Just when you think that you have seen it all, the world goes and proves you wrong. Today, April 14, 2007, Paul Finebaum chimed in on the Don Imus travesty with an article entitled Hypocrisy over Imus Sickening.
Someone, anyone, tell me what the heck that was about? Was Finebaum trying to say that Imus was irrelevant and therefore “No Harm, No Foul?” Was Finebaum Trying to say that Imus has a right to free speech, even if it was bad speech? Was Finebaum trying to say that the Rutgers basketball team didn’t win the NCAA Championship and therefore who cares? After all, winning is the only thing that matters. Or was Finebaum really trying to say this: “Damn that Imus, he is getting his $1M worth of free publicity, but it just cost him his career.” I kind of think that since Imus and Finebaum are in the same business that Finebaum is really more concerned with the latter one. Finebaum IS Sports-Imus in Alabama. Think about that for a moment. We in America have some folks whose entire careers and industries dedicated to inflaming emotions and fomenting outrage. Talk radio is all that and more, or less depending on your point of view.
Talk radio is a very popular form of entertainment. At its best, it should be meant to inform and educate and, lets face it, entertain too. But it does something else. Talk radio also inflames. It tears down. It disrespects. Maybe it is just a baser form of the human condition, but shouldn’t we be better than that? Shouldn’t we strive to be more?
I think what Mr. Finebaum is so excited about it this: With Don Imus, we have finally learned that there is a limit with what you can say on talk radio. Can you imagine that! What a shock to SHOCK radio. That there is a limit to what the public is willing to have broadcast on the PUBLIC OWNED airwaves. Imagine the absolute outrage at the PFRN, Jim Rome’s studios, and The Howard Stern Show! How dare the public rein us in!
This IS really funny. Think about it folks. The man that is Paul Finebaum finally having to realize that there is actually a limit, a boundary with human decency. That human beings DO in fact matter more than a shock jocks’ ratings. Praise God and Hallelujah! Did you ever think the day would come?
Now, sleaze-meisters like Finebaum, Rome, and Stern have come to realize that there is actually a limit on the amount of filth, libel, and slander the American public is willing to take. I am not just talking about turning off just your own radio either. We all have done that. But, if enough of the radio consumers turn off the radio, switch the channel, or write letters to advertisers guess what? Radio personalities lose their jobs and careers!
You know, some overblown windbags out there will say that this “will have a chilling effect on free speech in America…” Bovine Excrement! Maybe for the first time in history the talk radio schlock-meisters have finally gotten a taste of having to listen to the PUBLIC’S free speech. They will have to listen to US now.
Free speech is always the best choice, I think the true thing we are hearing from the likes of Finebaum is that now he, and talk radio as an industry, understands that free speech isn’t just for him, or them. It also includes us, the American listening public. That has to be a very scary thing for a radio show that proudly boasts as being the place where “most football coaches are fired…” Could Finebaum be the next Imus? Could he, Paul Finebaum, be the next one fired instead of a football coach? Could Finebaum the man take the grilling he dished out to Shula, Fran, Dubose, Dye, and others?
In a recent near miracle Finebaum somehow had the good fortune to replace a show in Birmingham that was pounding him in the ratings. Imagine Finebaum’s sphincteral contractions as he reads about Imus and realizes that just after he gets the save of a lifetime in replacing a show beating him into the ground that the listening public learns that talk radio jocks like himself, some even much, much, bigger than he will ever be, can lose their careers in the blink of an eye, or the slip of the tongue.
Now you can understand why I think he wrote that article. It has to be very sobering to understand that the rules have suddenly changed in your career of choice. It also has to be very unsettling that one slip of the tongue, one slip-up, can now cost you your livelihood. That’s right Paulie, one bad mistake on the radio is now the same as one bad call on the field to all those men you ridiculed over the years. Do you need something to help wash down that plate of crow you feel you are about to be served?
Hey, remember above when I said that free speech was always the best thing? Maybe Finebaum and others should just embrace that and move on. Maybe it will raise the number of callers. Maybe it will raise the level of debate. Maybe it will make you a better host. Or maybe you are just afraid that real free speech will show your real abilities, or lack of them. Hhhhhhmmmm?
When, If, and When…
Published by DKW 86 November 16th, 2008 in Football, Commentary, AUNation and Auburn University. 0 CommentsWHEN we look back at this season we will see a lot of misses; Missed passes, missed blocks, missed potential, missed opportunities. The only thing that brings out the armchair philosophers more than the perfect season is the imperfect season. The Auburn Family started this season with a #8 ranking and plenty good will. I would have given a guess of 11 or more wins this season myself. Auburn has proven talent. Auburn has proven speed. Auburn has proven coaching. What went wrong? Well…we dont have the time to dissect all that at present. That is why God made off-seasons…lol
We do know a few things however. IF we had not had legendarily bad offensive problems this year we would not be where we are today. Does anyone think we dont have the team to have easily beaten Vandy, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and maybe even now looking back, have beaten LSU as well? Even after all that we came with an eyelash of beating Georgia, the pre-season #1 team in America. Folks, instead of 5-6 we could just as easily be looking at 8-3, 9-2, or even 10-1. Folks, we can say all that AFTER getting new Offensive and Defensive Coordinators. Most teams in the SEC would be lucky to just be competitive. We have the tools. What we dont have right now is the confidence. The breaks are beating OUR GUYS AND OUR FAMILY. We, the AU Family, do not need to add to OUR burdens. The team sweats, and works, and gives of themselves at a level most of us never ever see just come to “The Loveliest Village” and wear Orange and Blue. They need help, not abuse.
Take a look at Wes Byrum alone. “Mr. Ice-In-His-Veins,” the coolest headed freshman in America is now just above .500 as a fg kicker. The kicking game was not part of the problem the first few weeks. The defense surely wasnt either. But now the young men playing in those two areas are beaten up, injured, and to be frank, at some level demoralized and questioning themselves and their teammates by the losing.
On Offense…we are even more beaten up, injured, and demoralized. Do we need to review the mess that has transpired this season? A new OC hire that just did not workout for many reasons. What are the problems with the Offense? Well, it has underperformed for 3 seasons now. We needed a new direction for the Offense, no doubt. The staff decided and committed to a change over to the spread. How radical of a change do we need to make to get there is open to question, but that is not something we can do anything about during the firefight that is the SEC Football season. Personally, I think we see far more than just an OC hired. Maybe the new OC brings in his own staff. Either way, the conversion to the spread attack is going to take a year or so folks. Do not expect miracles in the first few games of 2009, no matter who is running the Offense.
WHEN…we turn the corner, what do we want the Auburn Football TEAM to look like? Everyone knows we wont be down very much longer. I think we turn the corner very soon. We were very close with Georgia.
But back to my question, what do we want the Auburn Team to look like? A tough as nails defense that scares everyone and is at the top of the national statistics. We get that day in and day out already. The hiring of Paul Rhoads made us even better.
We need a kicking game that is one of the best in the nation. When Byrum is on, there is no one I could name better than the kid that kicked two fgs thru the uprights while in “The Swamp” WHILE HE WAS A FRESHMAN. We are still at the top in punting as well.
What do we want on Offense? We want to look and perform like an Oklahoma Spread. Oklahoma runs one of the highest scoring, fundamentally sound offenses in the nation. They can throw it around with the best and play smashmouth too. We have won a great deal of games running a Power I and the West Coast, but most high powered teams are today running the spread and making it work. Imagine just for a second what we would have if our Offense could score 30+ on anyone with the Defense and Special Teams we have at present. We would be awesome…and that was the goal.
WHEN we turn the corner, what do we demand our PROGRAM look like? That is an easy one. The Auburn Family demands a solid program that has kids going to class, graduating, ranked at the top in APR numbers. CHECK! We would also demand a strong moral-ethical-character program for developing those young men. CHECK! We would also demand a program run as clean as any program in the country. CHECK! We would also demand a team widely respected for limited off the field issues too. CHECK!
Folks, what we have is literally what we demand. The TEAM has some major issues on Offense and Offense alone. We can fix those problems with a great OC hire and few replacements with the assistants on Offense. The PROGRAM is run as fine as we can demand.
I want to remind you folks about something. When was the last time you saw a football team other than AU run out onto the field? Werent their arms interlocked? I bet they were. Why? Because folks they are copying OUR PROGRAM, The Auburn University Football Program. Many teams across the country are utilizing the enhanced role of team chaplains. These teams are getting that from what Chette Williams is doing at Auburn. Folks, Chette is setting up similiar programs for rival teams in the Southeast. When national talking heads broach the subject of off the field problems they often site how strict Coach Tuberville deals with our young men. We have a history of ’six game suspensions’ for stuff most coaching staffs would not even care about. Some other teams in the SEC are known for winning ‘The Fulmer Cup,’ a national title for the most troubled program in the nation. The Fulmer Cup is named for a former coach here in the SEC. I dont even think we were an honorable mention for it this year or any other years since CTT arrived on the Plains. The Ice Cream Truck Runneth at some programs, but not at Auburn, not with our coach.
Look, we the AU Family have problems with one area of our TEAM. Almost every member of the national sports community thinks Coach Tuberville should be kept. Most reasonable AU fans think so too. As of my writing this, Coach Tuberville is the Dean of SEC Football Coaches. He is the longest lived head coach in the conference. We have a top program and havent had to sacrifice the integrity of the program to win. Auburn is a top program but we built our program the right way, the long way, and because we took the time to do it right we do not have a program with a ‘win-at-all-costs’ thug reputation.
I, say it is time to act like we have bit of maturity. Look folks, every program in the nation has down years. Pat Dye, Shug Jordan, Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno, etc have all had down years. It is just part of the nature of sports. Lets enjoy the overall program and get ready to go again with the next game. We have a program that most teams schools not only want, folks, they role model ours! If nothing else let’s show the rest of nation how real fans act.