The Bobcat Nation

Not really sure what to think of this artical, but here you go.

Follow the link.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articl ... column.txt

i read the article...sounds like the cronicle is a bit jelious about how sights like this can operate and get news faster but tainted that is not their unwashed sence of news, which is unbiased...right? That reminded me of my days as a student at msu - the year we finally beat the griz - the cronicle didnt "jump on the bandwagon" until sometime before the griz game...i mean a couple of games before and even then there was doubt by the cronicle that we could beat them...must be because most of them either went to missoula or had 2 much of the "cronic", speaking of bandwagon jumpers.

To be honest with ya...i dont trust what the cronic has to say about bozeman, id much rather poke my eyes out with a spoon then read it again

I am guessing we will have a few extra visitors the next few days. I guess we should thank the author for sending us a few more people to join the "extremist wing" of MSU's fan base.

I am back!
The thing that bugs me about that article was a saying my dad used to use with me all the time growing up "Got a big paint brush there". You see my dad has a BA in journalism, and a Masters in English, from UM (alright start the what happened to his son, jokes now!). My dad has worked for newspapers, magazine as both writer and editor positions. He has taught fiction and advertisement writing. He also has had extensive back ground in fiction writing most notably screen plays for Hollywood types. He was before he retired (sort of) a journeyman writer. In grade, high school, and college, I would always have him proof my papers and stories. The thing that I absolutely hated to hear from him was "Got a big paint brush there!". Meaning of course, I tended, to make a simple statement and apply it many conditions, or people that I had no proof belonged.

That’s how I feel about this article. He starts off the article and ends the article, by say come over and laugh at these folks at Bobcatnation.com. Thus immediately discrediting us crackpots. Then in the meat of the article supporting his point with facts about other boards situations, and then coming back at the end to Bobcatnation.com without mentioning a single incident, fact directly related to Bobcatnation.com. Go ahead log on and laugh at these dopes!

Worse by already establishing us as dopes, any time we respond to the accusations, we get dismissed as those dopes! I find it disturbing that a so-called journalist is taking their q's from Rush.
[/b]

I am back!
The thing that bugs me about that article was a saying my dad used to use with me all the time growing up "Got a big paint brush there". You see my dad has a BA in journalism, and a Masters in English, from UM (alright start the what happened to his son, jokes now!). My dad has worked for newspapers, magazine as both writer and editor positions. He has taught fiction and advertisement writing. He also has had extensive back ground in fiction writing most notably screen plays for Hollywood types. He was before he retired (sort of) a journeyman writer. In grade, high school, and college, I would always have him proof my papers and stories. The thing that I absolutely hated to hear from him was "Got a big paint brush there!". Meaning of course, I tended, to make a simple statement and apply it many conditions, or people that I had no proof belonged.

That’s how I feel about this article. He starts off the article and ends the article, by say come over and laugh at these folks at Bobcatnation.com. Thus immediately discrediting us crackpots. Then in the meat of the article supporting his point with facts about other boards situations, and then coming back at the end to Bobcatnation.com without mentioning a single incident, fact directly related to Bobcatnation.com. Go ahead log on and laugh at these dopes!

Worse by already establishing us as dopes, any time we respond to the accusations, we get dismissed as those dopes! I find it disturbing that a so-called journalist is taking their q's from Rush.
[/b]

I actually found it to be fairly funny...strange though, as he bashes the boards and people who post on them at the beginning, then goes on to show that he spends plenty of time looking at them himself. My favorite bit was:

* The league's referees are worse than the local junior-high circuit, and clearly have a vendetta against "us."

But it's futile to complain to the commissioner, an incompetent boob who hates "us" and hired the incompetent supervisor of officials who hired the incompetent officials in the first place.

Anyway, since Jeff is probably going to read this at some point, let me just say keep up the good work, the Chronicle's coverage of the Bobcats since football season started has been much better than we've had in quite a while.

Hey, like they say there is no bad press so thanks for the free advertising Jeff! I guess we don't have to bother asking Jeff to join us if we ever try to get the chat session thing initiated.

Oh and if that article counts at all against my alloted 15 minutes of fame, I am gonna be pissed!

kmax wrote:Oh and if that article counts at all against my alloted 15 minutes of fame, I am gonna be pissed!

Me too!! I want to be aware of and enjoy my full 15 minutes!

I feel famous already! He (Welsh) should be on notice that we are watching him too...and he's called attention to us...maybe our circulation will rival his now. I guess we owe him our undying gratitude!

Do you think that printing an article like this, and presenting it the way he did, should discount Welsch's credibility as a sports reporter?

Stick to articles involving Gallatin valley sports and MSU athletics Welsch, there was no need to stir this up.

As a few of you have pointed out any publicity is good pulicity. agree. I also think he definately used alot of stereotyes to brand this fairly unique site.

Maybe in some way he wanted to bring some attention to this site and let others know about it, but just didn't have the time or the brains to write something creative or informative.

ps The paper also said Jeffersons shot was "not pretty but went it." I thought it was beautiful. Nice rotation and swish!

So Mr. Welsch thinks I have no life because I sometimes participate on an internet message board about my favorite college teams. At least I'm not as pathetic as only writing about sports for a living-imagine your only meaningful purpose in life is cover a bunch of silly games. It has always amused me how much of the sports media go at their jobs as if they were curing world hunger or something (if he's going to go over the top about my life, I'll do the same about his).

I found his comments arrogant and condescending. Apparantly only someone with the great pedegree of a sports writer is allowed comment on athletic events, and all the rest of us should just shut up and take what Mr. Welsch and his ilk feeds us as the one and only true gospel of sports.

Though there is a lot of of silliness and frivilousness that goes on with these sports message boards, there also a lot of positive things.

I think it's neat the folks who no longer live in the area can follow their teams, talk about their team with others, find out what's going on, etc. Or how about meeting other folks from other schools who have chatted on these boards. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting the voice of the Idaho State Bengals, Jim "Old Bengal" Fox as a result of chatting with him on a message board. It was fun, we had a nice visit. Later Jim called me to tell me was going to be in town for the game and to come over and say hi. I thought that was really cool and I cherish the memory. Jim unexpectedly passed away not long after. I'm glad he didn't think it was beneath him (as a member of the sports media) to visit with someone from a message board.

I know many of you have had positive experiences as a result of this and previous Bobcat message boards and chat rooms. We should also be heartend to know that the best sports page in the State of Montana belongs to the Great Falls Tribune, and the guy responsible for the excellent Bobcat coveage in the paper, Scott Mansch, has enjoyed our message board conversations in the past.

I've thought Welsch and the rest of the Chronicle sports staff has done a much better job of covering the Cats since they came along-but as far as this piece we're referring to...Mr. Welsch can bite me.

well said. if i could write as eliquently

peedintunnel wrote:well said. if i could write as eliquently

Agreed! I basically have NO COMMENT on that article as I don't want to give him any justification that he was being sarcastic/funny. He has obviously never posted in here in the year+ of its existence so I think this article just conveys a little jealousy of some of the knowledge/scoops that come up in here. You definately know he uses this board for some of his info I bet as its the best place for it.

This site is not only great for knowledge (helps pass the time in the offseason), but also brings school fans/spirit together. In Bobcatnation's case, to fight the EVIL EMPIRE called UMMMMMMM. In fact, just this weekend I met up with Bozone in Billings to watch the HUGE last second CATS win! AWESOME BABY!

BelgradeBobcat, that is what I was looking for....would you put that in letter form and submit it to the Chronicle as a letter to the editor.

After reading the article, I kept thinking of something I was taught at a young age. Why rip someone else or put them down to make yourself feel better? If the author thought he was being funny by making fun of the fans of his own home town team he needs to re-evaluate his priorities. Why make fun of some truly diehard fans who love the Bobcats as much or more than most people?

Anyway, great wrap-up Belgrade, I think you should really submit that to the Comical.

rtb wrote:I think you should really submit that to the Comical.

That's funny-I was thinking one of you guys who put this board together should pen a letter. But it's probably better to just leave the editorial page to Bush bashing, homosexual bashing, religious tyraids, endless debates about abortion etc. I'm sure Mr. Welsch will take a peak to see what we thought. In the mean time I'll just go back to my no-life (my fantansy football team is in the playoff battle of their lives right now and I just got a bunch of points from the Brady to Givens connection for the Pats first touchdown!)

For all of the good things Mr. Welsch has brought to the Bozeman Chronicle, he is still very much an "outsider" who doesn't have any clue as to what the Bobcat-grizzly rivalry is all about. I have exchanged e-mails with Jeff concerning this, and his stance is that he will not pander to Bobcat fans just because he writes for the local paper. I think that he fears this will compromise his credibility as a writer. That is all fine and good if you write for USA Today, but a local college-town writer is supposed to be a little bit slanted towards the local team, and I just don't think he understands (or agrees with) that. This article was definitely an arrogant and condescending piece of trash that does absolutely nothing to endear him to what are probably his most devoted readers, and I hope he changes his tune in the (near) future.

Boards such as this are also a great way to meet fellow fans and make new friends. I'm in Billings right now doing clinical work, and so I just PM'd CardiacCats and we met up to cheer on our Bobcats last night. We had a fun time, and we made new friends. Call me crazy, but I don't see anything stupid or silly about that!

Maybe Mr. Welsch just doesn't have anything he's passionate about! Imagine going through life writing articles about other people's endeavors and wishing that you could share their passion. Sad.

Maybe if we invite him to join us on the board he won't feel so lonely!