Bud Withers - has retired

[M-I-Coug]

What sad is the newspaper business had changed so much in recent years, but this article is about Bud. You have to admit, there's been some pretty good stories, or articles back in the day. When we had our triple consectutive 10 win seasons, Bud was there and fun to read.

Wishing the best for the Wither's family.

Retiring from the Best Gig ever

 

[wulffui]

I'm glad he's retired. Thats all I need to say about that.

 

[Coug1990]

Originally posted by wulffui:
I'm glad he's retired. Thats all I need to say about that.

He is one of those WSU graduates that wishes he were a dawg. He took many opportunities to write negative stories about WSU. He would take things out of context to trash the Cougars or he would be lazy and just write half the story, the negative part.

Last month Claire Farnsworth retired, this month is Bud.

 

[CougPatrol]

Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

 

[Observer11]

Originally posted by CougPatrol:
Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

Blanchette was still an a$$hole during the Rose Bowl years.

 

[bogusto]

Nobody ever adequately replaced Harry Missildine for Coug coverage. We never won during his era, but that didn't change Harry's perspective: always upbeat and effusive about every new Coug season, recruit, and team. Never failed to plant the seeds of hope in a young, naïve mind.

 

[Cougsocal]

Originally posted by Observer11:

Originally posted by CougPatrol:
Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

Blanchette was still an a$$hole during the Rose Bowl years.

It is not a journalist's job to kiss arse. That is the job of sports infomation and site like Rivals and Brand X. Cougar athletics, by and large, has done less with less over the last 40 years. If you have integrity as a journalist you report the facts. We have had some very good coaches come through the Palouse only lose them because of cheapness and a lack of vision. A lot of the press negativity is well deserved. The fact is if WSU were in the EPL, it would have been relegated years ago.

However, Price and Blanchette never got along. You have to wonder how much of that rubbed off on Blanchette's journalism. Particularily, considering that Blanchette love Chaplin, and only wrote puff pieces on the track program.

 

[Coug1990]

Originally posted by CougPatrol:
Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

That's silly. Unfortunately, I have followed several teams that lost a lot from the Mariners, Seahawks and Cougars. In the down times, the columnists were always balanced. Withers has gone out of his way to torch the Cougars on more than one occasion.

The next positive article regarding WSU will be Blanchette's first.

Moore loves the Cougars. That, I have no doubt. Still, he is schizophrenic about all things Coug. He really does enjoy the lovable loser, as it fits with the depreciation shtick he has going on.

I am not looking for any columnist to be like former Times columnists Blaine Newnham or Jerry Brewer who kissed husky butt any chance they could. Just be fair. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Coug95man2]

And I want to add my own perspective…
There's reporting the facts, and then the last sentence or paragraph… why does THAT part, the part that is always personal (because as so many of us have said, there is NO "integrity" in sports journalism. Everyone is biased. My example, the many threads on sports radio bias.)… why do the reporters always have to steer the whole column towards the "looming storm" rather than the sunrise?

Reporters all know, have been taught and understand, they have the power to form opinion. No one watches the news, no one listens to the radio, no one reads the newspaper, with critical thought. Even those of us that work hard at it, find it hard to think of another option or scenario that might be going on that isn't presented in that specific media. Point A or Point B are represented in the article… "Well, Point B makes more sense!" Well, who thinks of Point C?! It isn't in the article so we rarely think of that. So every reporter knows this. They have the power to guide their readers/viewers to a place of doomsday thought or hope or critical thinking or a feeling of helplessness or whatever. Whether they sit down and logically make that decision or it just "comes out that way", it's still their choice.

Make no mistake, they choose the "feel" of their articles, and they can still have "integrity", whatever that is in sports media. Don't know why they can't be more supportive in those. Just because we haven't been doing well over the past decade or so, doesn't mean we should search out and welcome the weird dude with the flog, hoping to get a few more stripes on our backs.

 

[dgibbons]

Capel and Carter Strickland did a great job covering WSU.

 

[Observer11]

Originally posted by Cougsocal:

Originally posted by Observer11:

Originally posted by CougPatrol:
Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

Blanchette was still an a$$hole during the Rose Bowl years.

It is not a journalist's job to kiss arse. That is the job of sports infomation and site like Rivals and Brand X. Cougar athletics, by and large, has done less with less over the last 40 years. If you have integrity as a journalist you report the facts. We have had some very good coaches come through the Palouse only lose them because of cheapness and a lack of vision. A lot of the press negativity is well deserved. The fact is if WSU were in the EPL, it would have been relegated years ago.

However, Price and Blanchette never got along. You have to wonder how much of that rubbed off on Blanchette's journalism. Particularily, considering that Blanchette love Chaplin, and only wrote puff pieces on the track program.

Blanchette writes opinion pieces and columns.

He is an a$$hole.

Those are mutually exclusive items.

 

[425cougfan]

Originally posted by Cougsocal:

Originally posted by Observer11:

Originally posted by CougPatrol:
Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

Blanchette was still an a$$hole during the Rose Bowl years.

It is not a journalist's job to kiss arse. That is the job of sports infomation and site like Rivals and Brand X. Cougar athletics, by and large, has done less with less over the last 40 years. If you have integrity as a journalist you report the facts. We have had some very good coaches come through the Palouse only lose them because of cheapness and a lack of vision. A lot of the press negativity is well deserved. The fact is if WSU were in the EPL, it would have been relegated years ago.

However, Price and Blanchette never got along. You have to wonder how much of that rubbed off on Blanchette's journalism. Particularily, considering that Blanchette love Chaplin, and only wrote puff pieces on the track program.

Agreed re journalists' jobs being to stay objective, but that hasn't stopped UW from having an army of sycophants who defend it at every juncture and go out of their way to accentuate every last drop of the positive (everyone on KJR, guys at the Seattle Times like Jerry Brewer and Percy Allen, various others over the years who were a hundred times worse, all of the guys on the UW-focused recruiting sites, etc.).

To be sure, they've had more success than WSU overall, which makes it easier to put a positive spin on things, but even when one of their programs is terrible or mediocre, they're all about going out of their way to explain away (or just not report) negatives and to exaggerate the positives.

 

[CougSinceBirth]

If you're a beat reporter, report the facts.

If you're a columnist (Withers, Canzano, etc.) - write a column, it can be opinionated, but make sure you use facts to back up the argument. I am not looking for columnists to kiss arse, but reasoned opinions are fair, even if they rile up a fan base (like Canzano can do with Duck fans).

Too many columnists are hitting "yellow journalism" territory, which they can stop...if they have the backbone. The problem is with the newspaper "dying", there is a need to sell inventory and subscriptions and thus, poor journalist integrity happens because no one wants to lose their job.

 

[Cougatron]

Originally posted by CougPatrol:
Coug fans seems to hate every journalist who's ever covered our program. Withers, Blanchette, Moore

Maybe they criticize us because we lose a lot?

Those 3 would go out of there way outside of reporting to sprinkle in their negative comments. THAT's why people don't like them.

Ian Furness? Nobody hates him because he reports about the program honestly and doesn't try to throw dirt on the program.

Same with Keith Jackson same with Kyle Bonagura or any other WSU alum who works in media.

It's not a hard formula.

Don't go against the family. Don't end up like Freido.

Be supportive of the program and a good journalist and cougs will back you with tremendous support, but when you turn your back on the program and start slinging mud at it... Well you can go to hell.

 

[YakiCoug]

Originally posted by M-I-Coug:
What sad is the newspaper business had changed so much in recent years, but this article is about Bud. You have to admit, there's been some pretty good stories, or articles back in the day. When we had our triple consectutive 10 win seasons, Bud was there and fun to read.

Wishing the best for the Wither's family.

It is sad what's happened to newspapers. As for Bud, best of luck to him. I would never lump him in with Buffet Line Blanchette. He's written some great pieces over the years.

 

[CougPatrol]

Originally posted by YakiCoug:

It is sad what's happened to newspapers. As for Bud, best of luck to him. I would never lump him in with Buffet Line Blanchette. He's written some great pieces over the years.

Totally agree. I always felt that Withers called it like it is. He reported on WSU the way he would have any professional or major college team who struggled.

I think the reason why Withers rubbed WSU fans the wrong way was how his post-loss articles articulated our agony so well that they felt like salt in the wounds.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Yaki & Patrol, I agree with you to an extent. Maybe even a great extent. But Bud had what I felt was an annoying tendency to pile on, rather than look for a fresh story line. I don't suggest that Bud told mis-truths, but I felt that he often took the lazy way out (especially late in his career, when he frankly looked like he was slowing down) when it came to exploring context, understanding the causes of the issues, getting at the back story, etc., etc.

I wish him the best in retirement. It might have been better if it had come a bit sooner, but then staying past your prime is an occupational hazard in almost any profession where part of your job is to pontificate.

 

[Coug1990]

Originally posted by cr8zyncalif:

Yaki & Patrol, I agree with you to an extent. Maybe even a great extent. But Bud had what I felt was an annoying tendency to pile on, rather than look for a fresh story line. I don't suggest that Bud told mis-truths, but I felt that he often took the lazy way out (especially late in his career, when he frankly looked like he was slowing down) when it came to exploring context, understanding the causes of the issues, getting at the back story, etc., etc.

I wish him the best in retirement. It might have been better if it had come a bit sooner, but then staying past your prime is an occupational hazard in almost any profession where part of your job is to pontificate.

I think he was very good when he was at the PI. He was not good when he went to the Times. I am not sure if it was the Times wanted more sensation in his writing or if he got old and crotchety. I have written before on here regarding him something you mentioned, he got lazy and too often took the easy way. This many times lead to incorrect conclusions. Frankly, I won't miss him.