Y'all are right about Souhan

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drinks at Northpoint

drinks at Northpoint

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He is an awful, awful columnist. His humor is awful. He writes one sentence paragraps. He uses little or incorrect analysis. And his opinions are beyond atrocious.
Unfortunately, he is measured by web hits, not quality. His latest garbage column was at the top of the strip "most read" list for 48 hours. My guess it was linked on a Kentucky blog that sent thousands of web hits his way. Much the same way his truly awful column saying Mccarthey was a better coach than Lombardi was linked by national NFL blogs.
He only sees the Gophers as a way to generate web hits. Since he isn't talented enough to provide analysis or insight, he tries to generate attention by trying to be the first to call for Tubby's firing. When he attends a game, he is only looking for a hook.
Somebody else said it earlier, if the Gophers had one or two more wins, he wouldn't even acknowledge they existed.
If you are reading this, Jim, you suck.
 

He is a pretty good columnist. Think of the pub he has gotten the STrib over the past week? Is that not his job?
His job isn't to make you like him.

I don't mind when people make comments like he doesn't know jack about college sports. Or when they say he is a a-hole and a blowhard. I don't mind because that is factual. Calling him a bad columnist is not entirely accurate. He gets readers and he gets publicity for his paper.
 

Maybe he hates his job so much he is trying to get fired? What else could explain his piss poor writing?
 

Well, it seems this is what journalism has come to. Making outlandish, hyperbolic (or in some cases) outright fictional statements, add in a few personal cheap shots and you get folks like Souhan, who are considered "good" columnists.

No wonder the media is looked on with such disgust.
 

Smut sells...standing in line at the grocery store will tell you all we need to know about what the general public is intrigued with. Human nature demands that we make ourselves feel better by focusing on the misery/troubles of others. Writers like Jimmy Soupcan thrive on this...but don't hate "the can"...it's print media rubbish like the Strib that grants him the forum to scribe his trash. Like many before him, Jimmy falls prey to human nature by slinging mud at those who make an honest effort to suceed in life when in reality, he's simply trying to make himself feel better for his own disappointments in life.
 


He started the conversation. Plus for all the people bashing the media, how else would you get your news lol?
 

drinks at Northpoint said:
He is an awful, awful columnist. His humor is awful. He writes one sentence paragraps. He uses little or incorrect analysis. And his opinions are beyond atrocious.
Unfortunately, he is measured by web hits, not quality. His latest garbage column was at the top of the strip "most read" list for 48 hours. My guess it was linked on a Kentucky blog that sent thousands of web hits his way. Much the same way his truly awful column saying Mccarthey was a better coach than Lombardi was linked by national NFL blogs.
He only sees the Gophers as a way to generate web hits. Since he isn't talented enough to provide analysis or insight, he tries to generate attention by trying to be the first to call for Tubby's firing. When he attends a game, he is only looking for a hook.
Somebody else said it earlier, if the Gophers had one or two more wins, he wouldn't even acknowledge they existed.
If you are reading this, Jim, you suck.
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One sentence paragraphs are common in associated press style writing...just to let you know.
 

Slim Tubby said:
Smut sells...standing in line at the grocery store will tell you all we need to know about what the general public is intrigued with. Human nature demands that we make ourselves feel better by focusing on the misery/troubles of others. Writers like Jimmy Soupcan thrive on this...but don't hate "the can"...it's print media rubbish like the Strib that grants him the forum to scribe his trash. Like many before him, Jimmy falls prey to human nature by slinging mud at those who make an honest effort to suceed in life when in reality, he's simply trying to make himself feel better for his own disappointments in life.
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Jim souhan is likely more successful than you and likely has few professional disappointments as you insinuate.
 

His job is also to know what he's talking about. He doesn't know college basketball. His job isn't just to get publicity.

Rosemountian said:
He is a pretty good columnist. Think of the pub he has gotten the STrib over the past week? Is that not his job?
His job isn't to make you like him.

I don't mind when people make comments like he doesn't know jack about college sports. Or when they say he is a a-hole and a blowhard. I don't mind because that is factual. Calling him a bad columnist is not entirely accurate. He gets readers and he gets publicity for his paper.
Click to expand...
 



drinks at Northpoint said:
He is an awful, awful columnist. His humor is awful. He writes one sentence paragraps. He uses little or incorrect analysis. And his opinions are beyond atrocious.
Unfortunately, he is measured by web hits, not quality. His latest garbage column was at the top of the strip "most read" list for 48 hours. My guess it was linked on a Kentucky blog that sent thousands of web hits his way. Much the same way his truly awful column saying Mccarthey was a better coach than Lombardi was linked by national NFL blogs.
He only sees the Gophers as a way to generate web hits. Since he isn't talented enough to provide analysis or insight, he tries to generate attention by trying to be the first to call for Tubby's firing. When he attends a game, he is only looking for a hook.
Somebody else said it earlier, if the Gophers had one or two more wins, he wouldn't even acknowledge they existed.
If you are reading this, Jim, you suck.
Click to expand...

There is a dildo in Cincinnati named Lance McAlister (talk radio host) who loves to stir up controversy for ratings. He linked the Souhan article on blog. From there, it was linked on most, if not all Uk blogs.

I'll be careful with words but MANY UK fans dislike (some hate) Tubby for reasons unrelated to basketball results.

An article which paints him in a bad light is like throwing a cow into a piranha pool.
 


Rosemountian said:
He is a pretty good columnist. Think of the pub he has gotten the STrib over the past week? Is that not his job?
His job isn't to make you like him.

I don't mind when people make comments like he doesn't know jack about college sports. Or when they say he is a a-hole and a blowhard. I don't mind because that is factual. Calling him a bad columnist is not entirely accurate. He gets readers and he gets publicity for his paper.
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It is possible to attract publicity with good informative writing. He lacks that ability, so he goes with the cheap attention getters.
 

MRJ said:
Well, it seems this is what journalism has come to. Making outlandish, hyperbolic (or in some cases) outright fictional statements, add in a few personal cheap shots and you get folks like Souhan, who are considered "good" columnists.

No wonder the media is looked on with such disgust.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Anybody on here who thinks Souhan is a good WRITER just don't know that much about writing, I'm afraid. You can make the case that Souhan outrages the public so much that he drives readership and discussion, and that he's therefore good for the paper. I don't buy it, though. And I mean that literally, I don't subscribe to the Strib. I can get better analysis and reporting on literally every topic the Strib writes about from other sources, mostly through the internet. The Strib's extreme political bias means that I'd only get the paper for the sports page. As people like Souhan and Reusse are employees of said sports page, I'll go to places like Daily Gopher, From the Barn, and Down with Goldy for my gophers talk, and other blogs and online resources for my other news and analysis. I suspect younger people are increasingly utilizing their non-print media options in part because the newspapers are being run increasingly poorly.
 



underground629 said:
His job is also to know what he's talking about. He doesn't know college basketball. His job isn't just to get publicity.
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Is that even true? He's an opinion columnist isn't he? I think his job is to pretty much just throw ish to the wall and let the web hits pile up, he doesn't actually have to be right.
 

Souhan could be better if he wanted to be, that's part of what makes his current drivel aggrivating. He graduated from Mizzou, they don't let just anyone into thier journalism school. And he was fine as a Twins beat writer.

But he knows absolutely nothing about college basketball, and wears it as a badge of pride. Yet still tries to write columns ripping the Gophers and Tubby. It's pathetic. Either stick to the Twins and Vikings or at least make a modest effort to have a clue.
 

Either stick to the Twins and Vikings or at least make a modest effort to have a clue.
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My beef with a lot of the writers as well. I heard Sansevere on KQ yesterday morning say that
- if - the Gophers win out they can make the tournament.

Really Bob? Really?

And I like Sansevere but in that matter he's pretty clueless as well. So, the uninformed masses believe him, and the peoples opinion of the team goes with what the writers write. Pisses me off actually.
 

howeda7 said:
Souhan could be better if he wanted to be, that's part of what makes his current drivel aggrivating. He graduated from Mizzou, they don't let just anyone into thier journalism school. And he was fine as a Twins beat writer.

But he knows absolutely nothing about college basketball, and wears it as a badge of pride. Yet still tries to write columns ripping the Gophers and Tubby. It's pathetic. Either stick to the Twins and Vikings or at least make a modest effort to have a clue.
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Well, he was a good beat writer, because beat writing is mostly leg work and asking the right questions, not writing skill or intelligence. I think it takes very different skills to be a great columnist as opposed to a great beat writer. Souhan was a pretty good beat writer, because he didn't have to get creative. He just had to interview the players, write up what they told him, and he was done.
 

Let's be honest here, were that column in ONLY the print version of the paper, a fraction of us and others would have read Soupcan's lazy, ill-informed effort. Yes, his goal in part is to get hits on the Stribs website, in a effort to get us to look at the advertisers who populate the page around his work. I can guarantee you I wouldn't have run out to buy a hardcopy of the Strib had I known this article was in it. The only way I'm reading Souhan's drivel is if its free. He can have the hits. The newspaper industry will just have to die a little slower.

Now, honestly, who among us can remember even one of the ads sitting next to Souhan's column without going back an looking. I can admit that I do recall there being some kind of real estate ad on there, but don't remember any specifics, and I'm not in the market to buy/sell a house right now. My point is hardcopy is dying, and I'm not frequenting/utilizing their advertisers. Hits are great and all for the Strib sales folks to think they have reason to sell more ad space, but Souhan knows that if his article wasn't free, he'd be almost completely irrelevant.
 

Blizzard said:
My beef with a lot of the writers as well. I heard Sansevere on KQ yesterday morning say that
- if - the Gophers win out they can make the tournament.

Really Bob? Really?

And I like Sansevere but in that matter he's pretty clueless as well. So, the uninformed masses believe him, and the peoples opinion of the team goes with what the writers write. Pisses me off actually.
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Actually (technically) if the Gophers W out, they'll be 31-9 and NCAA champions.

Gophers have a decent chance at NCAA bid but they have work to do.
 

A good writer would get a lot more hits than Souhan does.
 

Souhan is a boob. I really had high hopes for him initially because he provided high quality analysis on the Twins in the past, but he's descended into boob-dom. He totally, completely lost me when he wrote that Mike McCarthy is a better coach than Vince Lombardi because everything is harder these days. Yikes, what an intellectually vacant point! I start to buy the premise that he's trying only to be provocative. Maybe that's the direction he's getting from his superiors. The paper is in bad shape.
 

I'm not a fan of Souhan's but I thought this was one of his better columns. He used an extensive amount of historical evidence to back up his assertion. It wasn't a hatchet job.
 

jamiche said:
I'm not a fan of Souhan's but I thought this was one of his better columns. He used an extensive amount of historical evidence to back up his assertion. It wasn't a hatchet job.
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Pure, unadulterated balderdah.

I'm not surprised though.
 


Just because you're a columnist doesn't mean you don't have to have accurate info. You think he can just make stuff up?

Monty519 said:
Is that even true? He's an opinion columnist isn't he? I think his job is to pretty much just throw ish to the wall and let the web hits pile up, he doesn't actually have to be right.
Click to expand...
 

jamiche said:
I'm not a fan of Souhan's but I thought this was one of his better columns. He used an extensive amount of historical evidence to back up his assertion. It wasn't a hatchet job.
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:eek: :confused: Did you just say he used an EXTENSIVE AMOUNT OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE?

Really? Was it exactly the 1 sentence he spent on complaining that the offense wasn't any good here or at Kentucky (while it's arguably true, he certainly didn't back it up with numbers or facts). Or was it when he just threw out that Tubby 'ran off' Cobbs and Joseph. He had lots of factual statements to back that up as well. Ah, it must have been when he asserted that Tubby has failed to bring in any big time talent right? Or maybe it was when he hinted that Paul Carter wasn't a role model because he left the program.

Please do elaborate on all the extensive historical evidence he brought up.
 

underground629 said:
Just because you're a columnist doesn't mean you don't have to have accurate info. You think he can just make stuff up?
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He can't necessarily make stuff up, but he can take events and place his own bias interpretation on them and present them in an article.
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
:eek: :confused: Did you just say he used an EXTENSIVE AMOUNT OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE?

Really? Was it exactly the 1 sentence he spent on complaining that the offense wasn't any good here or at Kentucky (while it's arguably true, he certainly didn't back it up with numbers or facts). Or was it when he just threw out that Tubby 'ran off' Cobbs and Joseph. He had lots of factual statements to back that up as well. Ah, it must have been when he asserted that Tubby has failed to bring in any big time talent right? Or maybe it was when he hinted that Paul Carter wasn't a role model because he left the program.

Please do elaborate on all the extensive historical evidence he brought up.
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Certainly. Since 2004 in games that mean something his record has been average. It's well documented that Joseph and Cobbs left the program on bad terms with Tubby. I always assumed that Carter left solely because of his sister. If there is more to the story it adds to the concern about player relations. If you've seen enough games over the last four years it's hard to argue that the offensive system lacks flow.

No one would argue that Tubby hasn't improved the situation here. That's not the point. Souhan is suggesting that he's not meeting expectations and I think it's a fair argument. It's a bottom line world and by the end of the fourth year a $2M++ salary should bring an upper level B10 finish and a couple of tournament wins, at a minimum.
 

jamiche said:
Certainly. Since 2004 in games that mean something his record has been average. It's well documented that Joseph and Cobbs left the program on bad terms with Tubby. I always assumed that Carter left solely because of his sister. If there is more to the story it adds to the concern about player relations. If you've seen enough games over the last four years it's hard to argue that the offensive system lacks flow.

No one would argue that Tubby hasn't improved the situation here. That's not the point. Souhan is suggesting that he's not meeting expectations and I think it's a fair argument. It's a bottom line world and by the end of the fourth year a $2M++ salary should bring an upper level B10 finish and a couple of tournament wins, at a minimum.
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While much of what YOU say is true, Souhan didn't exactly elaborate or provide any background in his column. Maybe its implied, but Souhan's not a consistent enough follower of the program to allow me to believe that. I realize he has limited space to get his point across, but he also decides to fill it with statements like 'he ran off Cobbs and Joseph'. Tubby can't win against statements like that. If Cobbs and Joseph remained, and were causing major team chemistry issues, Tubby would get blamed for that as well. Souhan could have put up some #s indicating that Tubby's offenses have historically struggled to consistently score, but he left it up to a one-line, throw away sentence. Lazy.

Surely this season isn't living up to expectations. I'll be the first to admit it, but Tubby's also been dealt a tough hand, with injuries and transfers. For Souhan to blame him for some of the things that are out of his control is ridiculous. Like I said, if Nolen is healthy, we probably have 2 more Big Ten wins and this column isn't even written.
 

jamiche said:
Certainly. Since 2004 in games that mean something his record has been average. It's well documented that Joseph and Cobbs left the program on bad terms with Tubby. I always assumed that Carter left solely because of his sister. If there is more to the story it adds to the concern about player relations. If you've seen enough games over the last four years it's hard to argue that the offensive system lacks flow.

No one would argue that Tubby hasn't improved the situation here. That's not the point. Souhan is suggesting that he's not meeting expectations and I think it's a fair argument. It's a bottom line world and by the end of the fourth year a $2M++ salary should bring an upper level B10 finish and a couple of tournament wins, at a minimum.
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Perhaps I fell asleep - please link or post the final B10 standings for 2011. Please also post the final NCAA tournament results for 2011 so we can see who had a couple of tourney W this year.
 

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