Clearing the Finebaum air

[Kaos]

Yesterday much angst and anger was voiced on Paul's show about an alleged reaction to a woman who called on Tuesday and relayed her story about wanting an autograph from Nick Saban.  The woman said she had stomach cancer and might not live to the end of the year. 

If so, that's a sad thing.  But there's so much about this entire episode that reeks of manipulation that there are questions that must be asked. 

To be clear, this is not an indictment of the caller or intended to disregard her alleged plight, this is more about the callousness and duplicity of Finebaum using her story to create spin. 

What happened:

1) On Wednesday's show the woman with cancer, 38-year old Tracy, called back.  She is a Bama fan and had used part of her Tuesday call to express hatred for Auburn.  Wednesday she claimed that her 20-year old daughter had gotten an email from someone who "wished Tracy would die so there would be one less Bama fan."  She claimed the email ended with the words War Eagle.

2) Finebaum expressed disgust and outrage but was careful to paint the alleged emailer as one of the lunatic fringe and not representative of Auburn fans as a whole.  Why? 

3) The remainder of the show was consumed by enraged callers cursing and threatening the alleged emailer with "ass whoopins" 

4) Later in the show accused Toomer's poisoner Harvey Updyke called in (again) and for the first time tearfully apologized to the Auburn fanbase "for what he done" without ever specifying exactly what it was. 

5) For the first time Finebaum reacted harshly to Updyke.  In all of Harvey's other appearances Finebaum pandered to him or his lawyer. 

What doesn't fit:

1) In her Tuesday call, the woman with cancer identified herself only as Tracy and gave a city.  How could anyone ascertain her last name, her daughter's name or her daughter's email address from that information?
That question was ignored in the rush to melt down.

2) Email addresses aren't like anonymous notes that show up pinned to your door or stuck in your mailbox.  There's a digital signature and you can reply.  So why did Tracy lament that the author "didn't sign it?"

3) Why could this woman not get an autograph from Saban?  Every catfish shack and service station within 150 miles of Tuscaloosa has one.  One phone call to the athletic department got half a dozen autographed photos sent to a friend of mine who was putting on a golf tournament -- they arrived within three days of the request.  Who's really callous here?  A phantom emailer or an athletic department that didn't grant an autograph request?  Or did she ever ask for one?  Why call Finebaum and complain about not having one after giving voice to her hatred of Auburn?

4) If you start your call with hating Auburn and end with "hoping you live long enough to watch Bammer beat Auburn's ASS" can you really claim the moral high ground of a sympathetic figure?  Shouldn't there be more important things in your life?

5) The timing of Updyke's call is too convenient to be coincidence.
Some crazy lunatic emailed a sick person.  Some crazy lunatic poisoned some trees.  These are just two isolated, incidents.  Two similarly people.  Updyke and the emailer are equals, linked by a singular obsession. All fanbases have these kind of crazies. Let's not throw stones.  Let's just recognize that there are nut cases on both sides.  Can't we all get along?  Can't we all forgive? 

6) Why did Finebaum go hard on Harvey this time?  To prove that he is equally aggrieved by both Harvey and the alleged emailer. 

7) Pay attention to the bumper music. 
When talking to and about Tracy, Finebaum spun "Don't Fear the Reaper."  Seriously?   He wants to rant and rave about people disregarding human decency and he's subliminally mocking a woman with cancer by playing that song?

In the segment before Updyke's "surprise" appearance, Finebaum's bumper music is by Rush.  The song?  The Trees.   Probably 95% of his listening audience didn't catch that subtle reference because the song a little obscure and from 1978 -- before most of his listeners were born. 



I'd settle for a rational, logical explanation of how some anonymous stranger who didn't sign his email managed to dive into the Internet and ferret out a last name, daughter's name and email address based on nothing more than a rather common first name and a city.   I'm willing to bet the daughter does not have the same last name as the mother which would make the feat even more amazing.   Fucking Kreskin couldn't do it. 

[GH2001]

You are actually questioning if this is all contrived? Everything on that damn show is. Like Chad said, its freaking professional wrestling. All staged for the same results Travis and Brooks aim for - ratings.

K, do yourself a great service and stop listening to the assclown. Your anger level will go down instantly. Those idiots aren't even worth my time.

[Kaos]

You are actually questioning if this is all contrived? Everything on that damn show is. Like Chad said, its freaking professional wrestling. All staged for the same results Travis and Brooks aim for - ratings.

K, do yourself a great service and stop listening to the assclown. Your anger level will go down instantly. Those idiots aren't even worth my time.

I quit being mad a long time ago. 

[Townhallsavoy]

You are actually questioning if this is all contrived? Everything on that damn show is. Like Chad said, its freaking professional wrestling. All staged for the same results Travis and Brooks aim for - ratings.

K, do yourself a great service and stop listening to the assclown. Your anger level will go down instantly. Those idiots aren't even worth my time.

I don't think it's about anger.  It's more about someone responding to his bullshit. 

No one confronts Finebaum.  In fact, people love it.  People like Herbstreit, Pat Dye, Stallings, Danielson, Tracy Wolfe, Cecil Hurt, Bobby Bowden, ESPN's OTL, and any of the other big name people frequenting the show as a guest. 

Finebaum's ratings are through the roof whether we want to believe it or not. 

And now he's national. 

While the majority of people may not listen to him, a good amount do.  And that means a good amount of people believe Auburn fans are just as despicable as Alabama fans.  That Auburn fans (he did nothing of note to quell the anger towards Auburn fans as a whole) are capable of telling a little girl (who was 20) that her mother should die of cancer because she's a Bama fan. 

[GH2001]

Finebaum's ratings are through the roof whether we want to believe it or not. 

Yes, I know. That's the problem. Anyone who listens contributes to that.

[Kaos]

Yes, I know. That's the problem. Anyone who listens contributes to that.

^^

Not true.

Ratings aren't determined by actual listeners.  They're determined by how many people SAY they're listening in a survey. 

They don't have a chip on your car or house radio that beams back exactly what you're listening to all the time. 

So unless you're part of the survey pool, you can safely listen to Finebaum or anything else and have zero impact on the ratings.

[AUChizad]

Let's say someone was able to find this woman's daughter based on a first name she gave as a caller (which could easily not be her real name). Are we really to believe that anyone, I'm talking Prowler, or hell, Harvey Updyke, would go through that amount of trouble just to basically tell someone dying of terminal cancer to fuck themselves?

[Saniflush]

Let's say someone was able to find this woman's daughter based on a first name she gave as a caller (which could easily not be her real name). Are we really to believe that anyone, I'm talking Prowler, or hell, Harvey Updyke, would go through that amount of trouble just to basically tell someone dying of terminal cancer to fuck themselves?

Only if it's Shane.


And correct me if I am wrong but you cannot claim to be sorry if you never admit that you did it in the first place.  To my knowledge he has never plead guilty.  Until he does the point is moot.

[GH2001]

And correct me if I am wrong but you cannot claim to be sorry if you never admit that you did it in the first place.  To my knowledge he has never plead guilty.  Until he does the point is moot.

I like what you did there.

[JR4AU]

  is the forgiving business, ask him Updyke.

[JR4AU]

There was another caller yesterday that sounded too much like a set up for Finebaum.  The guy called in from Georgia claiming his daughter couldn't gain admittance to UGA, blaming the Hope Scholarship.  I suspect she's probably just a dumbass.  The guy says, so we set out to find her another SEC school to attend, and I did it without any bias at all?  Really, you wanted her to go to UGA, and since she couldn't get in, the next most important thing is that it be an SEC school?  Said they visited Auburn and Alabama on the same weekend.  From there he made a point to talk about how ugly and treeless the Auburn campus was, and how beautiful Tuscaloosa was.  Noted that the only 2 trees in Auburn were the Toomer's Oaks, and pointed out all the great, ornate architecture on Alabama's campus.  The guy was simply ranting about how ugly Auburn is, and how beautiful bammer's campus is.  Set up for Finebaum to tell him he was basically full of shit, and that Auburn is a beautiful campus, blah, blah, blah.

[Snaggletiger]

I have no clue what kind of ratings his show actually gets.  He has his loyal followers and there's a particular segment of society that gets off on it.  Hell, I like the WWE.  We all have our quirks.  But a couple of things have occurred to me since I turned him off just before this season's opening kickoff.  The only person I've heard mention his name in the last 5 weeks is my father in law, who can't quit him, and what's said on this board.  Otherwise, I haven't heard one solitary soul say anything about him. Haven't overheard any conversations about him or what he has to say.

The show is what it is...aiight?  But I think Paul tries to make himself out to be far more important and influential than he really is.  He comes on ESPN occasionally and we get all up in arms because we know what a dweeb he is and all about his agenda.  But think about it.  Isn't he nothing more than 1 in a hundred talking heads that ESPN parades by us to fill airspace?  Is anybody really listening to what he or Dan Skadaddleweikz-inator from the Chicago Tribune or Boston Globe have to say?  Does he really have any effect on anyone or anything?  ESPN has the Sunday show Sports Reporters hosted by racist John Saunders and they supposedly have this panel of well repected, big time reporters.  Bottom line, nobody gives two farts in a basket what they have to say.  Interesting to listen to at the time but who remembers or cares 10 minutes later? 

Now that I've turned the guy off, the focus is more on foosballz than worrying about what some bald headed waste of sperm or the same looney tune callers have to say on the radio.   

[AU_Tiger_2000]

I have no clue what kind of ratings his show actually gets.  He has his loyal followers and there's a particular segment of society that gets off on it.  Hell, I like the WWE.  We all have our quirks.  But a couple of things have occurred to me since I turned him off just before this season's opening kickoff.  The only person I've heard mention his name in the last 5 weeks is my father in law, who can't quit him, and what's said on this board.  Otherwise, I haven't heard one solitary soul say anything about him. Haven't overheard any conversations about him or what he has to say.

The show is what it is...aiight?  But I think Paul tries to make himself out to be far more important and influential than he really is.  He comes on ESPN occasionally and we get all up in arms because we know what a dweeb he is and all about his agenda.  But think about it.  Isn't he nothing more than 1 in a hundred talking heads that ESPN parades by us to fill airspace?  Is anybody really listening to what he or Dan Skadaddleweikz-inator from the Chicago Tribune or Boston Globe have to say?  Does he really have any effect on anyone or anything?  ESPN has the Sunday show Sports Reporters hosted by racist John Saunders and they supposedly have this panel of well repected, big time reporters.  Bottom line, nobody gives two farts in a basket what they have to say.  Interesting to listen to at the time but who remembers or cares 10 minutes later? 

Now that I've turned the guy off, the focus is more on foosballz than worrying about what some bald headed waste of sperm or the same looney tune callers have to say on the radio.   

[GH2001]

I think Paul tries to make himself out to be far more important and influential than he really is. 

This is evidenced by the shameless plug about some paper calling him "the most influential media member in the SEC" every time his show comes back from a break. Of course I haven't listened to him in 9 months, so he may not do that anymore.

[GH2001]

There was another caller yesterday that sounded too much like a set up for Finebaum.  The guy called in from Georgia claiming his daughter couldn't gain admittance to UGA, blaming the Hope Scholarship.  I suspect she's probably just a dumbass.  The guy says, so we set out to find her another SEC school to attend, and I did it without any bias at all?  Really, you wanted her to go to UGA, and since she couldn't get in, the next most important thing is that it be an SEC school?  Said they visited Auburn and Alabama on the same weekend.  From there he made a point to talk about how ugly and treeless the Auburn campus was, and how beautiful Tuscaloosa was.  Noted that the only 2 trees in Auburn were the Toomer's Oaks, and pointed out all the great, ornate architecture on Alabama's campus.  The guy was simply ranting about how ugly Auburn is, and how beautiful bammer's campus is.  Set up for Finebaum to tell him he was basically full of shit, and that Auburn is a beautiful campus, blah, blah, blah.

Had to have been a setup...and saying this objectively, anyone who has been to both campuses would never say this without actually LYING.

Cue the Google earth shots of both cities please....someone.

[AUChizad]

http://theauburner.com/mark_deargoogle.html

[GH2001]

Tuscaloosa also has one of the highest smog indexes in the country. Which may explain the murky photo.

[Catphish Tilly]

As fate or folly would have it, I recently met a very inebriated and therefore very chatty individual with ties to the PFRN.  The discussion was brief, as the LSU game had reached its conclusion, the whiskey had ran dry and there were skirts to be ogled downtown but to sit face-to-face and hear it directly from the source was certainly eye opening.  Not shocking but eye opening.  I realize no one here needs me to reiterate the fact there is a bias at work there but I am here to tell you that the agenda is a real one.

[JR4AU]

As fate or folly would have it, I recently met a very inebriated and therefore very chatty individual with ties to the PFRN.  The discussion was brief, as the LSU game had reached its conclusion, the whiskey had ran dry and there were skirts to be ogled downtown but to sit face-to-face and hear it directly from the source was certainly eye opening.  Not shocking but eye opening.  I realize no one here needs me to reiterate the fact there is a bias at work there but I am here to tell you that the agenda is a real one.

I notice you didn't say a friend.  So, since this individual is clearly a piece of shit...out his ass! 

[GH2001]

As fate or folly would have it, I recently met a very inebriated and therefore very chatty individual with ties to the PFRN.  The discussion was brief, as the LSU game had reached its conclusion, the whiskey had ran dry and there were skirts to be ogled downtown but to sit face-to-face and hear it directly from the source was certainly eye opening.  Not shocking but eye opening.  I realize no one here needs me to reiterate the fact there is a bias at work there but I am here to tell you that the agenda is a real one.

You don't say much friend but when you do its to the point and I salute you.



Quality post.