Where Is Ponyfans?

by **couch 'em** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:22 pm

Lots of good journalism on practices and coaches all year. Yet here with a HUGE story we have nothing. Let's use those connections!

by **JasonB** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:56 pm

I don't think anyone at ponyfans has ever done stories on rumors. That's why they wait to release recruiting stuff after signing day. You won't get any interviews from ponyfans until school is actually saying something.

by **lwjr** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 4:24 pm

Crickets, no surprise.

by **mrydel** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 4:27 pm

DMN, ESPN, NBC, ABC, CBS.seem to find info

by **lwjr** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 4:49 pm

It's sunshine city over here, nothing bad

by **smusic 00** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:15 pm

When you trade accountability for access you get this.

by **gostangs** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 6:30 pm

we have more than enough investigative journalism to go around. I find it a relief not to come on here and see all that crap

by **smusportspage** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 8:08 pm

smusic 00 wrote:When you trade accountability for access you get this.

Sorry but that is just a load of crap.

by **JasonB** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:07 pm

pay sites and broadcasters need ratings - they tend to publish a story anticipating that something is going to happen in order to drive traffic.

A more traditional news source would do things this way (yes, the boring way), and not try to land the first story, but instead post an interview once everyone can talk about the facts. I am sure something will come at some point, but probably not until after everything is out in the open.

by **couch 'em** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:25 pm

Investigative journalism isn't traditional I guess JasonB.

by **mrydel** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:30 pm

So the old NY Times tag line that said ponyfans.com is the place to go for Mustang news is no longer valid. All we should expect here is regurgitation? Thanks for letting me know that.

by **pwnyxpress** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:33 pm

Seems to me we get a lot of "original" info here...

by **Puckhead48E** » Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:58 pm

JasonB wrote:pay sites and broadcasters need ratings - they tend to publish a story anticipating that something is going to happen in order to drive traffic.

A more traditional news source would do things this way (yes, the boring way), and not try to land the first story, but instead post an interview once everyone can talk about the facts. I am sure something will come at some point, but probably not until after everything is out in the open.

Sounds like a traditional news source trying to explain why they can't make the bottom line, are losing subscribers, and keep getting beat to the story by alternative outlets. Trust your sources but verify and validate the information means fact check before publishing. It isn't an excuse to withhold info until it is stale.

by **JasonB** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 11:55 am

Puckhead48E wrote:
JasonB wrote:pay sites and broadcasters need ratings - they tend to publish a story anticipating that something is going to happen in order to drive traffic.

A more traditional news source would do things this way (yes, the boring way), and not try to land the first story, but instead post an interview once everyone can talk about the facts. I am sure something will come at some point, but probably not until after everything is out in the open.

Sounds like a traditional news source trying to explain why they can't make the bottom line, are losing subscribers, and keep getting beat to the story by alternative outlets. Trust your sources but verify and validate the information means fact check before publishing. It isn't an excuse to withhold info until it is stale.

I'm not saying ponyfans doesn't break stories, and I am not a representative of ponyfans.

In the past, Ponyfans articles have been based on observations (practices) or facts (talking to recruits and coaches for the signing day roundup). There aren't editorial pieces floating around this site (except for Nate, who writes the football stories). I don't think there has ever been even a prediction column for how the writers think a particular team will do in the next season.

For this particular issue, the people who really know anything LEGALLY are not allowed to talk about it. So I think Ponyfans has three options:

1) Not write anything about anything until facts are actually known, and then try to get the inside scoop on the details.
2) Try to talk about things with people directly involved, and do the whole "sources say" thing, where people can't tell if you actually heard something from someone in the know, or if you are hearing rumors third and fourth hand.
3) Talk about things with people directly involved, and release names to show your credibility, but throw those sources under the bus.

As a standard, Ponyfans tends to follow option 1. Honestly, I am okay with that. This site has close enough relationships with the school that anything published as a Geraldo Rivera investigative journalism piece would be taken as pure fact rather than opinion. And doing so would significantly damage the credibility of the site if they were wrong.

There is certainly a place in the world for TMZ, but having sites that don't want to be TMZ is probably a good thing just to balance it all out.