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Florio Won't Go on WFNZ with Steve Smith

Harwood

By Harwood,
in Carolina Panthers

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Wither Newbie

Wither

Posted
Posted

Mac- "Steve Smith wants to talk to you Mike.."

Florio- "I'd talk with Smith, but I just don't want to do it on air.."

What a scared little bitch.

I'm guessing he said nothing smart and only dug a deeper grave for himself. If he was smart he would've played this off.

Darin is talking about it now. I just woke up and I missed the b*tch.

It will be up later I'm sure. There are some good quotes in the various Florio threads.

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MadHatter Rookie

MadHatter

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Florio more or less called Steve Smith a liar.

There is one thing that everyone knows about Smitty....if he has something to say, he will say it to your face. If he says something, he won't try and hide it.

Florio is an idiot....and everyone knows it.

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monstercat Newbie

monstercat

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You have to admit that this Florio asshole has a nice little game going. On the one hand, he does not have to play by the same rules as a real journalist when it comes to verifying whether something is actually true or not before he puts it out there. Then, he gets all indignant and starts talking about professionalism (like a real journalist) and protecting his sources if somebody calls his bluff. So basically, he never has to pay a penalty when he's wrong, and every once in a while he actually breaks a real story because he doesn't have to worry about those pesky little details like getting confirmation. And to top it all off, he probably gets even more hits on his web site when he is wrong about something. It's really a beautiful thing, so long as you have no integrity or morals.

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CatMan72 Enthusiast

CatMan72

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You know what, this really comes down to who you choose to believe.

I think Florio fabricated this story (it wouldn't be the first time) because he knows it would get a rise out of Smith and spawn another story instantly which would thrust him into the spotlight (the thing he craves most)... mission accomplished. If there was tension between Smitty and Clausen @ mini-camp, or Smitty really thought Clausen was a punk, Gantt or Chandler would have sensed it in watching him or speaking with him and they did not. The thing that really discredits Florio's "source" (aka his imagination) is the claim that Clausen was "barking out" orders to receivers and TE's at mini-camp. Folks like Gantt and Chandler were close enough that they would have picked up on that... heck I was close enough that I would have picked up on that and I barely saw Clausen say anything to anyone.

On top of all that, Smith has a long and well-established history of speaking his mind even when it's to his own detrement. If he really didn't like Clausen, he might not come right out and say it, but it would be pretty easy to read between the lines of his comments and figure it out. In any interview I've seen or heard with Smith, he has had nothing but positive things to say about Clausen, infact he took it upon himself to be the first Panther to jump to Clausen's defense when the media was accusing him of being cocky or arrogant - he didn't have to do that. If Smith didn't like Clausen, he wouldn't have engaged in the rookie hazing of having Clausen bring him Cactus Cooler, he would have ignored him. Hazing is an initiation into "the club", I played football and you didn't even bother hazing guys you decided you didn't like from day 1, because they were not worthy of your attention or the rite of passage that is hazing.

Smith is no angel, but he is a man of his word and if he didn't like Clausen you would know it. Florio may have gotten this information from a source and to be fair his site is labeled as "Rumors and News". The thing that bothered me most is when Smith refuted this rumor, Florio and others at PFT attacked his character and called him a liar. If you are going to post every rumor that comes to you, then you need to be a little more open-minded when the subject of the rumor tells you it's not true - that's the only fair way to walk the line between reporting rumors and news. If they were really ethical and responsible journalists, they would seperate rumors from news to acknowlege that what passes as a "rumor" does not meet the same standard as what passes as "news".

Back to the bottom line, this comes down to who you believe and taking everything into account that I know about Smith and Florio, it's pretty easy for me to choose to believe Smith.

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Mr. Scot Grand Master

Mr. Scot

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You have to admit that this Florio asshole has a nice little game going. On the one hand, he does not have to play by the same rules as a real journalist when it comes to verifying whether something is actually true or not before he puts it out there. Then, he gets all indignant and starts talking about professionalism (like a real journalist) and protecting his sources if somebody calls his bluff. So basically, he never has to pay a penalty when he's wrong, and every once in a while he actually breaks a real story because he doesn't have to worry about those pesky little details like getting confirmation. And to top it all off, he probably gets even more hits on his web site when he is wrong about something. It's really a beautiful thing, so long as you have no integrity or morals.

Sports media is way more fast and loose than standard media (though to be fair, that can be fairly fast and loose these days too).

It's worth remembering that Florio really isn't a journalist. He's a lawyer who happens to run a sports talk website that got picked up by a major player (NBC). He never went to school for journalism. He was never trained in how to properly fact check stories. And sometimes, it really shows.

(one of the big things he might have learned had he gone to school for journalism is that it's a bad idea to get into personal pissing contests with people you cover)

Florio's ideal role would be something similar to what Roger Cossack does with ESPN, i.e. a legal analyst. He'd be great there. His writing is pretty much dead on when he's covering anything related to a legal issue. But that's not what he wants to be. He wants to be a journalist, but as mentioned, he doesn't have the training for it.

Does he have legit NFL connections? Probably, or just as likely, he used to. But even if his connections were current, his site is way too adverserial to have the kind of relationship with teams that someone like a Jay Glazer or even a Chris Mortensen would have. Hence, he has to scrounge, and to say some of the sources he has are questionable would be an understatement.

Florio likes covering things with a smartass flair. That'll get you read, and it'll even get you cheered...as long as your target is the other team. When it's "my team" then you're a useless, no-talent, prick. What it'll also do is limit your accessibility, and in the process give you a short shelf-life. Florio might want to consider that, but I doubt he will.

Bottom Line: I think PFT has its place, but I don't think it's sustainable long term. And Florio's going to make it even shorter if, rather than accepting that maybe his info isn't always right, he continues to "stand by his sources".

As to this story, it likely has no merit. But Florio's a Steve Smith critic so he'll believe it, regardless. And now that he's been pushed on it, he'll just "stand by it" all that much harder, even if it winds up being to his own detriment.

Bad move :nonod:

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