I Miss Rhiannon Potkey

While I don't miss her blog posts about which members of the BYU football team are wearing over-the-calf socks in voluntary summer drills and which ones are not, I really do miss Potkey's blogging. Jay Drew did okay for a while, but over the last year or so his blog at the Trib has gone to pot. Now it's just a repository for tidbits that he missed out on in the first news-cycle or a parking spot for quotes he couldn't work into a column.



I miss Rhiannon's unique insights and the way she took the blog seriously as a way to generate interest. Drew is just running it as a way to generate page-views and to keep the paycheck coming each week.



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The SL trib is trying hard to cut BYU readership, some say thats suicide, they say bankrupt



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YBrit wrote:
The SL trib is trying hard to cut BYU readership, some say thats suicide, they say bankrupt



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Is that your assumption???

She was interesting but she really took following the Cougars seriously. She was also the only reason to read the tribune.



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Until DesNews starting having Brandon Gurney writing for them, I had all but stopped reading them. It seemed to me that in the transition from Dick Harmon being the regular BYU beat writer to Jeff Call, the DesNews had gone down the crapper.



Jay Drew, who I think a lot of times reflects his SLTrib roots, did a lot of footwork on a lot of rumors and I thought did a better than average job for a guy who didn't start as a BYU fan, but got the job more out of default, but since the end of BB he's been practically non-existent. He hadn't been this quiet before, so I guess he's getting complacent and once again I'm checking DesNews first before I ever go to the Trib.



In sports reporting it will always be what you did for me lately. I still think TBS provides the most in-depth reporting for BYU. I did like Potkey.

YBrit wrote:
The SL trib is trying hard to cut BYU readership, some say thats suicide, they say bankrupt



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Simply being in the newspaper business is suicide. It's a dying industry.

EM_Puma wrote:
Jay Drew, who I think a lot of times reflects his SLTrib roots, did a lot of footwork on a lot of rumors and I thought did a better than average job for a guy who didn't start as a BYU fan, but got the job more out of default, but since the end of BB he's been practically non-existent. He hadn't been this quiet before, so I guess he's getting complacent and once again I'm checking DesNews first before I ever go to the Trib.



In sports reporting it will always be what you did for me lately. I still think TBS provides the most in-depth reporting for BYU. I did like Potkey.

Drew has 11 blog posts since May 5. That's hardly being "practically non-existent."

I generally like Drew's posts, but for some unknown reason the past few months, Firefox on my Mac blanks out the text on every SL Trib blog about five seconds after I arrive on a page. It's cut my reading of those sources way back...

IT is the summer months now where there is less to blog about. Unless you want more Jimmer NBA draft chatter, which you can find anywhere now. I suspect things will pick up in August when more sports are rolling around again. Info is simply sparse right now everywhere. I suspect we will see a blip at Junior Day, though, as BYU usually gets some verbal commits. I also suspect BYU will time some schedule announcements to just before Junior Day occurs.

Just wait for some bad news-Jay Drew will come running.

byutx wrote:
Just wait for some bad news-Jay Drew will come running.

Exactly why I don't like him.



He's typically pretty verbose and puts a lot of info out there, that is good. But there is no denying his glee when something bad happens to BYU.

Easy solution--do not read his blog. Not as if the Trib has to hire a BYU fan to cover BYU sports. PK was not either, and he did a fine job. Issue is to be there, take good notes, and pass info on. And try not to be too over the top. I love BYU, but I do not need people blowing blue colored smoke up my backside all day, either. I have no problem with attempted objectivity.

Lawboy wrote:
Easy solution--do not read his blog. Not as if the Trib has to hire a BYU fan to cover BYU sports. PK was not either, and he did a fine job. Issue is to be there, take good notes, and pass info on. And try not to be too over the top. I love BYU, but I do not need people blowing blue colored smoke up my backside all day, either. I have no problem with attempted objectivity.

There's a difference between an earnest attempt to be objective and being last to the table with information unless that information is bad. But I shouldn't expect anything else form a yewt grad, should I.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Jay Drew, who I think a lot of times reflects his SLTrib roots, did a lot of footwork on a lot of rumors and I thought did a better than average job for a guy who didn't start as a BYU fan, but got the job more out of default, but since the end of BB he's been practically non-existent. He hadn't been this quiet before, so I guess he's getting complacent and once again I'm checking DesNews first before I ever go to the Trib.



In sports reporting it will always be what you did for me lately. I still think TBS provides the most in-depth reporting for BYU. I did like Potkey.

Drew has 11 blog posts since May 5. That's hardly being "practically non-existent."

I'm talking more content than anything. I've just been able to find better sources lately for my BYU fix and he had been a sure dealer in his past. I understand there's not much to report on, but look at those 11 posts and see if you find anything that wasn't very common knowledge. I had counted on him to find me some new tidbit. I guess we all go through cycles.

byutx wrote:
Just wait for some bad news-Jay Drew will come running.

:) Or some pot to stir.

Lawboy wrote:
Easy solution--do not read his blog. Not as if the Trib has to hire a BYU fan to cover BYU sports. PK was not either, and he did a fine job. Issue is to be there, take good notes, and pass info on. And try not to be too over the top. I love BYU, but I do not need people blowing blue colored smoke up my backside all day, either. I have no problem with attempted objectivity.

Thats what made Potkey so good. She wasn't a BYU fan, no unbiased observer would even consider her. But she also didn't hate BYU like Jay Drew obviously does.



Some BYU fans want to appear to understand journalistic objectivity so much they want everything with a slightly negative slant or excuse anti-BYU biased reporters. I just want my news from the paper to be straight up facts. Good news or bad news should be delivered on the same time frame, with no embellishment added to it. Which again is what made Potkey such a refreshing Journalist.

byutx wrote:

Easy solution--do not read his blog. Not as if the Trib has to hire a BYU fan to cover BYU sports. PK was not either, and he did a fine job. Issue is to be there, take good notes, and pass info on. And try not to be too over the top. I love BYU, but I do not need people blowing blue colored smoke up my backside all day, either. I have no problem with attempted objectivity.

There's a difference between an earnest attempt to be objective and being last to the table with information unless that information is bad. But I shouldn't expect anything else form a yewt grad, should I.

Jay Drew isn't last to the table with information unless it is bad. He is very quick with almost all his information. He's one of the quickest tweeters out there for BYU. I do think he does what he can to put his yewtness slant more prominently when he can. But let's not pretend that he never reports anything good until it's too late and that every story he writes is negative about BYU.

Drew or Franchuk? Which would you rather ignore. Simple choice if you ask me.

As a beat writer, he is probably taking a lot of time off right now. He's also a recruiting reporter for the trib, and that is in a down time right now too. Other than Collie, not too much new out there for recruiting.



Jay Drew is doing a decent job as the beat writer. I think he really likes Dave Rose, but doesn't necessarily get along with Bronco Mendenhall as well. I don't think his contacts are as good as some others. Harmon has good contacts, but not like he used to. Call is too new, and even though it's the home town paper, the Daily Harold is out of the loop for most things. The people with the best connections that are out there are probably the radio guys: Wrubell, Olsen, and Kinehan.

Lawboy wrote:
Easy solution--do not read his blog. Not as if the Trib has to hire a BYU fan to cover BYU sports. PK was not either, and he did a fine job. Issue is to be there, take good notes, and pass info on. And try not to be too over the top. I love BYU, but I do not need people blowing blue colored smoke up my backside all day, either. I have no problem with attempted objectivity.

Would you consider the mwc/mtn guys to be objective regarding BYU?



(If you say yes, you will be ignored for lYfe)