Well what is new? The Oregonian has once again come out with a story or “piece” that is clearly written to slam the University of Oregon and its sports teams. Did they run out of stories or news and had to fill in the open space with something and just decided to slam the UO again?
No.
The Oregonian is a business, and like any business their goal is to make money and as much money as they can possible. So to make money the Oregonian needs to come up with stories that “strike up the band” you could say or cause a ruckus from the community that gets the newspaper being mentioned in the “cooler talk” around the offices in Oregon.
With the latest story the Oregonian has accomplished once again their goal, which is to sell papers and bring attention to their newspaper.
Like many of you readers I have decided a long time ago to stop reading the Oregonian’s John Canzano and his stories that come out every other day or so. No way is that going to stop the Oregonian from publishing his stories because one reader stopped reading a certain part of the paper.
Now you could write a letter to the editor every day for the next year on how you dislike what is being published. You could call the office every day to let them hear your complaints. Go ahead and leave the endless comments on Conzano’s blog. But will this stop the Oregonian?
No.
All it is doing is adding more fuel to the fire and building even more interest in the paper and their stories. If you really want to put a stop to what is going on with the Oregonian and the UO readers need to just drop your interest and stop reading. Readers need to stop talking about it. Stop posting your thoughts on the Oregonian on message boards.
Like my Dad has told me numerous times regarding the Oregonian and Canzano, ” If your talking about them, than you are accomplishing their goal. ”
I am with Jay on this one. It’s not because I am a Duck fan and I don’t like the way they report on the UO. Its because the UO is the only school in this state that gets this treatment.
I have no problem whatsoever with the Oregonian doing stories that shed light on possible problems within the UO and their athletic department. The public needs to know what goes on there because its a state run school and our tax dollars go there to help fund it.
What the state doesn’t need though is a constant attack on one school and an attempt to fire shot after shot when anything comes up in the news headlines.
Heck, even Wednesday’s story from Canzano about the UO basketball team and their APR ranking which was in the top 10% in the nation had a slight slam on the UO. Was it needed in the story? Absolutely not! Why was it there? Because the Oregonian can.
Does Canzano and the Oregonian cover the state’s other schools like this? I don’t think so.
A few months back I was curious to see what Canzano’s radio show was like up there in the Portland area so I decided to log onto the Internet and listen in. For that day’s show Canzano talked about how Portland basketball fans should be ashamed for not coming out and watching a good basketball team win their conference tournament in the Portland State Vikings.
Canzano raved about how nice the team was on a personal level and even more so how talented they were. He praised the team and was on full force to jumping onto the bandwagon for that team.
Than a few days later when Portland State was destroyed by Kansas in the NCAA Tournament and we later find out two players from the PSU basketball team were in jail in Mexico and under arrests for suspicion of battery.
Where was the Oregonian and Canzano when that story came out? He was no where. Nothing slamming PSU and their basketball team on how they were a big let down to kids in the community or to the University.
Instead he did a piece on the Portland Trailblazers and their solid season they were having.
It doesn’t matter if these players were innocent or guilty. Its the fact they put themselves in that situation to be arrested and be a target for the media.
Had this been a UO basketball player or two I would be willing to bet a lot on the fact that Canzano would be salivating to get a chance to cover this story.
Where was the fair and balanced Journalism? Why is it only Oregon that gets this treatment? Why does Oregon hardly ever get any pro-Oregon press?
Canzano and the Oregonian attack the UO in my eyes simply because the UO has the largest fan base in the state and when you stir up the fan base and create commotion people are going to buy your paper, talk about your paper, and visit your online site to read your paper. Thus bringing in the cash.
Matt
Duck Sports News Blogger
Ducks Attack Editor
13 responses so far ↓
1 Mark Byrd // May 8, 2008 at 6:51 am
i see that canzano ,future star magazine reporter ,is know praising Kent for players graduating on his team just a month ago it was get rid of him ?????Many times I have thought this guy has multiple personalitiesand know he has proven it ….BAN CANZANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 Ryan // May 8, 2008 at 8:24 am
I cancelled my Oregonian subscription long ago because of these blow hards. I suggest many more do the same. You can get free access to all of their work that is not sub-par on the web.
3 GODUCKS // May 8, 2008 at 8:47 am
The Oregonian completely lost my business. Canzano is a hack & trashing Phil Knight doesn’t seem like an overly smart thing to do.
4 Brian // May 8, 2008 at 9:26 am
I went back and forth, while living in Portland… with Canzano on email… and it’s blatantly obvious that he’s just a garbage writer. I told him I would never read one of his columns again, and I haven’t. I don’t see why people continue to read his stuff and let themselves get all pissed off about it. Just don’t read it. I haven’t for many years now.
5 Hank Hosfield // May 8, 2008 at 10:11 am
Actually, I think The Oregonian is probably a better newspaper today than it was five years ago. I’ve subscribed to it ever since I moved to Portland 21 years ago. And I’ve had and still have many disagreements with their editorial positions on many issues. But, I don’t think they’re unprofessional or inherently dishonest. I recognize bias on occasion, but I don’t rely on them to be my sole source of information, and I’m able to take the good they offer without getting my knickers in a bunch about the stuff that runs counter to what I believe. There are some very good writers at the Big O. Steve Duin, Ryan White, Jeff Baker and Peter Ames Carlin are well worth the money. Furthermore, encouraging folks to abandon newspaper subscriptions will only further gut news rooms, dumb down the standards of journalism, and drive news to the web where it is even more beholding to sponsorship money. Independent journalism thrives with the support of strong readership. You may have heard this before in J School.
Also, don’t confuse columnists like Canzano with objective journalism. Columnists have a different set of rules. It’s opinion–not objective journalism. That’s why his column is labeled “Commentary.”
More on point, is The Oregonian currently critical of the UO? Yes. Are they creating the story? No. Do they have an anti-UO agenda?No. Are they anti-Nike? Clearly not.
As for your example of the PSU hoopla in Cabo, that got huge coverage in The Oregonian, and most of it was not good for PSU. And having recently read most of it, I have no idea what the truth is about what happened down there, but it seems quite possible that the PSU kids were incorrectly fingered–although they’ll probably always live under a cloud of doubt, and further public shame for just doing what college kids do in Cabo. Since there isn’t any similar UO case to compare it to, claims of unfair treatment are rather baseless. (Was there anything in the RG recently about Onterrio Smith’s latest DUI? I didn’t see anything about it in The Oregonian.)
Regarding any criticism of the UO, is it possible the love something and also be critical of its shortcomings?
I’m not much for blind allegiance. Not only that, but I also welcome constant challenge of my beliefs. Such critical analysis helps disabuse me of misconceptions and bolsters my arguments.
How do you fight lies? With truth. You don’t hide the story or refuse to answer questions. That (attention Phil Knight) just makes people think you have something to hide.
By the way, as a Ducks fan I’m more than a little disappointed to see such over-sensitivity to any less-than-positive stories about Oregon. We’re bigger than this. I’d hate to see us become as thinned-skinned as the Beavers. Do you know why they’re writing about us and not OSU? Because we matter. Stuff that matters gets in the paper.
Lastly, while I didn’t think too much of this story, I’m going to keep reading DSN, because I think it’s a great site, and I’ll even keep reading you, because i know you’ll do better than this in the future.
6 Mark Deuel // May 8, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Here is what Canzano said about the PSU thing.
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf?/base/sports/1207106708137090.xml&coll=7
7 Morgan // May 8, 2008 at 1:29 pm
You miss the point. Don’t read Canzano on the web either. Clicks = Advetising = $$$ Lend him no support and maybe they’ll send him somewhere where English is not the native language.
8 Richard // May 8, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Canzano has always been an equal opportunity jerk towards sports.
9 Mark Deuel // May 8, 2008 at 2:15 pm
My point was that he did cover the PSU thing…badly. He skewered Morrison in this article after the news broke but never did any follow-up when it all went away.
I didn’t miss the point, I know what he was saying in the article but he had the facts wrong. Canzano did write about the PSU incident.
I agree with Matt though when he says that if it were an Oregon athlete, Canzano and the O would have been dying to cover it. UO is the biggest and most well-known U in the state so therefore they also have the biggest target on their backs. Fair or not, its the reality.
10 SpiderDuck // May 8, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Thanks Mark for the link to the PSU story. I especially liked how Canzano referred to Mr. Morrison….a “wimp as a player.” Does JC not realize he is writing this garbage about student athletes, some of which are still in their teens? Not that the two personalities compare, but I recently heard a story about how Adolph Hitler received a bad grade in school on an art project he had completed. He aparently was very passionate about art as a schoolboy. Well, the teacher who graded him seemingly so harshly just happened to be jewish, which some today in the psych world caused him to snap in that direction. I don’t know where Canzano went to school or what his athletic career was like, but his mono-fucus on this issue tells me that he has snapped and I do think it has influenced the culture at the oregonian’s sports department. Was John rejected by the UO’s school of journalism? Was cut from a college athletic team? We’ll likely never know. When power is gained or demonstrated, particularly over a relatively short period and certainly if there is big money behind it, some people just cannot see it as a good thing. They simply cannot silently say: ‘Good for them…good for the UofO.’ It is simply human nature for some to hate those who have or receive more. This country has a long history of developing as a nation. Some of that history we are proud of - some of it has brought shame. The UofO has a few blemishes in its past. Taking money from Mr. Knight (who also gives regularly and generously to smaller, local universities with no athletic programs) is not one of them. Academics is absolutely thriving at the UofO and even internally, there is question around all the inflow toward athletics - mainly by those who’ve never been athletically inclined. Eventually the qustioning and inflow will subside as improvements to facilities become more of a maintenance program. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a university wanting to even the playing field, particularly when it was long overdue and it is balanced. It simply costs more to build a basketball arena than it costs to build a library, law school, business school, etc. Humbly, my two cents.
11 GeorgeHuerta // May 8, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Canzano was really tough on the PSU kids. Your whole piece here was pointless. Basically, the columnist for the big-city newspaper was critical of the small-city program you love.
You can’t handle that?
Get back on the porch.
12 GeorgeHuerta // May 8, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Canzano was very tough on the PSU kids who went to Mexico. He’s a must read in the market. Everyone knows that.
You ok?
13 Zachary Vishanoff // May 9, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Could a journalist/editor please investigate how both(uo and stanfords) 100 mill legacy(shadow campus)goose eggs are both meant to leverage the creation of entire new separate campuses(that cost 250-500mill)depending on how many nike disneyland like extras(emx ,learning centers ,yuppy student dorms on Franklin) you add in.Kevin Costner’s hollyweird magic shouldn’t be allowed to convince journalists to get lazy and “Just cool it” while they sip UO cool aid at the trials.