My Least Favorite Type of Post

I follow a few message boards. I only post to TigerForums, but I read more than that. There's a lot of good information on message boards in addition to a lot of junk. Of all the junk, probably the junkiest is the post of the type you see about twice per day on your bigger forums that begins, "[Media member] just said . . ." followed by some remark interpreted to be disparaging of LSU and/or the SEC

A typical example would be something like, "Kirk Herbstreit just said that the SEC is overrated. Send him an email at xxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx to tell him what you think."

What people need to realize is that television and radio sports commentators don't get paid to be right. They get paid to generate conversation. It's a lot easier to generate conversation by saying "provocative" things than by being right. Just ask Pete Fiutak, who is probably the best and smartest national college football writer, and he toils at www.collegefootballnews.com rather than making the big money at a network.

And by "provocative", and I mean they provoke people. Lee Corso didn't get rich because of his insightful and intelligent analysis, although he is, at times, insightful and intelligent. More often though, he's just a pain in the ass, and that's why he makes the big money. He makes friends by saying things that makes enemies with your enemies. Along the way, he generates a lot of email, letters, and buzz for ESPN, which makes him valuable to them.

Either you like media members who are pains in the ass, or you do not. If you do, quit complaining about them when they are a pain in the ass to you only to celebrate them when they're pains in the ass to someone else. If you don't like them, just don't pay any attention to them. Don't watch them on TV or listen to them on the radio. Don't get worked up when they say something you don't like.

And if you listen to them, don't bring it to the message board like you're tattling to the principal.

As an exercise, see if you can match up the media member with the "provocative" thing he said:

1. Lee Corso
2. Trev Alberts
3. Paul Finebaum
4. Glenn Guilbeau
5. Lou Holtz
6. Kirk Herbstreit
7. Mike Farrell

a. Les Miles is the 9th best coach in the SEC.
b. LSU will lose two games this year.
c. LSU is winning with Nick Saban's recruits.
d. The ACC is a stronger conference than the SEC.
e. USC was the 2003 National Champion.
f. Florida is the best SEC team of the decade.
g. Brady Quinn was the best QB in the country last year.

Answer key: 1c, 2g, 3f, 4a, 5d, 6e, 7b. Actually none of that's true. I made it all up and matched quotes to media figures randomly. Who knows, they probably all said all of those things at one point. No one will remember it, and no one will ever call them on it later. So, just don't worry about it.