Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #16

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

First, let me say I am happy with our draft.

Second, if you don't know who they were targeting...You don't follow the little things. The drop off of DL to interior OL & CB was far greater with OL & CB. These drop offs are something that are considered heavily in the war room especially in the 1st round with trade up options. Since Amukamara was still on the board and the trade didn't happen...Well, you do the math.

Third, Not sure of the compensation...But I would not have been surprised if it included a 2012 selection since the Redskins already received a 2nd in their first trade back. The Steelers 1st, 2nd, and 2012 2nd (OR) 3rd might have been the deal. I would have been very pleased if it was only a 1st, 2nd, & 2012 3rd.

Finally, Mike Pouncey, Brown, Allen, Carter, Powe, & Batch would have made me more happy.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

According to Peter King, both sides have denied the talks and Wexell has tweeted an apology.

[url="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/05/15/mmqb/1.html"]http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/w ... mqb/1.html[/url]

After writing the above early Monday morning, I heard from Redskins general manager Bruce Allen. He denied the original report and said the Steelers never called about the pick. Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, through a spokesperson, corroborated Allen's denial and said talks didn't take place. Also, the writer who first reported the non-trade has issued an apology.

[hawaiiansteel]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

Jim Wexell still has some explaining to do

Posted by Mike Florio on May 16, 2011



Last year, Mike Wise of the Washington Post engaged in a deliberate experiment regarding the power of social media. As experiments go, it was nearly as bad as Peter Brady’s volcano.

Over the weekend, Jim Wexell of SteelCityInsider.net, one of the various FOX/Scout.com team-specific publications, wrote via Twitter that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder said on Sirius radio that the Steelers had a deal in place with Washington to move from No. 31 to No. 16 in the draft, presumably to engineer a Pouncey family reunion. It created enough of a buzz to make its way into Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column, and it then caught enough of our attention to make its way to the top of the PFT headline stack.

Not long after pressing “publish,” I heard from P.R. exec Tony Wyllie of the Redskins, who said Snyder hasn’t done any radio since early February. King got the same call, and he and I both commenced the process of trying to put toothpaste back into the lamp. (It’s a helluvalot easier than putting a genie inside a toothpaste tube.)

But where’s Wexell in all of this? He wisely deleted the erroneous tweet, and he posted a follow-up tweet pointing out that “[t]he Redskins have denied alleged plans for a draft-day trade with the Steelers,” adding in a perfunctory “[m]y apologies.” Wexell has ignored a tweet from us — and presumably tweets from others — seeking an explanation for his belief that Dan Snyder said otherwise on Sirius radio.

Most recently, Wexell wrote that the error wasn’t “intended,” and that it was “my bad; my blunder.” He then tried to push some Twitter traffic to a colleague’s column that purports to report that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin wanted to trade up for Florida center Mike Pouncey. (Of course, to actually read the column, you’ve got to pay for SteelCityInsider.net and/or Scout.com.)

Sorry, but that’s not good enough. When someone screws up in a major way, as Wexell did, he needs to do something more than say “oops” and move on. After Wise deliberately posted a false item regarding the duration of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension, Wise offered an explanation for his so-called social experiment. And after we once wrote of rumors that a former Steelers quarterback had died, we provided chapter-and-verse information as to how it happened.

As to Wexell’s weekend whiff, all he’s done is muttered “sorry” and then tried to sell us content from a co-worker. Unless and until Wexell provides something more detailed as to the chain of events that prompted him to tell the Twitterverse that Redskins owner Dan Snyder said something he didn’t say about something that never happened, it would be unwise to give credence to anything Wexell says.

[url="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/16/jim-wexell-still-has-some-explaining-to-do/"]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ing-to-do/[/url]

[BradshawsHairdresser]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

These writers continue to make themselves more irrelevant. Guess it's not just athletes who need to learn how to control their "tweets."

[hawaiiansteel]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

Monday, May 16, 2011

Cut Wexell Some Slack

Thanks to the social media world we live in, words and news move at a press of a button and are instantly in front of a million eye balls. The main stream media and we bloggers alike are in a hurry to break or push out aggregated news as fast as we can along with our own thoughts, views and breakdowns of the event to satisfy our readership.

Everyone is in a race to be the first to report news or to provide one nugget more of information that no one else has. It is the nature of the beast in the media world and it has not changed since newspapers and media came about.

Over time we rely on what we hear or read from our reputable sources of information, whether it be from Twitter, a radio report or a newspaper writer. These sources of information we have learned to trust over long periods of time for accurate news and respected view points or opinions. News and opinion are two different things and opinions are sometimes regarded as fact, especially as it travels from one end user to another. It happens.

Even the best of the best team beat writers have their own sources that they trust at the top of the food chain. The famous and often unnamed, "sources" we have grown accustomed to hearing from all media outlets. The writers report it because they believe it to be true. Sometimes these sources end up being wrong and it happens in every facet of news known to man and it is part of this imperfect world we live in.

I do not pretend to know who told Jim Wexell that Daniel Snyder was on Sirius talking about a supposed draft day deal with the Steelers. Wexell passed on the information from what he believed to be a reliable source in my opinion. I doubt seriously Wexell would just make something like that up as it is not his nature to do so.

Several will question that Wexell should have verified the information, but Wexell evidently trusted the source of the info enough to just pass it on. Perhaps he just heard the information wrong as well. Mistakes, miscommunication and misinterpretation happen from time to time in the media. Everyone in media and news has made mistakes before. It happens. Tracking down and verifying a source with every ounce of news would be a full time job and often times media and bloggers will go with what other media members report. Once again it is the nature of the beast of how news travel.

I have read Wexell for a number of years and have gleamed some great information from him not found elsewhere. I consider him a trusted source as do many others who follow the Steelers. This one mistake does not change my future opinion of anything he reports as I am well aware that these types of mistakes do indeed happen even to the best of the best from time to time. It is not like he makes a habit of making these mistakes and it certainly is not purposeful. He apologized for the mistake and is trying to move on it seems and certainly has a level of embarrassment in addition. I guess he could further explain the cycle of events that led up to the error, but what would it matter in the grand scheme of things. It's out there and nothing will change that. As I said, we all make mistakes and errors. They are easy to point out and just as easy to get past.

Cut Wexell some slack here as I feel he deserves it. After all, it's not like he reported that Terry Bradshaw was killed. We all make mistakes.

[url="http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/05/cut-wexell-some-slack/"]http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/05/cu ... ome-slack/[/url]

[Oviedo]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

So Wexell made a mistake, big deal! He is still one of the best sources for Steelers information versus the BS you get from the Post Gazette and Tribune Review online.

If you are an out of towner like me he is great.

[ikestops85]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

I'm not cutting him any slack. Writers used to report on stories after verifying them. I don't care if the guy reports the story an hour later than somebody else. Just make sure it is right.

It would have been so easy to verify that Snyder hadn't even been on Sirius for months but Wexell couldn't be bothered. If it were a matter of interpretation then I wouldn't have a problem but it was flat out wrong. The guy needs to take more pride in his work.

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

Wexell didn't pull it out of the air just to create a stir or have something to tweet about. Retraction for your action...Always a reason or source.

I'm not a dumb reader who gets pulled by the leash and then gets told to go sit back on the curb.

I understand the back pedal...Not a surprise.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

It would be one thing if he wasn't verifying sources for newspaper articles. That's his job...that would be negligent. But this is #&@%ing TWITTER!!! The next thing you know, we'll be criticizing the Facebook posts of journalists. Ed Bouchette's Facebook status remarked how much he was enjoying an Egg McMuffin this morning, but I saw Ed at Burger King, not McDonald's, and that was clearly a Croissanwich he was eating!!! What a hack! Get over it...it's not like Wexell was twittering about the physics behind burning jet fuel taking down skyscrapers or something.

[BradshawsHairdresser]

Re: Redskins, Steelers had draft deal, but guy was gone at #

The guy is supposed to be a journalist, and he's supposed to be covering the NFL. Doesn't matter if he's reporting in the Wall Street Journal or on Twitter, when he's reporting about the NFL, he needs to verify what he is reporting as fact. Otherwise, he loses credibility.

The apology was good, but it doesn't exactly undo the effects of his mistake. Next story he reports, we'll all have to wait a day or so to see if he got his "facts" right, or if they just popped into his head during a dream?

I'm not cutting him any slack. Writers used to report on stories after verifying them. I don't care if the guy reports the story an hour later than somebody else. Just make sure it is right.

It would have been so easy to verify that Snyder hadn't even been on Sirius for months but Wexell couldn't be bothered. If it were a matter of interpretation then I wouldn't have a problem but it was flat out wrong. The guy needs to take more pride in his work.

$$$$
Well said.