Saturday Post Dispatch Story

[drkelsey55]

Did anyone else enjoy the write up in this mornings paper about todays game???

Me either...there wasn't one that I could find.

Great coverage of the local team.

[drkelsey55]

Nothing on STLToday.com either!!!!

[MB73]

Did anyone else enjoy the write up in this mornings paper about todays game???

Me either...there wasn't one that I could find.

Great coverage of the local team.

Unbelievble.

Boston College, ACC, etc.

Post Dispatch has always been riddled with Mizzou-Mizzou shills.

Some seem to support him, musst have said "hi" to them at a gathering somewhere, but I have always believed that Timmerman was not on our side, stuck with the SLU assignment; takes subtle pot-shots whenever he can.

[jp18]

Anyone know the sports editor these days? I would like to write a letter or email complaining about this issue. It really is a joke. This paper continues to go downhill.

[bonwich]

The shot against Tom, as anyone who's actually read his stuff for the past year or so, is undeserved and uniformed, especially in the context that Tom wrote both a soccer article from a game that ended about 9 p.m. last night and an A-10 Volleyball Tournament article.

This decision was made higher than Tom. I'd expect that the sports information director, athletic director or maybe even Father Biondi has already called the publisher of the P-D (who clearly didn't make the decision, but is the top of the food chain). Billiken fans who believe the omission violates Lee Enterprises' stated key focus ("the leading print and online provider of local news") could also express their opinions directly.

[kshoe]

Unbelievble.

Boston College, ACC, etc.

Post Dispatch has always been riddled with Mizzou-Mizzou shills.

Some seem to support him, musst have said "hi" to them at a gathering somewhere, but I have always believed that Timmerman was not on our side, stuck with the SLU assignment; takes subtle pot-shots whenever he can.

I doubt this was a Mizzou thing. The weird thing about today is there is a lengthy article on the soccer game as well as a lengthy article on the womens volleyball team. Why there is no SLU basketball article is beyond me. Post Dispatch should be embarassed.

[Westy03]

I doubt this was a Mizzou thing. The weird thing about today is there is a lengthy article on the soccer game as well as a lengthy article on the womens volleyball team. Why there is no SLU basketball article is beyond me. Post Dispatch should be embarassed.

I agree this is pathetic. Its the biggest home game we are going to have all year and there is ZERO information, unbelieveable. What a disgrace. Even if we play East Central State there should ALWAYS be a write up

[drkelsey55]

Also did not even mention in the listing of games on Sunday that the Women have a game at 4 PM.

[TheBand]

I went through the "dead tree" version three times thinking the pages were sticking together.... Shocking that there isn't some sort of preview, at the very least a short rundown of the starting 5s for both sides and where to find the game on TV and radio. (We've seen that before and I'd be happy with that)

I can't take shots at Tom, there was a vollybally article and a soccer story. (I think I would have saved the volleyball one for later when SLU is heading into the NCAA tournament.....)

Perhaps its time to cut my subscription...

[brianstl]

I doubt this was a Mizzou thing. The weird thing about today is there is a lengthy article on the soccer game as well as a lengthy article on the womens volleyball team. Why there is no SLU basketball article is beyond me. Post Dispatch should be embarassed.

I think it might have been a result of the fact that they are understaffed right now. No MU beat writer while MU is in PR, Pinkel's new contract, high school playoffs going on on both sides of the river in multiple sports, blues game last night, Rams game coming up, the Illini playing in football, and the fact that our beat writer was given two other Billiken stories to cover. This is not Tom's fault. The blame lies clearly on the management at the Post. This is what happens when you go cheap.

[Westy03]

I think it might have been a result of the fact that they are understaffed right now. No MU beat writer while MU is in PR, Pinkel's new contract, high school playoffs going on on both sides of the river in multiple sports, blues game last night, Rams game coming up, the Illini playing in football, and the fact that our beat writer was given two other Billiken stories to cover. This is not Tom's fault. The blame lies clearly on the management at the Post. This is what happens when you go cheap.

Yeah I have been real happy with the job Timmerman has done this year, very informative and timely. This has management written all over it like Bonwich said.

[bonwich]

I would suggest, however, that somebody -- or maybe lots of somebodys -- from the SLU fan and administration communities needs to speak up and communicate directly with the newspaper.

[drkelsey55]

Maybe there was something in Fridays sports page......oh ya I forgot they failed to deliver that one to me. (Missed delivery on Wednesday also. I did call them about it.)

I would cancel but I am paid up till June of 09.

Glan I bought it on sale and got a 40.00 gas card out of them at the time. Total cost 64.00 for the year after the gas card deducted.

I guess you get what you pay for.

[BLUEballs07]

If the Post-dispatch isn't covering games, check out KMOV.com for Channel 4 news. They get AP coverage for the stories, then they have some students covering the game from another perspective. I think they started with the Kent State game, and they'll probably have something for today's game, and all the others I hope.

http://www.kmov.com/sports/topstories/stor....1cf4a2dc7.html

the other one is called something like "behind the scenes something something..."

[billiken_roy]

apparently the decision was made on wednesday by reid laymance and cameron holloway that double preview coverage of the kent state and boston college game was suffcient since they were planning to do the feature story on the volleyball team.

the post continues to be inept. i feel sorry for timmermann who did not have a hand in their continued horrible coverage and this misplaced stupid decision not to preview the game today. it is all holloway and laymance.

[brianstl]

apparently the decision was made on wednesday by reid laymance and cameron holloway that double preview coverage of the kent state and boston college game was suffcient since they were planning to do the feature story on the volleyball team.

the post continues to be inept. i feel sorry for timmermann who did not have a hand in their continued horrible coverage and this misplaced stupid decision not to preview the game today. it is all holloway and laymance.

Nothing against Cameron Holloway, but what has he ever done to get the power to make that type of decision?

Seriously it is not like Holloway is an old pro that has paid his dues covering multiple different beats for the sports section over many years. It is almost like Lee has decided to put people in charge of coverage decisions the same way radio stations started hiring program directors about 10-15 years ago. That is not a good thing. It is just my opinion, but this is what happens when you start to run a paper on the cheap. This decision just goes further to back up my belief.

[Pistol]

apparently the decision was made on wednesday by reid laymance and cameron holloway that double preview coverage of the kent state and boston college game was suffcient since they were planning to do the feature story on the volleyball team.

the post continues to be inept. i feel sorry for timmermann who did not have a hand in their continued horrible coverage and this misplaced stupid decision not to preview the game today. it is all holloway and laymance.

This is just incredible to me. Does anyone know of any other D-I team in the nation that does not get game write-ups in its own city? I can't even imagine what the outcry would be here if UC or Xavier did not get a game write-up. As bad as the Enquirer is overall, UC and Xavier share equal coverage and a lot of it- even on days when there is no game or was no game the night before, they have features written about players, coaches, etc. On top of that, Miami, OSU, UK, Dayton, and even NKU all get pre and postgame write-ups.

The Post-Dispatch is pathetic.

This is not a knock on Timmerman; he's done a good job with his blog this year and I know he didn't have a say in the decision- no writer would want their beat to be out of the paper for any reason.

[jp18]

FYI- here is a reply I got from Hollway today:

In last Wednesday's paper, we advanced the big early-season tests that SLU has on its sked, including BC (which actually isn't a very good team, so if that's the toughest nonconference game, that's pretty weak. I'd say playing at SIUC will be more of a test.). Anyway, we foresaw a very busy weekend in which we'd have a hard time getting the BC advance in the Saturday paper, and so we went with a theme angle on Wednesday, for the Kent State and BC advances combined. That doesn't signal a change in philosophy, just that we had too much going on to fit into that section (we did advance SLU volleyball and cover SLU soccer in that paper). ... So, it's too early to say that we won't preview SLU games. A non-conference game at Nebraska? No. ... We're in the crossover schedule, when we have football and basketball going on, and so we have really tight sections.

[billiken_roy]

FYI- here is a reply I got from Hollway today:

In last Wednesday's paper, we advanced the big early-season tests that SLU has on its sked, including BC (which actually isn't a very good team, so if that's the toughest nonconference game, that's pretty weak. I'd say playing at SIUC will be more of a test.). Anyway, we foresaw a very busy weekend in which we'd have a hard time getting the BC advance in the Saturday paper, and so we went with a theme angle on Wednesday, for the Kent State and BC advances combined. That doesn't signal a change in philosophy, just that we had too much going on to fit into that section (we did advance SLU volleyball and cover SLU soccer in that paper). ... So, it's too early to say that we won't preview SLU games. A non-conference game at Nebraska? No. ... We're in the crossover schedule, when we have football and basketball going on, and so we have really tight sections.

the man is clueless.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Is that REALLY the response you got from him? That is not only pretty condescending, it is downright unprofessional. How could someone in charge of a newpaper write something like this

A non-conference game at Nebraska? No.

It's like, why would they even bother writing a story like that. Oh, I don't know....cause you the freakin newspaper in St. Louis and we're the only D-1 school in the area. It's like he's amazed that we would assume each game would have a write up. Don't know much about this paper or company, but I just can't imagine somebody like this being successful at his job. Don't they have subscription problems? I can see this guy is doing a lot to remedy that problem. Even if he wasn't going to write anything, there was a better way to respond to your email.

[Cowboy]

-i hope TT is in Lincoln, although when the Blues went west last time the game articles were not written by their beat writer, not sure what exactly that means

-since school is out did the team charter to Lincoln?

[jp18]

Is that REALLY the response you got from him?

I copied and pasted it right into this post. I got the same feeling as you, being talked down to a bit. I know a little about journalism and it is supposed to be unbiased - this doesn't seem like an unbiased slant. My other problem is SLU had over 9,000 at the game Saturday, so that proves right there the interest in the game. I love all the expanded high school coverage (one thing I think they are doing right), but I'm guessing not a single high school game in the area drew 9,000 fans Saturday. Just a hunch.

[Pistol]

Wow, that response from them is eye-opening. So if SLU's decent non-conference games are getting lumped into weekly theme articles and if less significant non-conference games are getting ignored, I can only assume that most of Mizzou's and Illinois' non-conference games are getting passed over as well. Can anyone verify this for a curious out-of-towner?

Mizzou games that deserve a "no" from the almighty Cameron Holloway: Prairie View, Chattanooga, Fairfield, Oral Roberts, Arkansas-PB, Murray State, Stetson, SIUE, Centenary, Coppin State.

Illinois games that deserve a "no": Eastern Washington, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Jackson State, Chicago State, Detroit, Eastern Michigan.

If these games are getting write-ups and SLU's aren't, then Holloway is lying through his teeth that space is at a premium. SLU-Nebraska or SLU-BC, no matter what the P-D staff thinks of them, are more compelling games than any of the 16 that I just listed. Not to mention: This is the only DI team and only major newspaper in St. Louis- it is unacceptable that SLU not be covered.

I understand that this is a crossover season, but there's only so many articles you can write about how the Rams are terrible, who the Cards will decide to pass up offering, or some of the other junk they try to pass off as news.

[Pistol]

I copied and pasted it right into this post. I got the same feeling as you, being talked down to a bit. I know a little about journalism and it is supposed to be unbiased - this doesn't seem like an unbiased slant. My other problem is SLU had over 9,000 at the game Saturday, so that proves right there the interest in the game. I love all the expanded high school coverage (one thing I think they are doing right), but I'm guessing not a single high school game in the area drew 9,000 fans Saturday. Just a hunch.

When I was in high school in the St. Louis area (class of 2001), Cameron Holloway was doing a pathetic job of covering high school sports. I've been to enough places to know that high school sports have been covered less in St. Louis than in most other markets, regardless of size. I can't judge the past few years so well since I've been gone but it was always lousy. I had classmates that would write and email him asking to cover some of the major games in the area and he usually didn't respond or gave a response like that condecending one he gave you. There are enough slow sports days to give the preps their dues, but is it possible that they are part of the reason SLU is getting treated like a second-class citizen?

[Majerus Magic]

I copied and pasted it right into this post. I got the same feeling as you, being talked down to a bit. I know a little about journalism and it is supposed to be unbiased - this doesn't seem like an unbiased slant. My other problem is SLU had over 9,000 at the game Saturday, so that proves right there the interest in the game. I love all the expanded high school coverage (one thing I think they are doing right), but I'm guessing not a single high school game in the area drew 9,000 fans Saturday. Just a hunch.

What the hell is this blow hard's email address? Ignorant ###### deserves to get some fan mail.