So. I came home from work today, opened my email and found six messages, five of which included some variation of, "You HAVE to read Bucky Gleason's column today and then please blog about it!" The sixth was from Mark and said, "Don't read Bucky's column today." I should have gone with him but I didn't and I've been sitting here for quite a while now, trying to pull together my thoughts. I'm having a very difficult time doing so.
Here's the bottom line: I think this is one of the most insulting things I've ever read. It really and truly makes me want to never, ever pick up the Buffalo News sports section again.
If I can, I'll elaborate later.
8 comments:
Heather, as you know, my approach to Bucky is to ignore him and hope he goes away. I very rarely read his columns. But, they went and put it in Sabres Edge today, so I accidentally exposed myself to his "work". I did something I've never done before- I wrote a letter to the editor. I would encourage everyone to do the same. I don't feel a responsibility to "hold the Sabres accountable", but I do feel a responsibility to speak up when our local paper offends me deeply.
Bucky's got a boss, his name is Steve Jones, and he should hear our thoughts. He can be contacted here.
Hm. That link didn't work, did it?
Here's Steve Jones' (TBN sports editor) email address:
SJones@buffnews.com
You rock, Kate. I'll get letter-composing as well.
You know, I feel slightly offended too, but how can we sit here and ask for change while supporting the team at the same time? It's like holding up a sign that says "Support our Troops" which really means "we don't like this war but we're going to give money and support it anyway". That works because the general population elects the people that have the power to stop the war. The real meaning of the message comes through because the elected officials know that if they don't change things, they won't get re-elected. But in sports, the population doesn't have the power to elect the people that run the team. Maybe Bucky is being a bit "Sean Avery-esque" in that column but it is a point worth bringing up and arguing -- if ownership looks at the bottom line as profitability, how else can the fans show that they are not happy with the product that the Sabres are providing?
I'll assume the fetal position now for the barrage of tin cans and tomatoes which I'm sure is headed in my direction =P
After Drury and Briere left and every Bucky column was driving me up a wall, I wrote an email to Steve Jones. He basically wrote me back a one sentence rote reply that didn't address any of my concerns. So while Kate's intentions are awesome, I'm not sure they care at TBN.
But they should. The editors and writers should all be ashamed for a column that spits on and insults the very people that keep them in business.
Tim, I elaborated on this more in the entry I just posted, but my problem is not the message (though I don't entirely agree with it), it's the delivery. I've pretty much had my fill of being lectured by the local newspaper.
Yeah... I see your point now. It's just an editorial though, if it had been written by one of the beat writers I would be more upset. If the paper didn't let columnists jump off a cliff every now and then we'd never have anything interesting to read. I'm not going to stop reading TBN though... my respect for Bucky tends to waver like the stock market and this is just another example of that.
I think sports writers in other (bigger) cities would be able to get away with even more than this and still live to tell the tale. But Sean Avery-esque in my book for sure.
Mark, Steve Jones responded to me in a very "Hey, thanks for writing, we value your opinion. blah blah blah" fashion. I wasn't expecting much more than that, because he is, after all, the guy who employees Bucky.
I agree, my letter alone doesn't mean much, but I do think we have a responsibility to speak up when we believe our local paper is not serving us well.
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