Confession: prior to Monday, I’d never watched ‘Washington Post Live.’ I don’t have a friend or acquaintance who’d admit to the act. I never heard any “must-see” buzz surrounding it, or even any “see it while you’re ironing” buzz, and I’ve been busy this spring doing the work those associated with that program should have been regarding one of the region’s pro sports teams. But Monday brought us a significant photo-op/presser at Kettler Capitals, and I was curious to inventory the MSM coverage of it and dutifully report my findings to OFB readers. So I tuned in.
A knee-jerk reflection about ‘WaPost Live’s’ production values: three guys sitting around a non-descript studio bloviating for 90 minutes about sports. How avant garde . . . how cutting edge.
Sorry I missed its first three months. Anybody Tivo’d them?
The program is recorded and aired initially at some point in the afternoon, for 90 minutes, every day, and then subsequently re-aired seven or nine times on Comcast, and the cumulative tally of viewers then is alleged to exceed the tailgating population of Hershey Bears’ fans in the Giant Center Center parking lot on a May Sunday afternoon. Anyway, I watched the 8:30 p.m. re-airing Monday, and was shocked, shocked, to see the opening roundtable discussion focus the program’s opening 10 minutes on Michael Vick’s breeding of fighting dogs.
Vick, after all, is QB for the Atlanta Falcons.
For all I know, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is really upset with Michael Vick these days. But ‘WaPost Live’ is really, really upset with him. Ten minutes, uninterrupted, worth of upset.
Fighting dogs.
Just so I’m not misinterpreted: the daily television program on sports for the newspaper ‘of record’ in town opened Monday with a prolonged discussion of a running (and ever armed) QB’s penchant for breeding fighting dogs.
(The irony of former WaPost Caps’ beat guy Jason LaCanfora adding to the Comcast kennel chat wasn’t lost on me.)
Washington isn’t a sports town, you know, because of the transient quality of the region’s residents; certainly not because its MSM have warped news values.
A quarter of an an hour into the program host Russ Thaler paused for oxygen and in a cutaway to commercial alluded to a breaking roster development out at Kettler. At OFB we call that progress for puckheads.
I was able to survery the rush-hour sports segments for both WJLA and WRC. Tim Brandt’s coverage was predictably pedestrian. I can’t get worked up about the old linebacker’s middling musings about hockey. And it’s just WJLA, after all.
But Lindsay Czarniak’s 6:00 sportscast, my readers will be shocked to learn, garnered my admiration. She opened her sports report with the 24 hours-old highlights of Sunday’s Nats-O’s game, but then she used Sunday RFK to transition into Capsdom. Backstrom threw out Sunday’s first pitch there, and she was impressed by the Swede’s courage and control in the endeavor.
Her coverage of Monday at Kettler included interviews with Mr. Leonsis, the team’s general manager, Backstrom’s new coach, and the star goalie. And we saw snippets from all of them. I felt almost as if I were watching an evening sportscast in Winnipeg.
WRC grade: A
I also was able to catch Comcast Sportnight’s coverage of the Backstrom presser. It lasted all of about 40 seconds. Same outlet covering the frothing canines caper. Ten minutes on the four-leggers, 40 seconds on the two-legged SuperSwede.
Grade: F
WaPost this morning bumped hockey all the way up to E3, out of its usual perch below the obits. Tarik’s account is fine I suppose. No pic of the newest Cap, which struck me as odd, from an event designed mostly for photo ops. But smack in the middle of E1 Washingtonians are confronted by Steve Goff’s account (with accompanying color photo) of a Maryland pro soccer team no one in the history of the world has ever heard about.
Grade: D+
13 Comments
We can beat our heads against the wall about the MSM covereage of the Caps, but all that really will achieve is giving us a monumental headache. Give Tarik credit for at least trying, but it’s clear his editors view hockey the way I view cricket, as a meaningless sport only foreigners play. Not to repeat myself, but who really needs them. With blogs such as OFB and Dump & Chase, Home Ice on XM Radio and, yes, even our beloved message boards, I get more hockey talk than I can handle. The Post and Times still do fill an important need. I’ll be painting my bedroom this weekend and I’ll need something to catch the splatter.
If you’re inclined to tune in again, Nicklas Backstrom will be visiting Washington Post Live this evening around 5:15 p.m.
NBC’s coverage was definitely the best from what I saw. The local CBS also did a bit on Backstrom in their 11 o’clock show, tying in the coming talent for the Caps with what the Nats should expect after a couple more years of suckitude.
Agree with most of your post, but this Hershey Bears season ticket holder has definitely heard of Crystal Palace USA. Come on you, EAGLES. There still should have been more on the Backstrom signing in the paper of record for the DC area.
Wow, you tell me who talks more hockey than WPL in the area and I will give you a cookie.
I’d say the fact that Capitals Beat Writer Tarik El Bashir was on the show just one day after the news broke that Backstrom would indeed be ‘Coming to Amercia’ next season is a pretty good indication that the sdhow is giving hockey it’s due, but to each his own.
I hope you enjoy the five total minutes that WRC will devote to hockey for the next five months.
I’d also add that WPL ran a good amount of the video coverage from Moscow including the interviews with Ovi, Backstrom, and Mike O’Sullivan.
Must have missed that too, huh?
littles, where do you think they got the video from?
I personally gave up on the Washington Post. The Sports editor is a tool and will never give hockey any love. I get more than enough info from you and other bloggers. If the WP doesn’t care about what I like, I will take my business elsewhere.
Lindsay Czarniak is so money. Backstrom who?
Um, I’m pretty sure I know where the video from Moscow came from.
Why else would I be here?
I’m generally with Bobby “oor” – who needs those that won’t cover the sport. We can’t force them except by not watching.
Granted I’m now “out of market” and so I imagine I’d be more upset if I were living in the DC area (and its worse than it was when I lived there several years ago), but all of the official website’s coverage, Canadian media, this blog, and others (Caps and non-Caps) with notable coverage, give me most everything I want to know about the Caps and the NHL.
Half of you guys travelled with team officials to Moscow (!) and that’s better than any other MSM outlet has to show for itself, so why bother focusing on it? They wouldn’t even expense Tarik for a cross-country trip much less a half-way-around-the-world trip, and that’s not going to change in the face of burgeoning alternative media and declining numbers of newspaper subscribers. Why was Washington Post Live conceived anyway? To try and extract some value from cable programmers for the Washington Post name perhaps? Good luck with that! What kind of advertisers pay for that show?
For Tarik’s part, its clear that he’s a hockey fan, and so makes time to foster discussion, but also has to earn a living and raise a family, and his job requires him to cover such things as car races and golf which are deemed by his superiors to be far more important.
Better to just focus on Lindsay (!) and the Bears for now.
Right on, pepper.
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