SF Examiner and an congressional aide for the late Tip O'Neil, but then started appearing on the talking -head shows, and soon realized that shouting and screaming can be quite profitable, particularly if you had perfect white hair and teeth, and mingled with the elite white guys at the Bohemian club. Check please!


RICK SANCHEZ: OMG, someone please tell me this guy has pictures...He must! Sanchez' latest blunders at CNN are far too numerous and compelling to pontificate upon; suffice to say, he's beyond mere annoying--in fact, you get the distinct feeling that its all a joke and that he and the suits in Atlanta are IN on the joke. Why else, then, would they put up with a guy who makes idiotic statements about volcanoes and earthquakes?, (and that's just for starters)

Every time I see Rick Sanchez I feel better about my life, and that's saying a lot. Sanchez makes Ron Burgandy look like Walter Cronkite.

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