The Salt Lake media never ceases to amaze me. I know it's their job to look at things as objectively as possible and I think, in most cases, that's a pretty admirable trait. Unfortunately, it's becoming a scarcity and instead, we've got a media geared toward the ratings and that ultimately leads to some amazing trolling.
I get it. Nothing gets the fans buzzing more than attacking their team. If you want good ratings and a lot of clicks, belittle, mock and tear down one of the local teams and that's exactly what you'll get. It sucks, but it works or they wouldn't continue doing it. Sadly, when this happens, rarely are there any winners.
Utah fans are left bitter and angry and the local media grows its hack image.
Instead of looking at this from a rational point of view, you know weighing both the positives and negatives of Utah's move to put the rivalry on hiatus, most articles, and a great deal of the spew from sports talk, is so emotionally charged that it leads to zero discussion. It's a lot of yelling, whining and gnashing of the teeth, but in the end, what does it accomplish?
Absolutely nothing. There has been no new revelations or any aha moment that helps bridge the gaps between both parties. And because of that, we're left with Utah fans once again bemoaning the local press and increasingly becoming frustrated with them. They've lost complete credibility in this argument and when that happens, when you can't trust a word they say or even respect a word they say, they are no longer respectable. Right now, the Salt Lake media is proving its detractors absolutely right. They're mostly invested in the emotional part of the argument instead of the analytical argument. Does anyone take the Salt Lake media seriously anymore?
Oddly, the one person who has tried to look at this from a balanced, middle point of view is Dick Harmon. When Harmon is the rational voice in this entire argument, you know how messed up the debate is.
Now while I don't agree with every point Harmon makes, in his piece in today's Deseret News, he does so in a respectable and logical manner. I'm not a huge fan of Harmon on the whole, but at least he's not out there vilifying Utah for their choice - a choice that, really, isn't all that extreme.
If the Salt Lake media came at this argument from that point of view, looking at it from all sides, the fans here would be infinitely more informed. But that's not how things have worked and because of it, because the local media has turned this into an irrational and emotional debate, we're left with a bunch of shouting and nothing more.
That's what happens when you have a media too invested in making the news instead of reporting it.