I suppose it's just me.
I've gone around trying to make sure the comments that were taken out of BengalsZone didn't represent the fans thought wishing ill on Big Ben. Moreso, I made an effort to promote that the comments taken out of BengalsZone were twisted and taken out of context.
But in the end, it didn't matter. The judgements were made and it didn't matter that Cincinnati-based fans have NO say in this. Now Cincinnati personalities are crucifying the comments made by those fans without questioning the original article. I'm not naive to think that it was all clean, but how Cincinnati media is turning against the fanbase, without as much as asking the true nature of the comments or if they were even made, is beyond me. Did anyone else go and see?
Paul Daugherty writes:
Several people forwarded me this story from the pittsburgh paper and asked what I thought. I thought, "This doctor is right on.'' People who take time to write insane and anonymous junk like the stuff in this story deserve nothing but ridicule. A bad thing about this form of communication is, it allows snivelers to write whatever they please, without repercussion. You don't need a brain, fully formed or otherwise. You just need a laptop. It doesnt have to be accurate or fair or remotely compassionate. It just has to be. Good for this doc in Pittsburgh.Most in the comments section disagree with his assessment.
I'm not mad or sad or anything really. I just expected more support, or at least skepticism to the original article; not taking it as truth (Jayson Blair anyone?)
I just wish Paul, who I highly respect (well, did) and others would take a less than crucifying approach against these fans and stop generalizing and stop supporting the article.
I agree that vicious comments should be ridiculed; but the one's that were quoted in the Post-Gazette article weren't directed at Ben or the Steelers; just the few Steelers posters that did the same when Carson went down. But that doesn't matter. We already judged the guys at BengalsZone as bad guys.
Someone in the comments section even mentioned that a few fans of another team laughed at Tony Dungy's son dying or Ted Bruschi's stroke.
Bengals fans are NO more vicious than fans other teams but when both events above happened, there was ZERO ill-will to either on the boards. Is that an excuse? Of course not. But the Cincinnati media prejudging the comment's intentions and calling fans "embarrassing" is sad.
So is life. I won't comment on this anymore simply because it's fruitless and probably make us, those apart of message boards -- where fans actually have an uninterrupted voice -- look like bigger monsters; even if the original article wasn't challenged by our side of the media.
Like I said, maybe it's just me.
Update [2006-6-20 17:17:9 by Kirkendall]: On a seperate note, a site called BigBenSucks.com went up. Since the issue of prejudgement has come up in the Cincinnati media, let me say, I didn't create the site. Shoo. At least this fan won't get prejudged.