Since my last post I've become addicted to Twitter. I follow over 120 different accounts that give me a solid scope of what's going on in various areas, whether it's Arkansas, North Texas, Sports, Weather or Politics. I get the pulse of what's going on, as well as multiple angles. This addiction lately has given me some fascinating reading, especially as it relates to the Razorbacks.
Many times we can become insulated into our comfort zones, geographically and politically. We see things only from our side, and often aren't even exposed to other views. Being away from home has been interesting to see what the world thinks of my school. I know if i hear about it, it matters, to some degree. Such is the case when I heard about "Hat gate."
At first it seemed amusing, and I thought Renee Gork had made a totally stupid decision and would be embarrassed for it. I mean, seriously, if she's truly from the SEC sports world (a Florida Grad) she knows people notice if you wear conference team's gear on campus. I think she was not happy with her job and/or wanted to get some cheap pub for her new radio job. I get that. I also get that she may be missing home, if anybody gets that I do, but I know that no matter how much you miss your old ways you can't intentionally dis your current situation.
Then she was fired.
FIRED?!?
The next morning? No statements from various big-whigs saying "we're handling the matter internally," or, "Mrs. Gork's actions are being discussed," and then she gets another job out of state in four days? She was fired when she walked in the door Monday morning. Wow! And immediately the slop hit the fan.
Writers from Fanhouse to ESPN and CBS, along with countless other prominent sports bloggers such as Deadspin and SportsByBrooks were racing to post tweets and blogs blasting any and everyone involved. The majority of the opinions focused on the "fans" that mounted such a vicious campaign against the criminal in the orange hat. And having grown up in Arkansas and listened to sports radio in Central and Northwest Arkansas, I was inclined to agree with those assessments. And thus began the process that brings me to my laptop today.
So I checked out the new Hog Sports Radio. There seems to be a strong connection between the station and Hogville.net. WHOA! First clue there's something not right here. Hogville.net, for those not familiar, is a leading message board for Razorback sports. They are the ones responsible for the Houston Nutt freedom of information fiasco where his life was posted on the internet in an attempt to do nothing but ruin him.
The fans are not to blame. The radio station, KAKS (Hog Sports Radio) is to blame. These people should thank God every day for the 1st Amendment. THEY are the idiots that deserve national scrutiny here. Real Razorback fans are like my Grandma, sick in the hospital the night Houston Nutt left woke up long enough to say, "I hate what they did to him," and then said, "I hope they find a good coach soon." She knew he had issues, but she loved the program and hated to see it hurt.
HSR should be blasted for being what they are, garbage radio who blows every little situation out of proportion in order to pad their egos and seem like clever "sports guys." They post insane comments on their message board, then when someone attacks them they start talking, "journalistic integrity?" In the sports world, I would think journalistic integrity would be letting sportswriters be sportswriters and judge someone by their work, not by their outfit. And a radio station with journalistic integrity would have sound judgement as far as what makes a good story and a good writer rather than listen to the local crazies who have nothing better to do.
As an example, today I listened to "Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly," I met Bo while I was in college and he was a lot cooler to me than a local sports anchor had to be to a campus newspaper lackey, but his first caller of the hour was a PRIME example of what HSR listened to. The caller, clearly a regular, calls in and says, "I have a couple questions. First, is Darren McFadden with a different team?." Granted, he sounded "special" but, really? He then went on to say how he wished the "girl" hadn't worn that hat, and then I couldn't really get the rest of his argument.
After this insightful call, a national sportswriter from CBS Sports, Gregg Doyel was interviewed. Gregg had written a pretty tough piece about Razorback fans. He said in the piece, and repeated it on the show, that not all Hog fans were idiots, but the idiot fans from Arkansas were worse than idiot fans from other programs. Bo said the fans did nothing wrong, I think that's what he was getting at, and the call went downhill from there. Bo may be a cool dude, but his show is not exactly where I want my honor defended. We need Keith Jackson (ours) to say that there certainly are some "boneheads," or Scott Inman or Steve Sullivan to show intelligence does live in Arkansas broadcasting.
There are idiots in every fan base, but at the current time the Razorback's idiots have control of a frequency. Until the rest of the fan base rises up and lets the world know that HSR doesn't deserve any one's time, we'll continue to fight off shots every time that Dukes of Hazard outfit does something stupid.
I know probably only 4 people will read this, thanks Mom, but I just wanted it to be out there somewhere that an actual Razorback fan, and one who Sallie Mae Corp. paid a lot of money in order to be a fan, called out the true idiots in this situation. The un-sourced, uneducated and out-of-touch message board turned radio station that claims to speak for me.
