Iowa Beat Writers

Regarding Eickholt - some people watch a lot of sports but don't understand them. He's one of those people. That's fine if you're a casual fan. It's kind of an issue when you make a living off covering sports.

Here is the thing. I'm also a casual. I don't understand what's happening all of the time. I tell people all the time, that the intricacies of sports are like house wiring. I don't know how it works, but I know when I flip the switch and the lights don't turn on.

But even then, I can see that's not what happened on that play. They switched the screen, they didn't double. That was not a contested layup. That was a layup with the guys dominant hand with nobody attempting to block it.

People use these twitter game watches as a way to keep up with what's happening in the game. The guy either doesn't know or chooses not to communicate it.
 
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Here is the thing. I'm also a casual. I don't understand what's happening all of the time. I tell people all the time, that the intricacies of sports are like house wiring. I don't know how it works, but I know when I flip the switch and the lights don't turn on.

But even then, I can see that's not what happened on that play. They switched the screen, they didn't double. That was not a contested layup. That was a layup with the guys dominant hand with nobody attempting to block it.

People use these twitter game watches as a way to keep up with what's happening in the game. The guy either doesn't know or chooses not to communicate it.

For him I think it’s a mixture of truly not understanding the game and also not wanting to bite the hand that feeds him. He needs access to the program and can’t afford to piss off the gatekeepers who are widely known to be more than a bit temperamental in Iowa City.
 
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My favorite part was he closed the replies on the tweet when after people called him out for not knowing ball
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For him I think it’s a mixture of truly not understanding the game and also not wanting to bite the hand that feeds him. He needs access to the program and can’t afford to piss off the gatekeepers who are widely known to be more than a bit temperamental in Iowa City.

Contrast his in game tweets to our 'beat' reporter Travis Hines. I think Hines only tweets about negative things Iowa State does/is doing during his in-game tweeting.
 
Contrast his in game tweets to our 'beat' reporter Travis Hines. I think Hines only tweets about negative things Iowa State does/is doing during his in-game tweeting.

I know that is not true of Hines at all. I feel like he wants to marry Ward. :)
 
Contrast his in game tweets to our 'beat' reporter Travis Hines. I think Hines only tweets about negative things Iowa State does/is doing during his in-game tweeting.
He's just salty that he hasn't made it big yet this far into his career and knows that he's lucky Gannet saved his career by buying the Ames Tribune.
 
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Contrast his in game tweets to our 'beat' reporter Travis Hines. I think Hines only tweets about negative things Iowa State does/is doing during his in-game tweeting.
This is what frustrates me with media literacy. In no way am I defending Eickholt. He's a clown. But Eickholt works for 247 sports, which is primarily a recruiting network. He works for the Iowa branch of that network. Hines is a beat reporter for the Ames Tribune/DMR or whatever it is now. Those are not analogous.

A 247 "reporter" is going to "report" with a slant toward Iowa because they are trying to drive subscriptions to an Iowa fan site. The journalistic standards for a 247 "reporter" are almost nonexistent. Hines is held to a much higher journalistic standard working for the Des Moines Register.

Eickholt's analog is Alec Busse and formerly Nick Osen. Eickholt is considerably more biased and more of an obvious fanboy than Busse, but Osen was very pro-Iowa State, albeit more professional than Eickholt, who considers himself a "sports personality".

Anyways, the general public has a really difficult time differentiating sources and the associated journalistic standards and editorial rigor.
 
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This is what frustrates me with media literacy. In no way am I defending Eickholt. He's a clown. But Eickholt works for 247 sports, which is primarily a recruiting network. He works for the Iowa branch of that network. Hines is a beat reporter for the Ames Tribune/DMR or whatever it is now. Those are not analogous.

A 247 "reporter" is going to "report" with a slant toward Iowa because they are trying to drive subscriptions to an Iowa fan site. The journalistic standards for a 247 "reporter" are almost nonexistent. Hines is held to a much higher journalistic standard working for the Des Moines Register.

Eickholt's analog is Alec Busse and formerly Nick Osen. Eickholt is considerably more biased and more of an obvious fanboy than Busse, but Osen was very pro-Iowa State, albeit more professional than Eickholt, who considers himself a "sports personality".

Anyways, the general public has a really difficult time differentiating sources and the associated journalistic standards and editorial rigor.

I’ll amend my original comparison; compare Hines to Leistikow.
 
Hines seems to be a jerk most of the time.
He's one of the most smug ******** I've ever come across, and its funny because he thinks he's some big shot journalist when he's not. Back when I was in a school, I saw him before a game and kindly asked if a recruit was supposed to be visiting that game, and without looking up from his phone, smugly said "Read my article."

Another time, a few years ago actually, I was at a game waiting in line for that small bathroom at floor level at Hilton where Hines was a few people ahead of me in line. Can't remember who it was, but the TV commentator came up to the line and asked nicely if he could jump in front of someone as he had to go on air soon. Hines turned and looked at him, then just went back to looking at his phone. I let the guy jump in front of me.
 
He does say he likes Ward's dunking and Milan will be good in the future.

EDIT: these were his in-game tweets last night.

View attachment 122824
Now show his tweets during the first half when Iowa State was playing well and built a 12-24 pt lead……oh.

Honestly, at this point if I have other obligations and can’t watch on tv and I don’t see any tweets from him I assume we are playing well. At least Randy/CW/CF account will post score updates and some anecdotes so you can sort of feel how the game is going.
 
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He's one of the most smug ******** I've ever come across, and its funny because he thinks he's some big shot journalist when he's not. Back when I was in a school, I saw him before a game and kindly asked if a recruit was supposed to be visiting that game, and without looking up from his phone, smugly said "Read my article."

Another time, a few years ago actually, I was at a game waiting in line for that small bathroom at floor level at Hilton where Hines was a few people ahead of me in line. Can't remember who it was, but the TV commentator came up to the line and asked nicely if he could jump in front of someone as he had to go on air soon. Hines turned and looked at him, then just went back to looking at his phone. I let the guy jump in front of me.
Please tell me the recruit was Rashad Vaughn lol
 
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He's one of the most smug ******** I've ever come across, and its funny because he thinks he's some big shot journalist when he's not. Back when I was in a school, I saw him before a game and kindly asked if a recruit was supposed to be visiting that game, and without looking up from his phone, smugly said "Read my article."

Another time, a few years ago actually, I was at a game waiting in line for that small bathroom at floor level at Hilton where Hines was a few people ahead of me in line. Can't remember who it was, but the TV commentator came up to the line and asked nicely if he could jump in front of someone as he had to go on air soon. Hines turned and looked at him, then just went back to looking at his phone. I let the guy jump in front of me.
He's from Minneapolis! Makes him super cool.
 
He's one of the most smug ******** I've ever come across, and its funny because he thinks he's some big shot journalist when he's not. Back when I was in a school, I saw him before a game and kindly asked if a recruit was supposed to be visiting that game, and without looking up from his phone, smugly said "Read my article."

Another time, a few years ago actually, I was at a game waiting in line for that small bathroom at floor level at Hilton where Hines was a few people ahead of me in line. Can't remember who it was, but the TV commentator came up to the line and asked nicely if he could jump in front of someone as he had to go on air soon. Hines turned and looked at him, then just went back to looking at his phone. I let the guy jump in front of me.

Not to mention he tried to cause drama between Fred and Jamie.
 

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