...on either side of score values. But really, the Bears pay for the airtime and that progam is recorded the day before. Mitch is no dummy and he got spadas money too. Good for him.

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CSFMB: Home of the small minded

if i'm not mistaken i've heard more lighthearted shows in the past, more about the actual players and their lives outside of football and things... granted, didn't they have laurence holmes hosting it before zach? methinks laurence plays up the whole "friend of the players" angle (i.e. when lance briggs calls in about comic books) more than zach, who is a diehard professional who i think wanted to get these players on there in order to "vindicate" them for the bad press they've gotten over the last year, but in the end they didn't do themselves any favors by turning zach into their little ginger bitch on air... i mean, you assume this kind of stuff goes on, but to hear it on a official bears radio broadcast? kind of weird.

then again, the bears did put out "it's not my show.... but i'm on that show"

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Cancelled.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

If you call a beat reporter who's on the team's payroll a diehard professional, then fine. I call it conflict of interest.

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well i was being quite a bit sarcastic in saying "diehard professional" mainly for the reason you just pointed out.

zach tries really really hard to come off like a "professional" while being more than willing to play ball with being the team's kool aid guy on whatever airwaves/cables he gets access to.

edit: you know, now that i think about it... maybe zach really wants to work for ESPN someday? he loves promoting the product via "reporting the news" and all news is good news therefore he'd be a pretty natural fit over ayonder.

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Cowley was on the Mac show a couple days ago talking about the new Sun Times philosophy under Chris DeLuca. God knows they have to try something different to stay alive, but I like it. They are basically combining beat guys and columnists, thus spawning this new thing where Cowley takes his shots at the Sox. Obviously he doesn't feel it hinders his ability to talk to the players. I'd like to see more of that. Beat reporters usually tell me stuff I can get from the AP story or in a box score. Local guys should be allowed to mix in their opinions. If the team has a problem with it, too fucking bad. Now maybe Zach is a raging optimist and really feels that way about the Bears, I don't know. But, as our resident media critic wannabe SHARK once told me, "Zach has to be very careful what he says since he is employed by the Bears". So what's the fucking point? That's journalism? Get somebody in there who isn't afraid to say something negative about the team he's covering.

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I guess I'm not talking about All Access specifically, really it's his Bears Reports that piss me off the most.

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whether dishing out love or hate, the whole of sports media is basically a free promotional wing of just about every major sport in the country. while i can see why teams would get butthurt over a columnist or beat reporter trashing them, the fact remains that they're still talking about the team and inviting debate amongst fans, talk show hosts, and all other forms of assembled sports discussion. it's that whole "no publicity is bad publicity" concept

it seems to me that the ESPNization of sports is the permanent positive spin on things... kind of like when they trot out their resident midget tim kurkjian who always gives these "reports" about baseball where he's always like "OHH LOOK AT HOW AMAZING AND AWESOME THIS GAME IS!" and you know, it's more a gut feeling than anything else, but i just completely loathe and detest tim kurkjian and his "OOOH WOW" mentality. amazingly enough, the MLB network does an infinitely better job of covering baseball than ESPN does, as their nighttime show absolutely kicks baseball tonight in the nuts to which BBTN kindly asks for another.

zz has a little of that kurkjian vibe to him, when he talks about the bears and there's this sense of wonder and awe in his reporting... i mean, as i've said i really think that zach deep down tries to do the best job he can while juggling the bears mouthpiece / bears reporter combo, and you know, cutler and olson were real asshats to him and poor matt forte was even browbeaten to a lesser extent. "oh matt you're still here?" yeesh.

it seems to me that ESPN has helped empower teams to go "hey we own these media bitches anyways, we might as well flex our muscle and see how much permanent positive spin we can put on teh whole thing" or in the case of comcast sports net, just buy the whole damn network.

thank god comcast has david kaplan, who will always "tell it like it is"... just ask him =P

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they all ready have this show on the score: its the danny mac show

That's essentially my take; I just didn't feel like fleshing it out. Tip of the cap and all that.

As an organization, the Cubs have nothing on the Bears as far as being the epicenter of ClownTown.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I don't care how much of a dork the guy doing the interview is, acting like fratbags and making fun of him makes you look completely unprofessional.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Well Im sure that whatever they are doing that led them to that huge 7 win season is very difficult for us laymen and media personnel to understand, they're right .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.