Crowd Sourcing in Context Blog

Recently, I decided to crowd source for my upcoming blog. With the recent Astros cheating scandal, I asked my Instagram followers if they thought the Astros players should have pitches thrown at them this upcoming season. To those unaware, the sense is that Astros batters, especially those who have been on the team since the 2017 season, will get pitches thrown at them as a method of self-policing the game. Why does it need self-policing? Well, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred decided for a multitude of reasons that the players would be immune from any punishment in exchange for full transparency. In my poll, I got 56 responses, of which 43 said yes, the Astros deserve to have pitches thrown at them this season. That’s about 77%. I imagine the people who said no view that there should be a different response, and not that the MLB was correct in giving the players immunity. These results however do follow the general consensus in the masses and the American media so I believe my crowdsourcing was successful.

Crowdsourcing Blog

Recently, I decided to crowdsource as a part of my upcoming blog. Since this is a sports blog, I decided to ask my followers on Instagram a sports question. That specific question was “Do you think Astros players deserve to get hit by pitches this year as retribution for the cheating scandal?” I got 53 responses, with 41 people voting yes, they do deserve that, and 12 people saying no, they don’t. This comes in wake of Commissioner Rob Manfred saying that the players getting “public shame” is enough for their punishment.

Americans Current Trust in Mass Media

Gallup recently (Sept 2016) conducted a poll regarding Americans trust in the media. Their question was simple, do you trust the media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly” truth. The results, as you might expect, are nowhere near the days of Cronkite. In fact, the number is at the lowest point since Gallup started asking the question in 1972. That number? 32% of Americans trust the media. If I lined up three people in front of you, technically less than one of them trusts the media. A better analogy would be if you lined up 25 people, 8 would trust the media, but you get the point. It peaked in 1976 at a number that now looks ludicrous, 72%. This shouldn’t come as the biggest surprise, with the press having the Pentagon Papers and Watergate to hang in their rafters. More interestingly not because of the action itself but how drastic the number, Republicans’ trust in the media has dropped to an astonishing 14%, the lowest it’s been in 20 years, down from 32% in 2015. While the study is past its 3rd birthday, the situation hasn’t gotten much better if not worse with all this impeachment stuff. Republicans are more and more fighting the war against the “fake news” they see.

A simple video and report of Harvey Weinstein as he’s entering the courthouse is being accused of fake news? At first I was going to give D’Souza the benefit of the doubt and just accusing the media of bias, which may be fair. However he drops the #FakeNews hashtag at the end and claims it is “at work.” This is the same guy who mocked survivors of the Parkland shooting though so what can we expect!

It seems a big criticism of the media is they now report seemingly around the facts at times. Whether that’s not reporting certain things that make certain people look good, doing the reverse and over reporting on things that make said person look bad, or leaving out certain facts and only using the ones that fit your agenda, they are practices that have led to mass distrust across the entire country and the epidemic of #FakeNews people. Like I said, less than 1 in 3 Americans trust the media, and if you look to the left, that drops to 1 in 7. The media has put themselves in this position whether certain organizations played bigger parts than others, therefore only they can rebuild the trust in the media. Watch very closely as to how the media, especially left-leaning organizations, covers the debates, impeachment fallout, and the election race. The trust in the media fell during the 2016 election cycle, the 2020 one will be pivotal for the future of the trust in american media.

Myles Garrett reinstated following indefinite suspension for Steelers-Browns TNF Brawl

Myles Garrett, defensive end for the Cleveland Browns, 2017 #1 overall pick, one of the best young talents the league has to offer, has taken quite a swing in the public eye (no pun intended)

Garrett appealed the indefinite which is now a 6 game season ending suspension. It was met with similar force as his actions.

Super Bowl Sunday passed about a week and a half ago and now that the NFL has some down time, they along with Myles Garrett decided to have a meeting at the league’s headquarters to discuss a potential reinstatement. The precedent the league had to go on was the handling of the Albert Haynesworth incident in 2006, a verdict of 5 games. During today’s meeting, the league viewed that was a fair precedent set.

The fan reaction is very split, with fans ranging from total praise to complete and utter criticism of the league’s decision.

Going back to the tweet regarding Kaepernick, it seems to be another one of those issues where we don’t seem to know all of the facts but nevertheless people are going to take sides and over-blame one side or the other. The reason people want to have more sympathy for Garrett is due to an allegation he brought to light the next day saying that Mason Rudolph had used a racial slur which had provoked him to get that upset.

The league investigated that allegation as a part of their investigation into the entire incident, but found nothing. Mason Rudolph obviously agreed.

This is something that people seemed to take great offense to when the findings were discovered, with the added defamation of Mason Rudolph seeming to make them more hateful of the Browns defensive power.

Other people still think this isn’t a big deal at all and people are blowing it out of proportion.

There’s no way to win on this issue, that’s where it draws similarities to Kaepernick. The difference with this one though is that we in fact WILL get to see the player at the center of the controversy the year following his said controversy. Myles Garrett will suit up in the orange and brown, and the Browns will try to get the camel off their back.

Upcoming NBA All Star Weekend

The NBA heads for their first set of all star festivities of the decade this weekend, with events lined up Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights to take us into the long weekend (at least for Hofstra students). Starting on Friday night, we have the NBA hall of fame announcement at 5 PM, the celebrity all star game at 7 PM, and the Rising Stars Challenge at 9 PM, with another USA vs. World competition. On Saturday, we have NBA All Star Saturday Night starting with the Taco Bell Skills Competition, then the Mountain Dew 3 point contest, capped off by the usual biggest competiton of the night, the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest will feature former winners Aaron Gordon and Dwight Howard with former runner up Derrick Jones Jr and newcomer Pat Connaughton joining them. I’ll preview the weekend in further detail later this week.

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