First it was Dave Williford in the NYT, opining on the statistical validity of the relationship between football wins and declining grades. Now Willamette Week is asking why public money is paying for Duck flack Rob Moseley to report on spring practice – which they’ve closed to real sports reporters. I’m thinking that “Around the O’s” dissembling report on the recent UO Board meeting is a bigger problem, but that’s just me. Locanthi seems to have hit a nerve, judging by Moseley’s defensive tweets:
@I_am_orange I’m far from the only former RG reporter who took a job at UO in the last 2-3 years. Perhaps just the most prominent.
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 2, 2014
Moseley is defensive most of the time, so that angle offers limited explanation. The reality is that UO sought to capture his blog audience at the RG’s expense when the RG opted for paid views, including blogs. Both thought they had readers by the short hairs and both lost out. Results: bloggers took a page from the Chipster and innovated, migrating to contented shelter elsewhere. Where Moseley had some excellent journalistic legitimacy in the past, he now has very little.
Always a classy move to describe yourself as “prominent”.