Trash talk journalism gone too far? Pittsburgher & Denver fans may want to see this!

[kddani]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...396183,00.html

Now, it's one thing to trash talk your opponent in a big game, or even make some jokes about the city, etc. But is this guy's column taking it too far?

There's blatant lies and things that couldn't possibly be true. He talks about "Old mills, long stilled, dot the town. Weeds spill from smokestacks.". Nope, sorry. There's not a single steel mill left in the city, and you have to go pretty far out to get to any- we're talking into the rural areas. I've never seen a steel mill, and i'm 25 and my law practice revolves strongly involves them.

He calls the skyline dark and forbidding. Forbidding could be loosely interpreted, but dark? Hardly.

He says that on the way to his hotel he saw a guy standding on a busy street corner, wearing a halter-top dress holding a sign that said "I BET AGAINST THE STEELERS." Granted, this did happen and it was all over the news, but it was no where near the city, and there's no way he could have seen it as it took place about 20 miles from the city, no where near the route he would've taken to get between the airport and his hotel.

Again, I understand a little trash talk or if the criticisms were legit. But to say things that are blatantly false? I'm sure our tourism bureau and politicians will be up in arms about this.

[DeltAlum]

Well...

Maybe the guy got lost and ended up in Youngstown.

Or maybe you don't realize (and I say this carefully, having grown up and worked a major portion of my life in what is now called the "rust belt"), how different your perspective on cities becomes after living in Denver with our 300 days of sunshine every year, and the fact that this is a much younger city -- both in literal age and demographics.

During a past AFC Championship series, I spent a few days in Buffalo, and the only discriptive word I could think of was "Gray."

Anyway, this is pretty normal during buildups to this kind of event.

We'll all get over it.

[kddani]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Or maybe you don't realize (and I say this carefully, having grown up and worked a major portion of my life in what is now called the "rust belt"), how different your perspective on cities becomes after living in Denver with our 300 days of sunshine every year, and the fact that this is a much younger city -- both in literal age and demographics.

A different perspective doesn't justify making blatantly false statements.

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by kddani
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...396183,00.html

Now, it's one thing to trash talk your opponent in a big game, or even make some jokes about the city, etc. But is this guy's column taking it too far?

There's blatant lies and things that couldn't possibly be true. He talks about "Old mills, long stilled, dot the town. Weeds spill from smokestacks.". Nope, sorry. There's not a single steel mill left in the city, and you have to go pretty far out to get to any- we're talking into the rural areas. I've never seen a steel mill, and i'm 25 and my law practice revolves strongly involves them.

He calls the skyline dark and forbidding. Forbidding could be loosely interpreted, but dark? Hardly.

He says that on the way to his hotel he saw a guy standding on a busy street corner, wearing a halter-top dress holding a sign that said "I BET AGAINST THE STEELERS." Granted, this did happen and it was all over the news, but it was no where near the city, and there's no way he could have seen it as it took place about 20 miles from the city, no where near the route he would've taken to get between the airport and his hotel.

Again, I understand a little trash talk or if the criticisms were legit. But to say things that are blatantly false? I'm sure our tourism bureau and politicians will be up in arms about this.

Maybe he really wasn't there... (I didn't read the article)

There was a case on some morning judge show where a young lady suit a newspaper that she was doing some freelance work for. Turns out that she went to the town for the game, but hung out with her friends at a bar instead of actually going to the game. She wrote the story based on what was on TV.

[33girl]

This guy is so full of shit.

I don't know how you could call our skyline "dark and forbidding" when everyone I know who comes in through the tunnel says how beautiful it is. (It is.) I mean, it's not like this is Erie. (Just kidding, Erie kids.)

Oh and Jack's - don't get me STARTED on Jack's. Anyone who thinks it's a representation of all of Pgh is stupid, and anyone you run into on the street here will tell you so. Its only good feature is that it's open when nothing else is. On the weekends it's full of obnoxious fratty boys (and yes I mean it in that sense). He should have gone a few blocks down the street to Dee's, around the corner to Club Cafe, or further down the street to the Blue Note/Primanti's.

Come here with a chip on your shoulder, and that's how you will be treated.

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by kddani
A different perspective doesn't justify making blatantly false statements.

No - and (I've only been to Pittsburgh once) if he embellished about the smokestacks and mills, then he shouldn't have done so.

The rest though just strikes me as standard fare for a columnist from the rival's city. Maybe he sees the skyline as dark and forbidding; I've heard worse things said about the city I live in (Boston) and the closest city to where I grew up (Hartford). Heck, Keith Olbermann's quote about my hometown is that it looks best "in your rearview mirror." Sports personalities say things about this all the time during the playoffs, big games, etc., when talking about their rival's city.

Embellishing is one thing, and that's not good journalism - but the rest is just standard fare in many sports columns. It's great to love where you're living, but I think everyone has to expect that their city is open to criticism.

[Rudey]

The story doesn't seem different from so many others I've seen. I don't see how this is going too far.

I saw Pitt a long time ago and it wasn't exactly pretty. Maybe it changed. Heck I was a kid. Who knows. But I saw Flash Dance the other day and the place looked awful. The dancers there look hot though and that was one smoking loft she had was pretty nicer for a dancer's budget.

-Rudey

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by KSigkid
Embellishing is one thing, and that's not good journalism - but the rest is just standard fare in many sports columns. It's great to love where you're living, but I think everyone has to expect that their city is open to criticism.

Key word - column. This is simply one guy's opinion on the city. He can describe it however he wants, really, including the embellishments. That's how he sets the tone of his column.

From reading the article, I gathered more that Pitt loves its football, not that it's a dirty town.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

So Pittsburgh doesn't have steel mills now? I had no idea.

[kddani]

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
So Pittsburgh doesn't have steel mills now? I had no idea.

Nearly all of them closed down between about 20 and 25 years ago. The ones that were in the immediate area of the city have been demolished and gone as far back as my memory serves me. Some mills in the outlying areas may have stayed open longer, but in general, steel in Pittsburgh (and the United States in general) all but disappeared in the early/mid 80's.

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by ISUKappa
From reading the article, I gathered more that Pitt loves its football, not that it's a dirty town.

Actually, that was the major thing I took away from the column as well.

[valkyrie]

So you're going to be defensive over some sports writer's opinion of Pittsburgh? How can "dark and forbidding" be false? It's an opinion. People who live there disagree. Oh well.

If anyone there wants to trash talk Denver, I don't give a rat's ass, but I suspect it would be hard to come up with many bad things to say. I just hope rental car employees here don't go batshit crazy on customers for no good reason.

[33girl]

Like Danielle said, some of the things he said are just UNTRUE. That's the major gripe here. Yeah, some of the outlying suburbs are not the prettiest, but as far as Downtown the things he said are just off (like the old mills dotting the "town" - there are NO steel mills within Downtown limits). It's like saying Lincoln Park = Chicago. If he wants to write about the MSA, fine, but say that's what you're doing. We're all very sick here of reading lies about our city and having people believe that's what it's about.

And it's THE South Side. grrrrr.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by 33girl
Like Danielle said, some of the things he said are just UNTRUE. That's the major gripe here. Yeah, some of the outlying suburbs are not the prettiest, but as far as Downtown the things he said are just off (like the old mills dotting the "town" - there are NO steel mills within Downtown limits). It's like saying Lincoln Park = Chicago. If he wants to write about the MSA, fine, but say that's what you're doing. We're all very sick here of reading lies about our city and having people believe that's what it's about.

And it's THE South Side. grrrrr.

Umm how is Lincoln Park not Chicago?

Here is a map of Chicago for you: http://www.newviewrealty.com/neighborhoodinfo.aspx
Nobody I know lives in the trash neighborhoods in the borders, but clearly Lincoln Park is a couple miles away from Downtown and one of the better neighborhoods.

-Rudey

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by valkyrie
So you're going to be defensive over some sports writer's opinion of Pittsburgh? How can "dark and forbidding" be false? It's an opinion. People who live there disagree. Oh well.

If anyone there wants to trash talk Denver, I don't give a rat's ass, but I suspect it would be hard to come up with many bad things to say. I just hope rental car employees here don't go batshit crazy on customers for no good reason.

I think you could come up with bad things to say about almost any city or town. If you're a big sports city (like Pittsburgh, Denver, Boston, etc.), at this time of year, you'd better be ready to hear something from the columnists.