At least two factors came into play last week, as the entire universe paid rapt attention to the comings and goings of a 25-year-old basketball player, who happens to be pretty talented at his sport. First was, as I’ve often said, the media’s default position, which is “EXCESS.” Second, we were reminded that the term “fan” comes from the word “fanatic.”
If there has ever been more excessive media coverage of an event involving one person, I don’t know what it was. Regionally, we’ve seen excessive coverage of Brett Favre’s retiring-unretiring-indecision; but that was nothing compared to the full-on print, electronic, and online media coverage of LeBron James’ decision about where he was going to play basketball next year.
After the live “announcement” show watched by millions on ESPN, the fanatics were quick to react in both Miami and Cleveland. As joy reigned in Miami, the owner of the Cleveland NBA franchise issued a rant the next morning, calling his former superstar names, and promising the Cavs would win an NBA championship before James did. Cleveland fans called James a traitor and coward.
So what.
I’ll freely and enthusiastically admit I’m a fan of the Packers and Brewers. I grew up going to games at Lambeau Field during the glory years. Even though the Braves moved to Atlanta, I didn’t hate them or think they were traitors. I went to the ’57 and ’58 World Series games in Milwaukee with my dad, my uncle, and my grandpa, and had to learn that few things are “forever”, and that major league baseball is essentially a business. Things change.
I still love the Bucks. Going to the MECCA in the early 70’s to watch Kareem play has created fond memories. But, Kareem moved west, and the Bucks moved on.
LeBron James grew up in Ohio and played the first part of his professional career there. So it was a bit harder on the Cavs fans when he decided it was time to make a move he thinks will get him a championship ring. Once the Cavs fans loved him; now many of them hate him. It makes no sense. Disappointed, yes; hate – why?
A handful of players on the Brewers have real Wisconsin ties. A handful of players on the Packers have real Wisconsin ties. And I don’t think any of the Bucks players do. Yet we somehow feel a connection to them, because they wear the uniform of “our” team. And we may feel a bit more closely connected to those players who are from Wisconsin or went to school here or have family here.
Will “King James” get an NBA Championship ring now? If that’s what he really wants, more power to him. No matter what uniform he wears, he’s a pretty talented player. That’s probably not going to change. It’s still going to be entertaining to watch SportsCenter’s highlights of James.
And don’t think for one minute that when his skills diminish, he’ll be traded or benched. And don’t think for one minute that wouldn’t have been his fate in Cleveland.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Friday Media Rant: Wrecking Great Radio and TV Stations
The famous marketing IQ question goes something like this: you have one of the world’s most recognizable products. It has a nearly 40% share of its market. What do you do with the product? The usual optional answers go something like A) leave it alone, or B) change it. The correct answer is A, and the question here refers to Coca-Cola, and the huge gaffe the company made in 1985 by introducing “The New Coke”. The new Coke was pulled off store shelves three weeks after a multi-million-dollar rollout ad campaign.
New Coke is certainly not the only example of boneheaded corporate decisions. Anybody remember the Cadillac Cimmaron? It was introduced in 1982 when the suits decided to listen to Cadillac salesmen who said they needed a gas-sipping car to sell. It failed immediately. People who buy Cadillacs don’t give two hoots in hell about gas mileage.
Right now, one of the greatest radio stations in the Midwest is dying, at the hands of a new group of radio executives who have fired the veteran on-air talent and replaced them with out-of-towners. I speak of WGN in Chicago, a station once iconic to every broadcaster in the heartland, which has become just another spot on the radio dial with lukewarm talent and a failed baseball team. Wait ‘till next year, indeed.
The new guys came in and took one of the most successful radio properties that’s ever existed, and tinkered with it. Wally Phillips and Bob Collins are rolling in their graves, and Spike O’Dell, who followed in Collins’ and Phillips’ footsteps on the morning show until he retired a year or so ago, has publicly expressed his disgust with the ongoing destruction of a once-great radio station. Phillips, Collins, and O’Dell were Chicago institutions. Kathy and Judy? Gone. The new guys said the station was “going in a different direction”.
The same thing is happening right now, as far as I’m concerned, at The Weather Channel. It went on cable in May of 1982 and at first was watched only by weather geeks like me. It grew to be the ultimate weather authority, and soon after it reached the pinnacle of success, the owners started to add programs like “Storm Stories” and other feature stuff, diluting the franchise. For a short time, they tried to become “personality TV” with stuff like the ill-fated “Abrams and Bettes” show.
What got the Weather Channel its huge audience was its round-the-clock live forecasts. No matter what the time of day or night, you could turn on the Weather Channel and get a live meteorologist giving a real-time forecast. Now, not so much. Too many “fill” programs take up time that was once devoted to live real-time weather reporting and forecasting.
Now that NBC owns the Weather Channel, they’ve taken marquee weather names like Jim Cantore and Mike Seidel – who earned their reputation by covering horrid weather for the Weather Channel – and made them just a couple more network TV personalities. And yesterday morning when I tuned to the Weather Channel to get the forecast, I saw that aging buffoon Al Roker yukking it up with a couple of puppets on a new morning program the Weather Channel calls “Wake Up With Al”.
I don’t want to wake up with Al. I just want someone with a current AMS seal (Al’s is expired, sports fans) to give me the weather. I’d rather wake up with Elmer Childress giving me the weather. And Spike O’Dell on WGN. I don’t want to turn back the hands of time as much as I want the corporate suits who know nothing about the product they manage to learn to leave well enough alone.
New Coke is certainly not the only example of boneheaded corporate decisions. Anybody remember the Cadillac Cimmaron? It was introduced in 1982 when the suits decided to listen to Cadillac salesmen who said they needed a gas-sipping car to sell. It failed immediately. People who buy Cadillacs don’t give two hoots in hell about gas mileage.
Right now, one of the greatest radio stations in the Midwest is dying, at the hands of a new group of radio executives who have fired the veteran on-air talent and replaced them with out-of-towners. I speak of WGN in Chicago, a station once iconic to every broadcaster in the heartland, which has become just another spot on the radio dial with lukewarm talent and a failed baseball team. Wait ‘till next year, indeed.
The new guys came in and took one of the most successful radio properties that’s ever existed, and tinkered with it. Wally Phillips and Bob Collins are rolling in their graves, and Spike O’Dell, who followed in Collins’ and Phillips’ footsteps on the morning show until he retired a year or so ago, has publicly expressed his disgust with the ongoing destruction of a once-great radio station. Phillips, Collins, and O’Dell were Chicago institutions. Kathy and Judy? Gone. The new guys said the station was “going in a different direction”.
The same thing is happening right now, as far as I’m concerned, at The Weather Channel. It went on cable in May of 1982 and at first was watched only by weather geeks like me. It grew to be the ultimate weather authority, and soon after it reached the pinnacle of success, the owners started to add programs like “Storm Stories” and other feature stuff, diluting the franchise. For a short time, they tried to become “personality TV” with stuff like the ill-fated “Abrams and Bettes” show.
What got the Weather Channel its huge audience was its round-the-clock live forecasts. No matter what the time of day or night, you could turn on the Weather Channel and get a live meteorologist giving a real-time forecast. Now, not so much. Too many “fill” programs take up time that was once devoted to live real-time weather reporting and forecasting.
Now that NBC owns the Weather Channel, they’ve taken marquee weather names like Jim Cantore and Mike Seidel – who earned their reputation by covering horrid weather for the Weather Channel – and made them just a couple more network TV personalities. And yesterday morning when I tuned to the Weather Channel to get the forecast, I saw that aging buffoon Al Roker yukking it up with a couple of puppets on a new morning program the Weather Channel calls “Wake Up With Al”.
I don’t want to wake up with Al. I just want someone with a current AMS seal (Al’s is expired, sports fans) to give me the weather. I’d rather wake up with Elmer Childress giving me the weather. And Spike O’Dell on WGN. I don’t want to turn back the hands of time as much as I want the corporate suits who know nothing about the product they manage to learn to leave well enough alone.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The Gig Economy
I did a radio interview segment yesterday with my friend and long-time radio partner Glen Gardner about the “gig economy”. The segment will air a week from Sunday at noon, on the 18th, as part of The Kathleen Show on 92.1 The Mic. For those not familiar, the gig economy is stitching together a bunch of projects and part-time jobs to pay the bills. The term “gig” means something different to computer nerds, but to musicians, a gig is a job – as in “I got a gig with Clyde Stubbelfield, but it’s just three nights at the Majestic”.
Some of the best musicians in the world live gig-to-gig, doing a studio date here, a live performance date there, and maybe booking a month-long tour. Now, in this economy, some of the most talented people in every profession are living gig-to-gig, doing a consulting project here, a part-time job there, picking up work where they can.
For the millions of Americans who are unemployed in this horrid downturn, many – probably the majority – aren’t even able to pick up projects, part-time jobs, or any form of employment to bring in some cash. They rely on unemployment benefits to “make the nut” and keep the wolf from the door.
Because the economy has been sour for so long, a lot of folks have been on unemployment money month after month, getting extension after extension of benefits, while they search for a new job or get training for a different one. It’s a lot different from just a few years ago, when you had to take unemployment money for a month or two until you landed a new full-time gig.
For thousands and thousands of unemployed workers, their benefits ran out – again – last week, and Congress went on vacation without approving another extension of unemployment benefits, leaving those thousands and thousands of unemployed workers high and dry.
As President Nixon used to say, let me make one thing perfectly clear: the Democrats are in control of Congress. You can blame it on heartless business-loving Republicans, but the Democrats control Congress and the White House. If they’d had the desire to “ram more unemployment benefits down our throat”, as the Republicans said the Democrats did with health insurance reform, they could have. They didn’t. Fail.
Unemployment benefit checks go right back into the local community. The money buys food, pays rent/mortgage, pays the power company, buys gas, and has a direct, measurable impact on the local economy. People getting unemployment benefits don’t park the money in the bank, don’t “invest” it, don’t do anything with it but pay their bills. Most of the recipients need the money desperately.
President Obama got 20 billion dollars out of BP; Congress is still funding our overseas wars and bailing out big business, but when it comes to “the little guy” – well, let’s take a vacation and talk about it later.
Our national priorities are so flawed.
Some of the best musicians in the world live gig-to-gig, doing a studio date here, a live performance date there, and maybe booking a month-long tour. Now, in this economy, some of the most talented people in every profession are living gig-to-gig, doing a consulting project here, a part-time job there, picking up work where they can.
For the millions of Americans who are unemployed in this horrid downturn, many – probably the majority – aren’t even able to pick up projects, part-time jobs, or any form of employment to bring in some cash. They rely on unemployment benefits to “make the nut” and keep the wolf from the door.
Because the economy has been sour for so long, a lot of folks have been on unemployment money month after month, getting extension after extension of benefits, while they search for a new job or get training for a different one. It’s a lot different from just a few years ago, when you had to take unemployment money for a month or two until you landed a new full-time gig.
For thousands and thousands of unemployed workers, their benefits ran out – again – last week, and Congress went on vacation without approving another extension of unemployment benefits, leaving those thousands and thousands of unemployed workers high and dry.
As President Nixon used to say, let me make one thing perfectly clear: the Democrats are in control of Congress. You can blame it on heartless business-loving Republicans, but the Democrats control Congress and the White House. If they’d had the desire to “ram more unemployment benefits down our throat”, as the Republicans said the Democrats did with health insurance reform, they could have. They didn’t. Fail.
Unemployment benefit checks go right back into the local community. The money buys food, pays rent/mortgage, pays the power company, buys gas, and has a direct, measurable impact on the local economy. People getting unemployment benefits don’t park the money in the bank, don’t “invest” it, don’t do anything with it but pay their bills. Most of the recipients need the money desperately.
President Obama got 20 billion dollars out of BP; Congress is still funding our overseas wars and bailing out big business, but when it comes to “the little guy” – well, let’s take a vacation and talk about it later.
Our national priorities are so flawed.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Overture Center: Here To Stay
Once again, businessman Jerry Frautschi opened his checkbook and has put what appears to be the final touch on settling the debt for the Overture Center for the Arts. Paul Fanlund, who writes the excellent column “Madison 360” for Madison.com says it’s time for the sniping to end.
His persuasive column, which appeared yesterday, acknowledges that there’s been grousing about the Overture Center since the day Frautschi proposed it to then-Mayor Baumann. A few days ago, Frautschi met the lenders about half-way so the quarter-billion-dollar structure, with the approval of the City Council, can be sold to the city for a dollar, and the city will staff and operate it.
Do NOT assume this will fly through the City Council. And do not assume that even though the 800-pound Gorilla, the remaining debt on the Overture Center, has been removed, that the huge downtown building will now be embraced by the nay-sayers.
As Fanlund points out, the debt issues that plagued Overture have now been settled, so the argument about the city taxpayer being on the hook for millions and millions is now moot. Estimates from city hall are that it will cost the city about a million and a half dollars a year to run the place – well within the same ball-park of what it cost to run the Civic Center.
But there’s the rub.
Even though the city would take ownership of a magnificently-appointed performing arts venue at a cost similar to running the Civic Center, which is, let’s face it, a glorified, renovated movie theater, this is a time when budget priorities are being examined more closely than ever before.
A few clicks away from Fanlund’s column on Madison.com is a story about the committee appointed to study better ways to clear snow in the winter, suggesting that about a million bucks would do it, and discussion about what a huge object that million-dollar price-tag is right now.
Another few clicks away is a story about salaries paid to Dane County employees, and calls for reform on how public employees are paid and how their contracts are negotiated.
We’re not in a mood to throw money at anything, and that’s not likely to change until the economy moves solidly up and unemployment moves solidly down. And the city alders are going to hear that message loud and clear from their constituents when debate begins on the fate of the Overture Center on August 3rd.
And there will always be the small but noisy crowd that’s still angry that their favorite hamburger joint (Dotty’s) had to move to make way for the Overture Center.
I wonder if Jerry Frautschi ever thinks that passage in the Sermon On The Mount – the one about casting pearls before swine – was written with Madison in mind.
His persuasive column, which appeared yesterday, acknowledges that there’s been grousing about the Overture Center since the day Frautschi proposed it to then-Mayor Baumann. A few days ago, Frautschi met the lenders about half-way so the quarter-billion-dollar structure, with the approval of the City Council, can be sold to the city for a dollar, and the city will staff and operate it.
Do NOT assume this will fly through the City Council. And do not assume that even though the 800-pound Gorilla, the remaining debt on the Overture Center, has been removed, that the huge downtown building will now be embraced by the nay-sayers.
As Fanlund points out, the debt issues that plagued Overture have now been settled, so the argument about the city taxpayer being on the hook for millions and millions is now moot. Estimates from city hall are that it will cost the city about a million and a half dollars a year to run the place – well within the same ball-park of what it cost to run the Civic Center.
But there’s the rub.
Even though the city would take ownership of a magnificently-appointed performing arts venue at a cost similar to running the Civic Center, which is, let’s face it, a glorified, renovated movie theater, this is a time when budget priorities are being examined more closely than ever before.
A few clicks away from Fanlund’s column on Madison.com is a story about the committee appointed to study better ways to clear snow in the winter, suggesting that about a million bucks would do it, and discussion about what a huge object that million-dollar price-tag is right now.
Another few clicks away is a story about salaries paid to Dane County employees, and calls for reform on how public employees are paid and how their contracts are negotiated.
We’re not in a mood to throw money at anything, and that’s not likely to change until the economy moves solidly up and unemployment moves solidly down. And the city alders are going to hear that message loud and clear from their constituents when debate begins on the fate of the Overture Center on August 3rd.
And there will always be the small but noisy crowd that’s still angry that their favorite hamburger joint (Dotty’s) had to move to make way for the Overture Center.
I wonder if Jerry Frautschi ever thinks that passage in the Sermon On The Mount – the one about casting pearls before swine – was written with Madison in mind.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Supremes: Wrong Again...and Again
In my humble but deadly accurate opinion, our state’s highest court is on an express elevator to hell. Goin’ off the rails on a crazy train, as Ozzy would say. Now, the court is so deeply divided along political lines that they put out separate opinions about Justice Gableman’s adventures in advertising.
That topic in a moment.
A day or so before the supremes issued their dueling reports about Gableman’s fate last week, they unanimously – and poorly – decided that the appeals court was right in upholding the state’s so-called ban on gay marriage. The constitutional amendment, pushed for by people like that horrible Appling woman (self-proclaimed moral watchdog and guardian of the sanctity of marriage in Wisconsin), is just another example of how stupid people can be when they pay attention to slogans instead of critically thinking about the issue.
In a few years, the amendment will be repealed, and the supremes won’t have a role. Eventually, the fear and hatred of gay people will subside to a level where the majority of cheeseheads will understand that it’s wrong to discriminate against an entire class of our fellow citizens.
Marriage will still be safe for Brittney Spears, Al Gore, John Edwards, Larry King, and everyone else, Wisconsinite or not.
Now, the Gableman decision: at issue are the deliberately misleading and lying ads Gableman ran during his campaign in 2008, trying to make people believe that incumbent Justice Louis Butler turned a sex offender loose to offend again. Since Gableman can’t vote on this one, because he himself is involved, the justices split right along “party lines”, hence deciding not to decide.
Justices Abrahamson, Bradley, and Crooks wrote an opinion saying their colleague’s ads lied, and he should be disciplined; Justices Prosser, Roggensack, and the Gut-Check Justice (Ms. Ziegler) wrote an opposing opinion, saying the ads were distasteful but didn’t violate any laws.
And you were lead to believe in civics class (years ago, when they still had civics classes in school) that justice had nothing to do with politics.
Justices Abrahamson, Bradley, and Crooks, acknowledging that the 3-3 split on the court is not going to change, want the Judicial Commission to review the case and then proceed to a jury trial.
If so, consider this my application for a media credential to cover the trial. It should provide plenty of drama and comic relief.
That topic in a moment.
A day or so before the supremes issued their dueling reports about Gableman’s fate last week, they unanimously – and poorly – decided that the appeals court was right in upholding the state’s so-called ban on gay marriage. The constitutional amendment, pushed for by people like that horrible Appling woman (self-proclaimed moral watchdog and guardian of the sanctity of marriage in Wisconsin), is just another example of how stupid people can be when they pay attention to slogans instead of critically thinking about the issue.
In a few years, the amendment will be repealed, and the supremes won’t have a role. Eventually, the fear and hatred of gay people will subside to a level where the majority of cheeseheads will understand that it’s wrong to discriminate against an entire class of our fellow citizens.
Marriage will still be safe for Brittney Spears, Al Gore, John Edwards, Larry King, and everyone else, Wisconsinite or not.
Now, the Gableman decision: at issue are the deliberately misleading and lying ads Gableman ran during his campaign in 2008, trying to make people believe that incumbent Justice Louis Butler turned a sex offender loose to offend again. Since Gableman can’t vote on this one, because he himself is involved, the justices split right along “party lines”, hence deciding not to decide.
Justices Abrahamson, Bradley, and Crooks wrote an opinion saying their colleague’s ads lied, and he should be disciplined; Justices Prosser, Roggensack, and the Gut-Check Justice (Ms. Ziegler) wrote an opposing opinion, saying the ads were distasteful but didn’t violate any laws.
And you were lead to believe in civics class (years ago, when they still had civics classes in school) that justice had nothing to do with politics.
Justices Abrahamson, Bradley, and Crooks, acknowledging that the 3-3 split on the court is not going to change, want the Judicial Commission to review the case and then proceed to a jury trial.
If so, consider this my application for a media credential to cover the trial. It should provide plenty of drama and comic relief.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Friday Media Rant: Where Are All The Reporters?
I didn’t think the day would ever come that big-time national media would be quoting from and citing the National Enquirer as a source, but that day is here. It actually arrived some time ago, when the grocery check-out line publication broke the story about John Edwards’ dalliance during his failed Presidential campaign.
Now, with the Enquirer’s story about Al Gore’s alleged groping of a masseuse, the tabloid has joined the ranks of the mainstream media.
This has got to be a pebble in the shoe of every reporter at every other news outlet in America. The unthinkable has happened: again, national TV networks and huge national newspapers are following the Enquirer’s scoop.
Just a year ago, in the untimely death of Michael Jackson, it was the lurid website TMZ.com that had the breaking news and had the scoop on developments before anybody else. Remember the first national news stories about Jackson’s death – with network anchors “hedging their bets” on their break-ins, heavily attributing the story of the pop star’s death to the website, just in case it wasn’t true?
To me, the more interesting question is, why have media like the Enquirer and TMZ moved from “gossip mongers” to breaking real, actual, hard news stories?
Let me suggest one possible answer: the “mainstream media” have laid off so many news professionals in the past two years that they’re missing stories, or simply don’t have the personnel to track these stories down.
Far-fetched? Consider the ranks of news people in our fair city. Madison TV has lost so many experienced news reporters in the past few years it’s hard to put a count to it. Madison Newspapers Inc., which publishes the State Journal and The Capital Times, has shed so many actual news-gathering positions that the two staffs, once loudly touted as “separate”, have now merged, and by-lines from traditional “Cap Times” reporters now appear in the State Journal and vice-versa. Isthmus has not escaped the trend, either.
And please, don’t even get me started about radio news in this market. A couple of “seasoned veterans” are left, and the rest are bright, eager young folks, but who really have no depth of knowledge about the community and have not yet developed a sense for tracking down real news.
I know, I’m hopelessly biased. My wife is one of the many veterans who left TV news, and Mid-West threw me under the bus back in ’08. Just between the two of us, that’s over 40 years of institutional knowledge about Madison news that’s gone and hasn’t been replaced.
So, welcome to the new age of media: an age where grocery store tabloids and lurid celebrity websites are now mainstream media.
Now, with the Enquirer’s story about Al Gore’s alleged groping of a masseuse, the tabloid has joined the ranks of the mainstream media.
This has got to be a pebble in the shoe of every reporter at every other news outlet in America. The unthinkable has happened: again, national TV networks and huge national newspapers are following the Enquirer’s scoop.
Just a year ago, in the untimely death of Michael Jackson, it was the lurid website TMZ.com that had the breaking news and had the scoop on developments before anybody else. Remember the first national news stories about Jackson’s death – with network anchors “hedging their bets” on their break-ins, heavily attributing the story of the pop star’s death to the website, just in case it wasn’t true?
To me, the more interesting question is, why have media like the Enquirer and TMZ moved from “gossip mongers” to breaking real, actual, hard news stories?
Let me suggest one possible answer: the “mainstream media” have laid off so many news professionals in the past two years that they’re missing stories, or simply don’t have the personnel to track these stories down.
Far-fetched? Consider the ranks of news people in our fair city. Madison TV has lost so many experienced news reporters in the past few years it’s hard to put a count to it. Madison Newspapers Inc., which publishes the State Journal and The Capital Times, has shed so many actual news-gathering positions that the two staffs, once loudly touted as “separate”, have now merged, and by-lines from traditional “Cap Times” reporters now appear in the State Journal and vice-versa. Isthmus has not escaped the trend, either.
And please, don’t even get me started about radio news in this market. A couple of “seasoned veterans” are left, and the rest are bright, eager young folks, but who really have no depth of knowledge about the community and have not yet developed a sense for tracking down real news.
I know, I’m hopelessly biased. My wife is one of the many veterans who left TV news, and Mid-West threw me under the bus back in ’08. Just between the two of us, that’s over 40 years of institutional knowledge about Madison news that’s gone and hasn’t been replaced.
So, welcome to the new age of media: an age where grocery store tabloids and lurid celebrity websites are now mainstream media.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Resume? We Don't Need No Steenking Resume
Michael Morgan, Administration Secretary in the Doyle administration, just landed himself a plum job with the UW System: he’ll be the Chief Operating Officer, and will be paid 245-grand a year. No application; no search; no resume – oops, wait a minute – after he was offered the job, he e-mailed his resume to UW System boss Kevin Reilly’s office.
Nice work if you can get it; and if you’re a loyal Doyle-ite, apparently you can. There was some hue and cry from the watchdogs and a handful of politicians, like UW-hater Steve Nass, but it’s pretty much a done deal. Morgan starts his new job Tuesday morning.
The latest dodge coming from UW-land is that it’s an “interim appointment”, so it doesn’t have to go through the standard procedure of posting, application, search and screen, interview, and so on. Anybody want to try and define “interim?” Didn’t think so.
I don’t begrudge Morgan one bit. Hell, if they offered the job to me, I’d take it. That quarter-million-dollar-a-year salary is really going to stand Morgan in good stead when it comes time to compute his state retirement benefits, a date not that far in the future. I’m sure the “interim” appointment can stretch out until it’s time for Mr. Morgan to take the gold watch and pension.
There’s precedent for this sort of thing over there on the big campus on the lake. Anybody remember a few years ago, when Barry Alvarez decided it was time to give up the coaching job and become Athletic Director?
How many coaches did they interview for the job of filling Alvarez’ big shoes? As Dean Wormer (Animal House) said, “Zero point zero”. Barry just made sure his hand-picked successor, Bret Bielema, got the job.
No posting, no application, no search and screen. And Bielema is paid four or five times what Morgan will be.
Later on, after Bielema was anointed – ah, I mean appointed – there was about as much hue and cry about the way it was done as there’s been over the Morgan appointment, and some fairly high-level functionary in the athletic apparatus over on Monroe Street took the fall for Barry, saying, in effect, “oh yeah – we shoulda posted that job. I forgot. My bad”.
As I said…nice work if you can get it. But you gotta know somebody.
Nice work if you can get it; and if you’re a loyal Doyle-ite, apparently you can. There was some hue and cry from the watchdogs and a handful of politicians, like UW-hater Steve Nass, but it’s pretty much a done deal. Morgan starts his new job Tuesday morning.
The latest dodge coming from UW-land is that it’s an “interim appointment”, so it doesn’t have to go through the standard procedure of posting, application, search and screen, interview, and so on. Anybody want to try and define “interim?” Didn’t think so.
I don’t begrudge Morgan one bit. Hell, if they offered the job to me, I’d take it. That quarter-million-dollar-a-year salary is really going to stand Morgan in good stead when it comes time to compute his state retirement benefits, a date not that far in the future. I’m sure the “interim” appointment can stretch out until it’s time for Mr. Morgan to take the gold watch and pension.
There’s precedent for this sort of thing over there on the big campus on the lake. Anybody remember a few years ago, when Barry Alvarez decided it was time to give up the coaching job and become Athletic Director?
How many coaches did they interview for the job of filling Alvarez’ big shoes? As Dean Wormer (Animal House) said, “Zero point zero”. Barry just made sure his hand-picked successor, Bret Bielema, got the job.
No posting, no application, no search and screen. And Bielema is paid four or five times what Morgan will be.
Later on, after Bielema was anointed – ah, I mean appointed – there was about as much hue and cry about the way it was done as there’s been over the Morgan appointment, and some fairly high-level functionary in the athletic apparatus over on Monroe Street took the fall for Barry, saying, in effect, “oh yeah – we shoulda posted that job. I forgot. My bad”.
As I said…nice work if you can get it. But you gotta know somebody.
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