Williams & Blum: Down goes Red Panda, Official Big 12 Preseason Ballot, and More

[Aiden Wyatt]

Chris Williams and Brent Blum dive into the decision from the Big 12 to no longer use a media poll before CW gives his idea for how to fix it. The guys give their mid-July Big 12 Poll and more. Presented by Mechdyne.

Williams & Blum: Down goes Red Panda, Official Big 12 Preseason Ballot, and More

Chris Williams and Brent Blum dive into the decision from the Big 12 to no longer use a media poll before CW gives his idea for how to fix it. The guys give their mid-July Big 12 Poll and more. Presented by Mechdyne. https://youtu.be/oeMKzyfG_gw

cyclonefanatic.com

 

[VeloClone]

Before I listen to this did we get the mic balancing worked out on the pod. I had it cranked to try to hear Blum in the last pod and then Chris's mic would blow me away. I tried to listen while getting ready in the morning on a wireless speaker and I had it cranked but only heard about half of what Blum said.

@Aiden Wyatt

 

[Al_4_State]

@ChrisMWilliams @brentblum

I’m the same age as you guys, and grew up in far northern Iowa in a small town in the Mason City orbit. When we were young, Iowa had 3 area codes: 319 for Eastern Iowa, 515 for Central Iowa, and 712 for Western Iowa. We were 515.

In the late 90’s, Des Moines had grown to a point where they had to split it into 2 area codes, and 641 was born. Basically, the Des Moines and Ft Dodge areas kept 515 and everyone else had to switch, hence the weird J shape of the area code. A couple years later the same thing happened in eastern Iowa with QC and Dubuque going 563 and Waterloo/CR/IC keeping 319.

It was definitely weird having a new area code just kind forced on you.

Other random fact, ZIP codes follow a similar pattern: 52xxx = eastern, 50xxx = central, 51xxx = western

 

[qwerty]

Are there no proofreaders in the journalism industry anymore? This is a paragraph from Ben Hutchens' article on ISU football wins and losses. "the Big 12 is a conference of parody"? I believe he means parity.

 

[ChrisMWilliams]

Are there no proofreaders in the journalism industry anymore? This is a paragraph from Ben Hutchens' article on ISU football wins and losses. "the Big 12 is a conference of parody"? I believe he means parity.


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The sad answer is that most editors have been laid off. An article like that used to have to go through 3/4 people for fact checking and editing. Now, many writers are simply asked to post to the web unedited. It's the reality of our industry because of the corporate nature of it. Hemorrhaging money. The small and mid markets get all the cuts because they don't bring in the revenue.

 

[qwerty]

The sad answer is that most editors have been laid off. An article like that used to have to go through 3/4 people for fact checking and editing. Now, many writers are simply asked to post to the web unedited. It's the reality of our industry because of the corporate nature of it. Hemorrhaging money. The small and mid markets get all the cuts because they don't bring in the revenue.

That particular error hits a little harder, calling the Big 12 a conference of parody.

 

[cyclones500]

Are there no proofreaders in the journalism industry anymore? This is a paragraph from Ben Hutchens' article on ISU football wins and losses. "the Big 12 is a conference of parody"? I believe he means parity.


View attachment 152148

As @ChrisMWilliams alludes in his response, copy editing has become "expendable," to a large extent. (I'm among those involved in the "brunt" of the purge, professionally).

A lot of reporters/writers are able to function well enough without it, but to me it has had a noticeable effect on quality over the past 15 years or so, across numerous platforms (not limited to sports, extends to news, too).