It's time to take a stand

[DickerJames]

I just got home after a VERY long day and was thrilled to discover after reading this thread that I won't have to cancel my subscription after all. I can now spend all of my time on line at this site instead of searching the net for WAC basketball standings. (weak attemt at humor for jtstang) Seriously though, thank you Peruna88 and SWC2010 for your help.

It is especially annoying to me when I hear the argument of"space problems' and then get lumped in with the Southland conference by saying if they print the WAC they have to print everyone. I seriously doubt there is another Division I school in America that is treated by their home town paper the way we are by the DMN.

I e-mailed Kevin Blackistone and thought I would share his response.

Kevin,

I'm the guy that spoke to you at Moody Coliseum a couple of weeks ago and asked you to please tell your employer to print the WAC conference standings, schedule and results every day. This is really driving me nuts. Could you give me the e-mail address of the person I should complain to or a phone number to call.

Thank you and keep up the good columns.


John
I queried the editiors about this the other day. They explained to me that it is a space issue. I just forwarded to them your e-mail. They will respond. If they (Bob Yates, Dwayne Bray or Gary Leavell) do not, let me know.

KBB

[jtstang]

But, as I noticed on this thread, jtstang is sounding a bit like an apathetic undergrad and not like the fan I believe he is.

Sorry, but the true sign of fandom simply can't be whining on a chat board about the lack of paper coverage for a team that is 3-4 in the WAC.

[The Falcon]

I also was furious when I realized that DMN had dropped the standings and the results from daily coverage. I also think they should do more
human interest stories on SMU athletes.

I am inserting a copy of the email I sent to Dwayne Bray at DMN below.
I had not seen his response in this thread that he and staff at DMN had
decided to run WAC standings and results again. So, since I addressed
more than that I have included it.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Dwayne - Thanks for printing the WAC standings and results in the paper this morning.

When I found you had dropped WAC standings from your daily coverage, I was infuriated. In talking to many of my friends around the Metroplex I find them equally angry.
It is bad enough that you don't really give us much coverage on all SMU sports, especially football and basketball. We have 10,000 students on
campus who care - and who want to read about SMU athletics in your paper and they want to see the standings and results. In addition to the
students, we have some older die-hard fans like me who still care what happens on the Hillttop whether we are winning or losing,. We are SMU fans
and we love our team - win, lose, or draw.

The story that was printed today in your paper on Bryan Hopkins is the only human interest story I have seen to date about our basketball team.
Bryan Hopkins has been worthy of such a story for some time. Chris Reay is from Plano, Justin Isham is from Lancaster, and we have other
Texas kids on our team like Roberts, Dement, Ryan Hopkins, and Ike Ofegbu. Each one has some human interest story potential. You may also
realize that our coach, Jimmy Tubbs, is a Dallas story. If, as I think he is in the process of doing, he turns this program around and begins to win,
it will be a great Dallas story about hometown boy makes good. Jimmy has lots of friends in the Dallas area sports world, and they want to know
how he is doing.

I realize you have limited space in your paper and that subscriptions are down - I also realize that Texas and A & M have more alumni living in the
area, but SMU is in Dallas. One of our officially stated goals as stated in the SMU Action Plan is to be a good partner with Dallas and I believe
we are making progress on that. Most of the reporters and management of the DMN probably went to Texas, A & M, OU, or others so they probably
don't give a rip about SMU, but my point is that there are many of us out here that do care.

Please continue to run the WAC standings and results in the rest of this year, and since we will be in CUSA next year along with Rice, Houston,
UTEP, and Tulsa - please run the CUSA standings next year and into the future.

[DickerJames]

jtstang wrote:

Sorry, but the true sign of fandom simply can't be whining on a chat board about the lack of paper coverage for a team that is 3-4 in the WAC.


I really think you have missed the point. I for one was not "whining" about our lack of coverage, I was crying foul over the missing BASICS. I started this thread by saying I have always defended the DMN's lack of coverage of SMU because they are not our marketing arm. I still believe that and think we will be on the front page if and when we win meanigful games. However, there is a big difference between nice articles like they had on Hopkins today, and the basics of coverage that local teams get win lose or draw. Printing the Big 12 standings everyday and not ours was a huge slap. If we never win another game, (God forbid) an article on the game, our box score and our conference standing should always be printed.

[jtstang]

I really think you have missed the point. I for one was not "whining"...

And as you can see from the quote I included in my post, I was not responding to you but the whiner who suggested I was "not sounding like a fan..." because I am not up in arms about the DMN's handling of SMU.

[Diamond Girl]

I agree. I started sending letters to the editor back in December when the Lady 'Stangs were doing so well, albeit before WAC games started, when they were 9-1. I never received a reply from anyone. But if the DMN will keep its word and start posting like they said they would, it's a step in the right direction. And, if they can do a human-interest athletic story every once in awhile like they did today, that would be even better. SMU does have some good athletes; not a whole lot of people know about them, whether that's due to SMU's lack of publicity or that of the DMN, I don't know.

[HPPony]

I just emailed Dwayne Bray @ the DMN to say thank you. Great news!

[DickerJames]

I'm glad you did that. I did the same earlier today and he responded by saying thanks for the feedback.

[DallasDiehard]

Ditto. Well done, PonyFans.