Was Greg Papa really fired by the Oakland Raiders? Did the Oakland Raiders really hire Brent Musburger to replace Papa? The rumor that Greg Papa was fired by the NFL Raiders was started by a little-seen Twitter tweet, then news of the possiblilty, though not confirmed. So, this vlogger thought it best to float the news of the rumor, since it was exactly that.
That started a list of media tweets and posts about what I reported, but none quoted this space. Then, another Twitter account named (drum roll please)….Fake Rudy Martzke (which was started in 2015 and was called Rudy Martzke until it was outed by the real Rudy Martzke and so became Fake Rudy Martzke) said to be just out of Kissimmee, Florida, which I doubt (the real sports media personality Rudy Martzke retired in 2017), issued this tweet….
Brent Musburger agreed to terms on a 2-year deal with Compass Media to call games on the radio for the entire football season for the Oakland Raiders. His first season will be in Oakland and then to Las Vegas to call Las Vegas Raider games on the radio.
— RudyMartzke2018 (@FakeRudyMartzke) July 17, 2018
And from that came a spray of articles jumping all over each other to report that while neither the Raiders, nor Greg Papa, or Brent Musburger, or his agent Todd Musburger, had said a thing about this, Brent Musburger was going to replace Papa, maybe. One publication I will not name went as far as having a headline that reported the news as fact, only to report that it was uncertain in the text of the article! And then another publication came up and quoted that media outlet. And other.
(And then some Facebook guy named Larry Turner, and not a Facebook friend to this blogger, pestered me that I should mention the publications reporting the unconfirmed news! That bullying really pissed me off!)
So, this blogger-not-a-journalist called KVVU Fox 5 Las Vegas, figuring that the Sin City television affiliate that has a contract with the Raiders would know the truth, and guess what I was told? That they too could not confirm the story, and that my approach of reporting the news as rumor was the way to go, which I knew already. It’s a good idea to be careful with this.
After all, as of right now, the Oakland Raiders website declares Greg Papa as the “Voice of the Raiders.”
The reason to be careful in reporting this is the whole media frenzy itself could have an impact on a deal that’s not at all confirmed or announced by the Oakland Raiders, Mr. Musberger, or Mr. Papa.
I know Brent Musberger issued this Twitter tweet…
VSiN says Raiders are 3-point underdogs in NFL opener vs. Rams. Always love a home dog.
— Brent Musburger (@brentmusburger) July 17, 2018
But the Twitter tweet says nothing about his future with the Raiders. I think it would be particularly hurtful for Brent to think he has a gig, only to find out he never really had it because of some careless media types. It would also be insulting to Greg Papa to think he was really out of the door, only to find that, at the end of the day, he wasn’t. What’s the rush, media? Let’s get it right. After all, we’re not talking about Russian spies, and if we were, you’d have to get that right, too. Chill out. Please.
The opera’s not over until The (once but not any more fat) Lady sings, and right now The Lady’s not ready to make an appearance, and she does wear Silver and Black.
Regardless of what Fake Rudy Martzke says.
Stay tuned.