Face: the job of the media is to cover the team. The coach does not get to tell the media how to do their job. Unless the media also gets to tell the coach how to do his job.
If you don't like the way the media is covering the team, you have the right to not read, watch or listen to the media. You can also send letters, e-mails, etc to the media expressing your opinion.
But expecting or thinking that the media is going to adopt some common approach to covering the team is wishful thinking.
Each member of the media will cover the team as they (and their bosses) see fit.
I am not saying he "Tells the media" how to cover the team.
But how you interface with the media is going to affect the coverage you get.
PJ is already doing a very good job of this (I think that's putting this modestly). The amount of content he is producing that is positive for this program is wonderful.
By managing the media relations portion of the program a lot better, it will give Mark Coyle and Eric Kaler a lot less headaches and make their jobs a lot easier.
PJ is doing a great job of managing upwards through his chain of management where Coyle and Kaler barely need to say a word about the program.
The media can continue to be lazy, but the amount of positive news that is being created by Fleck is going to make any media-potshot (like Reusse's garbage) look lazy in comparison.
You know Reusse is just sitting waiting to let his next column rip as soon as we lose to Oregon St or whoever, and he's going to be all over it. But with the work PJ is doing being present just about everywhere, it cripples the ability for some ink-stained wretch the ability to lower PJ's credibility with a single column.
We all know that Reusse has PJ Fleck all primed for Turkey of the Year this year and it's not close at this point, and much of the media covering Gopher football has been as lazy in finding positive points because it's easier to be lazy.
The lazy columns write themselves after our first loss against whoever it will be. They write themselves just by reading the negative anti-Fleck comments on here. It takes a little work to actually get to know the players, realized they are treating girls with more respect, learning how to ask girls out, etc. But media personnel aren't always the hardest working people, especially in MN where we have so many sports teams, most of the columns write themselves.
