#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[simplyeric]

in your scenario, Roger would effectively be punishing Brady for exercising his right to seek justice in the U.S. court system. I don't think that would play well publicaly, nor that a judge would allow that to stand.

So basically, if Brady appeals, and Roger offers a reduction, Brady had nothing to lose by taking it to court.

In regards to the ability of the Patriots to win games, the downside of the court battle is approximately zero, and the upside is that the suspension could be completely overturned.

In what way could that be conceived of as 'selfish'?

 

[GeorgeCostanza]

I haven't seen any takers, so I'll take that bet.  What happens if the penalty is changed to "just a fine, but 0 games"?  Is that a push, or a win for you?

That's a win for me. I'm saying Brady will not miss any games because Goodell nixed the suspension. What's your charity my friend?

If I win, $50 to the Theresa Smith Memorial Scholarship, c/o Massasoit CC Latch Program. I'll PM you the particulars should Goodell find logic and reason and do the right thing.

Are these terms agreeable?

 

[PseuFighter]

“@jeffphowe: FYI, the Kraft Foundation has no affiliation with Robert Kraft or the Patriots, according to Patriots spokesman Stacey James.”

 
wow; thanks for posting this. disappointed in volin, who had but *one* fucking job.
 
sports reporters in the age of twitter just outright suck.

 

[Gorton Fisherman]

Saw Felger on CSNNE tonight addressing AEI, think it gave a pretty good indication of what we'll hear on the radio tomorrow. To summarize: we already knew the science in Wells report was suspect, nothing to see here. But what about the texts? The obstruction? The lawyering up?

Basically, they are not going to back down, but rather double down on the stupid.

 

[Myt1]

Look, I know that the guy we all thought had gotten killed is still alive, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TEXT WHERE HIS WIFE SAID SHE WISHED HE WERE DEAD?

 

[BannedbyNYYFans.com]

NM...

 

[GeorgeCostanza]

Gone Girl part 2: deflated balls

 

[Bleedred]

Reiss on Sportsfinal with Dan Roache tonight (I'm paraphrasing):  "If I'm an owner in the NFL, we spent $5 million on the Wells Report, and this AEI report systematically destroyed it.  If I'm the NFL, I'm embarrassed."

 

[Gorton Fisherman]

Reiss at this point is practically begging to be fired.

I love that guy.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

People are piling on here. Yes, Ben has been a little eager at times to implicate the Pats but was pretty fair on the Wells Report itself and anyways is hardly a grievous offender. In this instance, he got a little lazy and eager to be first with a ding on this and got ahead of himself. He admitted he was wrong and apologized to the Krafts.

Not to pile on you, VE, but Volin has been talking out of both sides of his mouth for months.

Volin has criticized some points from the Wells report but overall has agreed to the findings while being a reliable source for trolling his readers & pro-Wells national interviews.

He had become the perfect love-child of CHB and Borges.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Saw Felger on CSNNE tonight addressing AEI, think it gave a pretty good indication of what we'll hear on the radio tomorrow. To summarize: we already knew the science in Wells report was suspect, nothing to see here. But what about the texts? The obstruction? The lawyering up?

Basically, they are not going to back down, but rather double down on the stupid.

Someone should call in with the comarison to BountyGate and that quote from the Tagliabue report.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Reiss at this point is practically begging to be fired.

I love that guy.

Maybe he's angling for a role in Bill Simmons' excellent adventure, whatever that may be.  
 
Maybe the Boston Globe can do a trade - Volin to ESPN for Mike Reiss, even up.

 

[JimBoSox9]

Reiss at this point is practically begging to be fired.

I love that guy.

 
He's seemed pretty nilhistic about ESPN Boston for awhile, since back when he actually voiced concerns about the blog's creative control.  The thing is, 99% of his exposure is NE-based, he's one of the very best pure beat guys working, and his shots at the NFL are always well-reasoned and usually genteel.  If ESPN fired him he'd show up at one of the other local outlets in a matter of seconds, making a little less dough and writing the same shit.  Seems like a perpetually unsatisfactory relationship that will 'make sense' enough to never teeter over into outright divorce.

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

That's a win for me. I'm saying Brady will not miss any games because Goodell nixed the suspension. What's your charity my friend?

If I win, $50 to the Theresa Smith Memorial Scholarship, c/o Massasoit CC Latch Program. I'll PM you the particulars should Goodell find logic and reason and do the right thing.

Are these terms agreeable?

 
Probably AnkleStigmata's kids' thing, for me.  Looks good.

 

[baruch20]

If the Globe had a serious editor they'd suspend him for that.  it's just flat-out embarrassing to employ someone at a purported newsgathering organization who lacks both the basic knowledge and the commitment to accuracy to bother to check something like that before posting it publicly. 
 
Ben Volin, you are a joke.[/quote]
"If the Globe had a serious editor they'd suspend him for that."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is really at the heart of my/your/all of our issues with the media today.
Print journalists now tweet first for clicks and follow up later.
Editorial meetings use to be a sacred space, but once corporate reps were allowed to sit in on them, it was inevitable that the influence and quality of editors would diminish.

 

[EL Jeffe]

Look, I know that the guy we all thought had gotten killed is still alive, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TEXT WHERE HIS WIFE SAID SHE WISHED HE WERE DEAD?

This is exactly where I've been for the past couple of weeks.
 
"Mr. Johnson, as you know your wife has been missing for the past few days. We're charging you with murder."
 
"What? I told you, she's on a business trip! I talked to her last night - look, here's her contact information."
 
"Sir, I don't think you understand the evidence here. We've gone through your text messages; one time you referred to yourself as "killer" a few months back. Another time, you said you were "going to murder a plate of buffalo wings." You're obviously a cold-blooded killer sir."
 
"No, those were jokes. Doesn't it matter that my wife is still alive???"
 
"Well we hired a coroner. He found a woman matching your wife's description. Granted, she was Asian, but the age and weight pretty much match. We caught you."
 
"But my wife isn't Asian and she's alive! Do a DNA test or something!"
 
"Yeah, about that; we talked to the coroner and he said it didn't matter. He said you were probably married to this Asian lady. So you likely killed her, or at least knew about it."
 
"This is insane!"
 
"Look, why don't you just do everyone a favor and confess so we can all move on from this."

 

[Gorton Fisherman]

After re-reading the AEI report, I really appreciated the sly way they sprinkled in some snark about Wells and especially Exponent.

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

"Look, why don't you just do everyone a favor and confess so we can all move on from this."

 
Yeah, that's definitely my favorite part from all of this.  The "don't you think you owe your fans an apology?" routine.
 

 

[dcmissle]

A part of Steeler Nation, which has had an appropriate view of this whole thing in the main, IMO, figures Tom will be playing game 1:
 
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2015/6/13/8776859/tom-brady-on-the-field-for-week-1-against-the-steelers-its-looking

 

[DJnVa]

Exactly what part of my post makes it appear that I think Lay or Cheney had anything to do with this report on Deflategate?

 
The part where you mentioned them.
 
If they are inconsequential, why bring them up?
 

 

[ObstructedView]

Saw Felger on CSNNE tonight addressing AEI, think it gave a pretty good indication of what we'll hear on the radio tomorrow. To summarize: we already knew the science in Wells report was suspect, nothing to see here. But what about the texts? The obstruction? The lawyering up?

Basically, they are not going to back down, but rather double down on the stupid.

"The way the team conducted itself..." If you start with an assumption of guilt, anything the accused does or says that's not complete capitulation is perceived as nefarious.

 

[dbn]

On of my favorite authors is Franz Kafka. His stories are so Goodellesque.

 

[dcmissle]

'conduct[] itself ...'
 
like this?
 
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/15/8780689/tom-brady-fist-pumped-to-trap-queen-wearing-4-super-bowl-rings-patriots-gronkowski-robert-kraft

 

[nighthob]

Mort, Borges, and Shank are under 30?

I'll give Mortensen a pass. He made his deal with the devil, he spits out everything he gets fed and as a reward he gets the occasional scoop. Volin is lazy, he's no Borges or CHB. He just wants people to notice him so that he can get a job with the World Wide Bleeder.

 

[nighthob]

You realize that they have 0% to actually do with the report right? I think you do, but that post makes me think you don't.

I took him to mean that we're pinning our hopes on the work of a foundation with judgment poor enough to include Ken Lay and Dick Cheney on its board of directors.

 

[GeorgeCostanza]

Probably AnkleStigmata's kids' thing, for me.  Looks good.

Excellent sir. <virtual handshake> Now I have at least some reason to be pleased regardless of the Goodell appeal result. Good will be done regardless, even if it's small.

 

[Average Reds]

I took him to mean that we're pinning our hopes on the work of a foundation with judgment poor enough to include Ken Lay and Dick Cheney on its board of directors.

 
Perhaps that's a fair assumption of what he meant, but it was not worded that clearly.  I would add that the timing for when those two were on the board is actually pretty critical to the question of whether he has a point or not. 

 

[Ed Hillel]

'conduct[] itself ...'
 
like this?
 
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/15/8780689/tom-brady-fist-pumped-to-trap-queen-wearing-4-super-bowl-rings-patriots-gronkowski-robert-kraft

Oh, dear God. Tom has the White Man down pat.

 

[DJnVa]

I took him to mean that we're pinning our hopes on the work of a foundation with judgment poor enough to include Ken Lay and Dick Cheney on its board of directors.

 
I took him to mean that too. I was just hoping the politics wouldn't enter into it.
 

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

Excellent sir. <virtual handshake> Now I have at least some reason to be pleased regardless of the Goodell appeal result. Good will be done regardless, even if it's small.

 
As for me, this marks the first time I've bet against Goodell choosing the sane, common-sense way to resolve something.  In past Ballghazi moments, I've posted stuff to the effect of, "of course there won't be any punishment, because there's no evidence that anything even happened, so that would be stupid!"  Guess we found out who was being naive, Kay.

 

[Spelunker]

'conduct[] itself ...'
 
like this?
 
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/15/8780689/tom-brady-fist-pumped-to-trap-queen-wearing-4-super-bowl-rings-patriots-gronkowski-robert-kraft

 
Oh man, that ring is such a FU to everyone. Is Jonas even modeling it on his middle finger?

 

[nighthob]

I took him to mean that too. I was just hoping the politics wouldn't enter into it.

I'll give you Dick Cheney (even though I hate the troll myself). But can we at least agree that having a con man on the board of directors was a poor choice in 2006? It would be like having Bernie Madoff on a board of directors now.

 

[natpastime162]

This is exactly where I've been for the past couple of weeks.
 
"Mr. Johnson, as you know your wife has been missing for the past few days. We're charging you with murder."
 
"What? I told you, she's on a business trip! I talked to her last night - look, here's her contact information."
 
"Sir, I don't think you understand the evidence here. We've gone through your text messages; one time you referred to yourself as "killer" a few months back. Another time, you said you were "going to murder a plate of buffalo wings." You're obviously a cold-blooded killer sir."
 
"No, those were jokes. Doesn't it matter that my wife is still alive???"
 
"Well we hired a coroner. He found a woman matching your wife's description. Granted, she was Asian, but the age and weight pretty much match. We caught you."
 
"But my wife isn't Asian and she's alive! Do a DNA test or something!"
 
"Yeah, about that; we talked to the coroner and he said it didn't matter. He said you were probably married to this Asian lady. So you likely killed her, or at least knew about it."
 
"This is insane!"
 
"Look, why don't you just do everyone a favor and confess so we can all move on from this."

 
Judge Hawthorne was mentioned earlier in the thread (not taking credit):
 
Bishop: I am no witch
Hathorne: Why if you have not wrote in the book, yet tell me how far you have gone?
Bishop: I have no familiarity with the devil.
Hathorne: How is it then, that your appearance doth hurt these?
Bishop: I am innocent.
Hathorne: Why you seem to act witchcraft before us by the motion of your body which seems to have influence upon the afflicted.
Bishop: I know nothing of it. I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.
Hathorne: How do you know then that you are not a witch?
Bishop: I do not know what you say.
Hathorne: How can you know, you are no witch, and yet not know what a witch is?
Bishop: I am clear...
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hathorne

 

[Van Everyman]

I don't disagree that Volin blew this one badly. But I'm not sure how tweaking the original tweet for accuracy and then correcting himself about an hour constitutes "doubling down" on his mistake.

It seems like he fucked up and pretty quickly owned up to it.

As for his coverage this far, I agree that it is frustrating that he has been so willing at times to accept Goodell's "where there's smoke there's no Ideal Gas Law" line here. But to play devil's advocate for a second, I imagine he's thinking of it this way:

1) He can't be an outright homer about this without destroying his credibility as a journalist. So his overall approach as the Globe's beat writer is to write on this more than most reporters but not necessarily in a favorable way. Plus, he was recently a Dolphins beat writer so he is probably very familiar with how other teams see the Pats and may well see some truth in their reputation based on his own observations.

2) He also needs to be appropriately balanced. Thus, he reports that the Wells Report is flawed but also that the weight loss deflator thing seemed like a stretch. I find this kind of reporting frustrating—if the facts say one thing clearly who cares if both sides are represented fairly?—but i would also argue that the vagaries of text messages unfortunately make this whole situation a lot less clear cut than the science to people who weren't willing to give the Patriots the benefit of the doubt. Which unfortunately describes a lot of people.

3) He's also human. Yes, he jumps to conclusions and may think too much about his reputation in all this. But Saints Leigh and Peter didn't have Twitter back in the day. Their jobs were a lot more secure. And they had editors looking over every word they wrote. Nobody's perfect.

None of which is to say that this mistake was excusable. Volin absolutely should have paused for a second or two before posting this and probably should be sanctioned in some way.

But to suggest he has "no integrity at all" or "is talking out of both sides of his mouth" isn't really fair or accurate based on the totality of the evidence. He's generally been a solid journalist who has done some very good work (ie, the Revis signing last year), some less than stellar work (this being one example) and some perfunctory work.

That he has a mixed track record on a minefield like Ballghazi shouldn't be terribly surprising – the whole thing has been a total shitshow for the media in general, from the Kravitz and Mort tweets to the NFL acting like the Kremlin to ESPN's Pravda with the negative headlines and the Simmons firing. In some ways Volin has done better than most on this whole disaster. Tho that isn't saying much I grant you.

 

[snowmanny]

If he "may well see some truth in (New England's) reputation based on his own observations" from covering Miami he should probably report that.  But he hasn't so I'm wondering where you're getting that nugget beyond your own imagination.
 
I have a lot of trouble with his not assuming that "Kraft" probably referred to the Fortune 500 food giant and instead assuming it is Robert.  To me that more likely reflects some predisposition of thought on the whole matter than just plain ignorance. 

 

[Tony C]

After re-reading the AEI report, I really appreciated the sly way they sprinkled in some snark about Wells and especially Exponent.

 
This hasn't been emphasized enough. They wrote it with just the write mixture of straightforward "just the facts/just the logic" but with very political -- not overwrought -  reminders of why the NFL/Goodel/Wells are not to be trusted.
 

On of my favorite authors is Franz Kafka. His stories are so Goodellesque.

 

 

[PaulinMyrBch]

The thing for me with the Volin F-up is that the AEI  states in the report they have zero financial interest in the issue. As a journalist that should cause two immediate reactions. One, you respect them for who they are, and if you know anything about them, assume they are correct. Two, if you do happen to have that "gotcha" thought, you better be damn sure you're right. He didn't do either. He treated it as if he was Patriots perspective report and went searching for a biased financial interest. 
 
We now have three reports. Two biased and one independent. The standings are Patriots 2, NFL 1. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[Bleedred]

A google search of "AEI report on deflategate" has 3 non-Boston sites picking up the report.
 
1.  CBS sportsline
2.  profootball talk
3.  New York Times.
 
All the other links (on the first page of the google search at least) are tied to Boston outlets.   Reiss himself expressed surprise last night on Sportsfinal that the AEI report hasn't received more traction, as he is of the opinion that it is a game changer, at least as to the credibility of the Wells Report.   So far we haven't seen any groundswell coming to the conclusion that the Wells report is simply unreliable.  

 

[DJnVa]

I'll give you Dick Cheney (even though I hate the troll myself). But can we at least agree that having a con man on the board of directors was a poor choice in 2006? It would be like having Bernie Madoff on a board of directors now.

 
I get all that, but he resigned from the board in 2002, it's not like they named him to the board after this shit came out.
 
And pointing out things like "Lay and Cheney!!!!" is trolling because it MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to what we're talking about. It's stupid. It'd be like Plympton coming in here and posting "We can't rely on Ted Wells, he donated to Obama!!!"

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

A google search of "AEI report on deflategate" has 3 non-Boston sites picking up the report.
 
1.  CBS sportsline
2.  profootball talk
3.  New York Times.
 
All the other links (on the first page of the google search at least) are tied to Boston outlets.   Reiss himself expressed surprise last night on Sportsfinal that the AEI report hasn't received more traction, as he is of the opinion that it is a game changer, at least as to the credibility of the Wells Report.   So far we haven't seen any groundswell coming to the conclusion that the Wells report is simply unreliable.  

 
You know why?  Because no one is going to generate attention and/or clicks if they propagate the news that Deflategate was a bunch of made-up bullshit.
 
"Pats are cheaters" sells much better in Peoria than "Pats did nothing wrong."
 
It's that simple. The media outlets have no vested interest in taking the air out of (see what I did there?) this story.

 

[nighthob]

I get all that, but he resigned from the board in 2002, it's not like they named him to the board after this shit came out.

Obviously not, he's been dead for years, which should have been clue #1 for Volin if he'd actually read the Right Wing Watch page on AEI rather than simply googling "AEI and Kraft" and then using the find command to find the word "Kraft" in the page. Hence my remark about his laziness. It would have taken him sixty seconds to read the web page, realise that it was from the middle of last decade, and from the presence of Phillip Morris on the major donors list that the Kraft Foundation was likely theirs and not one of the others.

 

[allstonite]

Volin also completely screwed up when he said Brady, Yee, or Kraft never had outright denials and ran with it. This was debunked in about a minute of google searching when all three had flat out denied any wrong doing. He's absolutely a hack and a troll who is looking for a "gotcha" and failing miserably. It's one thing for columnist and talk radio to deal in half truths and innuendo to try to generate discussion and clicks. Volin is a beat reporter who should be only concerned with finding actual facts and then basing his opinion on that. It's why Reiss is by far the best in town. 

 

[dcmissle]

Volin is emblematic of the profession, which has taken an enormous hit the past two decades, despite the proliferation of platforms and the growth of new areas such as advanced analytics.  First rate people don't go into it in the same numbers anymore -- and those that do don't flourish to the same extent -- because first rate performance requires, reflection, judgment and time.  Our era of hotsportstakes punishes these qualities.  With a relatively few precious exceptions, everybody sucks.

 

[joe dokes]

Volin also completely screwed up when he said Brady, Yee, or Kraft never had outright denials and ran with it. This was debunked in about a minute of google searching when all three had flat out denied any wrong doing. He's absolutely a hack and a troll who is looking for a "gotcha" and failing miserably. It's one thing for columnist and talk radio to deal in half truths and innuendo to try to generate discussion and clicks. Volin is a beat reporter who should be only concerned with finding actual facts and then basing his opinion on that. It's why Reiss is by far the best in town. 

 
I just dont think he's a very good reporter. I do think he's trying --- in other words, I dont think he's trying to be a shit-stirrer, or has some anti-pats bias.  But from the above to the Kraft sloppiness, to relying on Lester Munson for the inaccurate claim that as a Senior Judge, NFL nemesis David Doty is no longer hearing cases, he's just  not doing his job very well. Tweeting something as damning as "Kraft is a part of AEI" without making sure is just  more of "first is most important; right is somewhere further down the list" that infects lousy reporters.
 
He's different than Shaughnessy or Borges because they are opnion-only at this point. And I havent seen any predisposition when he does have an opinion piece.

 

[PayrodsFirstClutchHit]

 
You know why?  Because no one is going to generate attention and/or clicks if they propagate the news that Deflategate was a bunch of made-up bullshit.
 
"Pats are cheaters" sells much better in Peoria than "Pats did nothing wrong."
 
It's that simple. The media outlets have no vested interest in taking the air out of (see what I did there?) this story.

 
The media does not want to acknowledge that they collectively failed in their duty when it comes to the reporting/analysis on this issue.  Embracing this NY Times report means admitting they just went with the easy story and failed to research/confirm the basic facts. 
 
The media is looking for the quick Volin-type response to be able to dismiss this report without having to respond to any of the specific details. Short of that dismissive angle, they seem to be going with the ignore/hope it goes away approach. 

 

[amlothi]

 
I get all that, but he resigned from the board in 2002, it's not like they named him to the board after this shit came out.
 
And pointing out things like "Lay and Cheney!!!!" is trolling because it MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to what we're talking about. It's stupid. It'd be like Plympton coming in here and posting "We can't rely on Ted Wells, he donated to Obama!!!"

I said type. Type of people.
By type I mean character, not political affiliation.

I never said these specific people were involved or mentioned politics.

I am surprised that we are relying on this organization to lead us to the truth given the types of characters they have previously had on their board.


But feel free to keep putting words in my mouth. It's easier for you to argue with me that way.

 

[Gambler7]

I follow all of this more closely than I should. I have no problem calling Volin a hack. He's brutal and has absolutely just been shooting for a national gig. He couldn't have jumped on national shows about this faster, while repeatedly stating misinformation. Toucher and Rich made him look foolish twice in ten minutes over basic facts (as discussed above). This latest issue just sums him up perfectly. 

 

[DJnVa]

I am surprised that we are relying on this organization to lead us to the truth given the types of characters they have previously had on their board.

 
The point is that he wasn't known to be that "type of person" when put on the board. The NAACP gave him an award too. As did the March of Dimes. Stanford Business School. The US Navy. The Anti-Defamation League.
 
You wanted to score some cheap internet points, fine. Five points to Hufflepuff.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

How long before Volin tweets out a theory that maybe AEI did the study because they thought that Kraft foundation meant Bob Kraft?

 

[TomTerrific]

I said type. Type of people.
By type I mean character, not political affiliation.

I am surprised that we are relying on this organization to lead us to the truth given the types of characters they have previously had on their board.

Have you ever read the Wall Street Journal editorial page? The amount of batshit-craziness/disingenuousness/political water-carrying can make you blind. Not to mention the paper is owned by Murdoch.

However, that doesn't stop the rest of the paper, IMO, from being superb, with excellent writing and good journalism. AEI is not the WSJ, but the WSJ example is instructive in its indication that having thugs at the top doesn't always mean that good work may not be carried out below.