…in his ending comments about three reasons “The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville” has suddenly become mandatory in every Sports Artices in today’s paper.
Strike One: He proves himself to be lying when it says “it is not new” and then states that numerous comments have been coming in “in the last months.” If it wasn’t “new” there would not be the uproar just in the last few months.
Strike Two: He says that adding Fayetteville was a policy made long ago when the Demozette became the only statewide newspaper and decided “they could do anything they wanted and there was nothing anyone could do since there was, then, no other option for their readers.” The words in quotes are my “interpretation” but they are accurate. This is a strike because that “policy” was ignored for many years and there is an unstated reason it suddenly, in the last few months, became mandatory.
Strike Three: He claims it is just “for clarity.” This is such a blatant lie it is ridiculous. Arkansas State University does not have Jonesboro stuck on the end of it and there are multiple campuses for that institution in their Demozette articles. Article after article ignores that obsession for clarification for the University of Alabama, University of Tennessee, University of North Carolina, etc. etc. while, in the same article, sticking a city only onto the end of The University of Arkansas. When the article is about the SEC Baseball Tournament, no one in the world is going to mistakenly assume that UALR, UAPB, or UAM have suddenly joined the SEC and a clarification is needed to prevent that possible “miscommunication.” :roll:
Just say “they made me do it and I can’t tell the real reason” Wally, you liar!
Thank you. I am not a Wally fan at all but he is not stupid. I wonder if he pretended to “take one for the team” knowing the things he is allowed to say would be so obviously lame. His little “explanation” will not make this issue go away. It almost kicks up another notch. Maybe that was his intent while pretending to be a good obedient employee?
My theory is the UALR folks got all mad that they couldn’t be called “Little Rock” instead of Yuler so they complained that “The University of Arkansas” should not get away with leaving off Fayetteville. Some “Legend in Their Own Mind” editor or owner at the Demozette said fine, go back to adding Fayetteville to all University of Arkansas articles (which means mostly sports) and use University of Arkansas, Little Rock for all UALR articles.
Folks, Wally and the ADG are going to stick it to the University of Ark and the Razorback athletic department any chance they get. They like the newspaper sales from them, but will never miss an opportunity to report the negative or make them look bad.
What would be their motive to do such a thing? What financial incentive is there to make the UA look bad and in turn upset their fans, which is the vast majority of their customers?
Sorry, but I don’t think there is any doubt they are doing this with malice. I know they have received a huge amount of complaints, including from me, but they have chosen to disregard the complaints. Even if there was any credence to the UALR thing, that just means they are “cow towing” to them while sticking it to the U of A.
I’ve been an annual paying member of Hawgs Illustrated since the late '90s, but I’ve finally made the decision that I will not renew my annual subscription in August. I hate to give up the information and articles from Clay and Dudley as they have been terrific over the last 19-20 years. I just cannot bring myself to pay $100 to a company that is intentionally “taking a shot” at the Hogs in every sports article they publish on line or in print.
The only way I will let my membership renew is if they have ceased forcing the “U of A, Fayetteville” in all their sports articles by the end of July. When I tell them next week to delete the “automatic renewal” on my account on August 5th, I will tell them exactly why, not that it will make any difference to them.
I’m tempted to do the same thing. I am a member of multiple sites, it’s obvious they are thumbing their editorial noses at Hog fans. I appreciate all the writers here and the HI staff but the only word I have here is my money. Money talks
Well said. I read that column and thought the same thing. His “reasons” for this addition of “Fayetteville” doesn’t pass the smell test. You’re correct to point out that all these international readers apparently aren’t confused with omitting “Knoxville” or “Tuscaloosa” from ADG articles. Besides, I’m just not sure anyone in India, Burma, or Poland who has suddenly become an ADG reader is apt to be confused about the Razorbacks. I sorta doubt too many native Berliners are reading the ADG sports pages, anyway.
Trying to look at this somewhat objectively, my question is simply why is it suddenly in almost every single article about the Hogs? I can kind of understand if there was an article on the tennis team or a sport that is seldom written about or discussed on the boards. However, when Richard is writing about Hog recruiting or Nate is writing the headline story about us losing at Baum Stadium in the seventh game of the Regional, why is it necessary to pound the phrase in our face again and again? It actually begins to fit into the corner of bad journalism. I believe this is why some people are questioning Wally’s sincerity (or honesty). He had already concluded his editorial and threw in a small last paragraph “explaining” the sports section’s reason for saturating the articles with this new reference. This was not his opinion so much as it was a short explanation of the “facts” for the sudden change. Anyway, if journalists don’t want to use it, readers don’t like it, it’s totally unnecessary in most articles, why has the ADG owners dug their heels in on this one?
Definitely looks like bad journalism. And, unfortunately when it’s “crammed” into an article in a nonsensical place, it makes the poor writer seem like a hack. An example:
“FAYETTEVILLE: – Growing up in Fayetteville, Grant Koch watched Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks pile up winning season after winning season.”
“In 2016, the freshman Koch finally got to play for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and it turned out to be the only clunker in Van Horn’s career.”
The opening line has Fayetteville written twice and Razorbacks once. The very next sentence, the word Fayetteville appears a third time. That makes Nate Allen, who didn’t want it inserted there, look like a novice writer. It would have been impossible for any reader, anywhere, to not know exactly where the University of Arkansas is located without inserting “Fayetteville” a 3rd time in 2 sentences. I actually feel sorry for the poor writers who put their names on articles like this when they never would have written it that way on their own.
