Bob Condotta and the Seattle Times' Angle

Ever since the infamous "Victory and Ruins" series that the Seattle Times published back in 2008, I have wholeheartedly shared the belief with many of my fellow loyal Husky fans that the newspaper has an alternate agenda. After a series like that, how could you not? I believe that their agenda is to diminish/destroy UW's past football successes, accentuate our relatively recent mediocre to bad seasons, and undermine current improvements/achievements to the UW football program. And I believe @ the heart of this agenda lies one Mr. Bob Condotta.

First off, let me say that I do feel Bob is fairly good @ what he does. There is always a steady stream of information about all things UW football and he does a solid job of keeping us informed. But c'mon, the guy is a Wazzu graduate! Could you imagine The Tuscaloosa News hiring an Auburn graduate to cover Alabama football?! No, me neither, because it would absolutely never happen. Bob is a master of being the Devil's Advocate and underscoring any/every UW achievement. What ever happened to guys like Blaine Newham, who gave it to us straight, without any angles? I have called Condotta on this in the past and he categorically denies that he is biased in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, he has implied that it is rather idiotic that myself, or anyone for that matter, would think he would be biased because of being a Cougar. Hmm. I don't believe him, primarily due to his comments, articles and overall tone: When a UW player receives an award, he is usually the last to report it on the blog; when UW has a big win, it's because the other team didn't perform well... he once argued with me on a chat that Beaver fans travel as well as Husky fans! Sure, Pal. Whatever you say.

For awhile, I could handle Condotta's smarmy, condescending tone. But lately, I just can't deal with reading his articles, chats, etc. He is so obviously biased to me, it's nauseating. It really came to a head after the AC disaster when he interviewed Sark. If you go back and watch the clip, Condotta was audibly so obviously excited that his Cougs had just pulled off the upset, that he was a blabbering moron, and could barely intelligibly ask the questions he was posing to Sark. And in the aftermath, Condotta has repeatedly brought up the AC with UW coaches, players, on the Husky Football Blog, etc., essentially rubbing it in our noses. I'm fucking over it.

But I have some questions for y'all that I hope will glean some information on this topic for me:

1) What is your opinion of my theory? Am I paranoid, delusional, all of the above?
2) Did something happen between the UW and Seattle Times that created bad blood?
3) Do you feel this agenda is negatively affecting the UW Football Program as a whole and making it more difficult for us to returning to the elite?
4) Do you think Bob realizes/recognizes his biases and just denies it because he knows the Seattle Times has his back or is it more of a subconscious deal?
5) Why couldn't ESPN have made our lives easier and hired Condotta instead of Ted Miller?

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Comments

TierbsHsotBoobs

Bob is a beat writer, not a columnist.

Now to answer your questions:
1. The Times hates good Husky football. Just look at how Kelley and Brewer have propped up Ty and Sark.
2. The Times wants to sell newspapers. No bad blood that I know about.
3. UW itself hates Husky football a lot more than the Times does. Just look at how Emmert firebombed the program and ran away.
4. Whatever bias he has is subconscious. There have been plenty of us to push Bob to rip the Huskies more than he does.
5. Fuck ESPN.

digits

Makes some sense, especially #5. So, what exactly is the difference between a beat writer and a columnist? I've never gotten a good explanation on that. Why would Emmert, a UW alum and then president of the UW, firebomb the program when his track record (i.e. Poaching Saban from MSU) @ LSU showed he understood the value of football to a university and publicly acknowledged that football is essentially "the front porch" to a university? What would his motive(s) be?

TierbsHsotBoobs

Emmert is a dumb motherfucker who got lucky with Saban.

digits

I would disagree with you considering his professional success, but then again, this is the same guy who hired Todd Turner, Ty, Woodward, so yeah. Todd Turner... talk about a dumb motherfucker. Wow. What's the scuttlebutt on Michael Young? Do you think he gets it and eventually replaces Woodward with his own guy, possibly AD Chris Hill from UU? I know we've approached him before...

MikeDamone

I heard Michael Young is a football president and gets it. Either that or he doesn't give a shit. I can't remember.

volcanodawg

BobC & the ST are the least of our concerns.

Fix the product on the field, everything else takes care of itself.

Global

The Times has been negative for over two decades. It was negative with the DJ stuff. It went hard after Lambo. It helped the NCAA to entrap Neuheisel (whatever you think of Rick and what he did, the NCAA was pretty stupid how it handled the whole thing, which is why they lost to Rick in court and were forced to settle for big money). It did the 2008 series. Etc. Some hometime rags support their local team; others get off attacking it. Seattle got the latter.

uzi

I don't read the Times enough to have an opinion on whether or not they have an agenda, but I knew one of their beat writers back in the early 90s... Tom Farrey. He is now with ESPN. (http://espnmediazone.com/us/bios/farrey_tom/)

He was covering the Sonics and the Seahawks, until the Sonics refused to allow him in their locker room after he wrote too many pieces that the Sonics thought were smearing the players (reporting DUIs, domestic violence cases, etc).

The paper then put him on the Huskies, and he broke the news about the Hobart loans that began the investigations into the program, uncovered the fruit baskets, and then James resigned. It was the LA Times that published the first story, but Farry co-wrote it as a Seattle Times reporter.

Farrey was a bit of a poindexter type that liked making a name for himself, exposing athletes and athletic "violations". Don James hated his guts. In my opinion Blethen (the Times owner) encouraged this behavior then, and probably still does today... Farrey wound up marrying Blethen's daughter.

AZDuck

Blaine Newnham is from Eugene.

loadsock

The Blethen family owns the Times and I believe they're die hard Sun Devil alums.

creepycoug

TL; DR

Don't respond to anyone who uses "y'all" with any degree of sincerity.

And you're whining about a non-issue. So the local rag hates the local football powerhouse. Welcome to big-time college football. About half the programs in 'Merica have the same relationship with their local rags.

I've called the whaaaambulance for you. It should be there any minute.

TTJ

This thread does not deliver.

PostGameOrangeSlices

strong bump

Meek

I never got why some of our group think bob c is so good myself. he works for a big paper whose job is to stir shit up and they always have an agenda... plus the fact that all the local media (papers/tv/radio) hire only non-UW people to cover the Huskies has been clear as day to me. In other words you get coogs covering UW (fail) and community college guys like fetters, softy, grinolds, eklund "covering" huskies... this is why I really like Petersen - he hates these fucking retards.

RoadDawg55

I never got why some of our group think bob c is so good myself. he works for a big paper whose job is to stir shit up and they always have an agenda... plus the fact that all the local media (papers/tv/radio) hire only non-UW people to cover the Huskies has been clear as day to me. In other words you get coogs covering UW (fail) and community college guys like fetters, softy, grinolds, eklund "covering" huskies... this is why I really like Petersen - he hates these fucking retards.

Bob is good because he actually works hard at his job. Look at his Seahawks blog. He covers practice and does both video and print interviews. Jude's lazy ass just sticks with the video's because he doesn't want to transcribe.

Condotta searches the web and posts relevant links and stories. Jude lazily does this. I don't care that Jude is a Duck or if Condotta hates the Husky. I don't need a UW grad to be covering the Huskies either. Condotta is a true professional and Jude is a lazy piece of shit.

Meek

obviously Jude is lazy but I don't read bob's seahawks blog b/c i couldn't care less about it, but my point isn't that bob can't write/blog/video record a lot but rather that he and the hacks he works with behind the scenes orchestrate the stories that will sell advertisements and what is his incentive to paint UW in a positive light? Not one raison why he wouldn't be part of the machine to create "holy shit" stories to get the community incensed!!!

Dennis_DeYoung

This thread is a waste of life.

topdawgnc

I'd rather drink bleach than read this shit.

LaZoris

We are just lucky Jood copy & pastes irrelevant shit at all.

PurpleJ

Pool Boy is a dumb motherfucker who got lucky with Pete (hopefully!).