Gopher Bandanna Guy
Irascible Skeptic
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2009
- Messages
- 1,806
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 36
Well after nearly 3 days and not a peep of a response from Mr. Souhan, I decided to fire off a inquiry to his editors/team leader, Glen Crevier, Dennis Brackin, and Michael Rand. Hopefully we'll see some level of accountability here, or at least a weak rationalization. It would seem Jim is no Chip Scoggins, who actually has the decency to address a civil detractor.
Sports Editors of the Star Tribune,
I felt obligated to contact you this week, as a follow up to a questioning email I sent to your columnist, Jim Souhan, on Monday morning (10/29/12). I’m looking for some type of explanation or rationale behind his latest Golden Gopher Football column titled ‘Nelson’s Quarterbacking Tools Didn’t Merit a Long Shelf Life’. The aforementioned email is listed in full below, as part of this forward. I contacted Mr. Souhan in the hopes that he could provide some additional explanation to an article I (and many others I’ve been in contact with) believe to be weakly researched or simply unfairly slanted as a misrepresentation of the reality of the situation. Mr. Souhan has not surprisingly, neglected to engage me in any type of conversation. So I come to you to help me understand why such a column was even approved for print.
I’m truly struggling with what passes for acceptable opinionated writing for print in the sports section of your newspaper. Never would I question any newspaper’s right to publish an article that views something in a critical light. And in fact I believe it to be healthy and necessary when reviewing the failures and successes of any sports team or program. But I also feel such heavy criticism should be based on facts and evidence, rather than simple conjecture. Mr. Souhan’s article clearly fails to actually investigate any of the underlying issues within the Gopher football program that have lead them to remove Philip Nelson’s redshirt and promote him to starting quarterback. I realize there is limited space in a column to perhaps fully express details, but this piece of writing forces a reader to nearly assume Mr. Souhan knows far more about the Gopher football program than anyone else. To an astute Gopher football fan, this article comes off as poorly researched and/or unnecessarily slanted. In my eyes, neither should be unacceptable. To the casual reader, it casts an undeserving negative light on a man who still isn’t even 2 years into his tenure as head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gopher football program.
To close, I’d just like to say that your continued employment of writers like Jim Souhan further pushes me away from your newspaper and website, as well as your advertisers. If lazy and unfair sports journalism is something you pride your newspaper in supplying, then by all means carry on. But if you care at all about your customers and readers, think twice about letting weakly researched articles off your collective desks. I don’t implore you to push Mr. Souhan to respond to me personally, but I do implore you to provide me with a reasonable explanation as to why you would allow writing like this at the Star Tribune.
Thank you for your time,
Jon Tortomasi
Sports Editors of the Star Tribune,
I felt obligated to contact you this week, as a follow up to a questioning email I sent to your columnist, Jim Souhan, on Monday morning (10/29/12). I’m looking for some type of explanation or rationale behind his latest Golden Gopher Football column titled ‘Nelson’s Quarterbacking Tools Didn’t Merit a Long Shelf Life’. The aforementioned email is listed in full below, as part of this forward. I contacted Mr. Souhan in the hopes that he could provide some additional explanation to an article I (and many others I’ve been in contact with) believe to be weakly researched or simply unfairly slanted as a misrepresentation of the reality of the situation. Mr. Souhan has not surprisingly, neglected to engage me in any type of conversation. So I come to you to help me understand why such a column was even approved for print.
I’m truly struggling with what passes for acceptable opinionated writing for print in the sports section of your newspaper. Never would I question any newspaper’s right to publish an article that views something in a critical light. And in fact I believe it to be healthy and necessary when reviewing the failures and successes of any sports team or program. But I also feel such heavy criticism should be based on facts and evidence, rather than simple conjecture. Mr. Souhan’s article clearly fails to actually investigate any of the underlying issues within the Gopher football program that have lead them to remove Philip Nelson’s redshirt and promote him to starting quarterback. I realize there is limited space in a column to perhaps fully express details, but this piece of writing forces a reader to nearly assume Mr. Souhan knows far more about the Gopher football program than anyone else. To an astute Gopher football fan, this article comes off as poorly researched and/or unnecessarily slanted. In my eyes, neither should be unacceptable. To the casual reader, it casts an undeserving negative light on a man who still isn’t even 2 years into his tenure as head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gopher football program.
To close, I’d just like to say that your continued employment of writers like Jim Souhan further pushes me away from your newspaper and website, as well as your advertisers. If lazy and unfair sports journalism is something you pride your newspaper in supplying, then by all means carry on. But if you care at all about your customers and readers, think twice about letting weakly researched articles off your collective desks. I don’t implore you to push Mr. Souhan to respond to me personally, but I do implore you to provide me with a reasonable explanation as to why you would allow writing like this at the Star Tribune.
Thank you for your time,
Jon Tortomasi
)
