37 minutes ago, bearpants said:

I would be more excited about this if Ed was covering the Bombers full time for an independent source... while I look forward to reading his opinion/editorials, you have to imagine his bias will be towards the team...

Yeah the more I thought about it....*gasp* he better not turn into another Roddy P....

(The latest there, of course, is that Pedersen is taking issue with Mike Reilly taking issue with Rod's predictions of Riders 1st in West and Eskies 4th. I'm thinking he was hoping players league-wide would simply revel in his insightful, and of course unbiased, predictions)

I am concerned that Tait is our version of Rod, but I know that Ed is far less of a tool, as a person, so there is that... 

This clearly turns into " remember who signs your cheque". How can there be any other expectation? It will be a more polished version of Darren Cameron's blog. So be it. Eddy is a great guy who still has to feed his family. Good luck to him.

17 hours ago, iso_55 said:

The newspaper business is dying in Canada due to the assholes at Post Media. I can see why Ed left before he was laid off.

Post Media is reporting staggering quarterly losses and print media in general is circling the drain.  Most people are not willing to pay for on-line news, the next couple of years will be interesting to see what evolves.

This is interesting.  Wasn't Jeff Hamilton running a blog?

 

 

✔ ‎@PaulWiecek

Give my colleague @jeffkhamilton a follow. You're going to be seeing a lot of his fine work in the Freep in the days, months and years ahead

No, Jeff has been at the Free Press for awhile now.  He used to be with CBC.  His stuff is pretty good.  I think he is more of a hockey guy but this is Canada... So most people are.

I'm happy for him and the Bombers but I'm sad for us (the readers).

He provided some of the most thoughtful, balanced coverage of the Bombers and Jets.

He's in the  Hall of Fame, let's not forget.

I wonder what a gig like this pays. What does he do all winter?  Should make a deal with the Jets to share him. 

Quote

A NEW CHAPTER STARTS TODAY - ed tait

Earlier this week the Canadian Football League and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers alumni lost a good one when Tom Muecke passed away from an apparent heart attack.

The news was big enough to warrant an Associated Press report and separate stories from several Texas-based media outlets. And, if you knew the man, you know why. Not only was the former Bomber quarterback a star at Baylor where he’s in the school’s hall of fame, he was an engaging and friendly sort who was always first to stick out his hand as a welcome whenever anyone crossed paths with him.

He was also the very first Blue Bomber I ever interviewed in what has become a long association with the football club.

Looking back, I don’t recall the questions I asked that day many, many moons ago, but I do remember being extremely nervous before he helped bring down my anxiety levels substantially just by cooperative and respectful of my job.

So for that, allow me – along with thousands of others – to say, ‘Rest in Peace, Tom Muecke.’

The news struck me for another reason, too. Today, after 29 years in the newspaper biz I begin a new chapter in my dealings with the Blue Bombers as their new Director of Content. Truthfully, we’re not sure if that’s the right title or not, but the gig will essentially have me covering the team, home and away, in the midst of a January freeze to the scorching heat of the summer — just like I used to for the Winnipeg Free Press and Winnipeg Sun. I’ll also be working with the superb web team already in place to make sure bluebombers.com becomes the go-to site for all things Bomber-related.

Now, admittedly this has all come together so fast we really don’t have a playbook yet and even when training camp starts in a few weeks, I’m sure we’ll still be drawing up ideas in the palms of our hand just before the huddle breaks, so to speak.

But the Muecke news also had me doing a little nostalgia trip, trying to recall all the Bomber quarterbacks I have interviewed over the years. Guys like Dieter Brock, Don Jonas, Tom Clements and the legendary Ken Ploen for hall-of-fame stories, to Tom Burgess, Matt Dunigan, Khari Jones, Kevin Glenn, Drew Willy and everyone in between as a beat writer and columnist.

There’s been hundreds of others, too, from football-operations types like Cal Murphy, Mike Riley, Lyle Bauer (both as a player and as the big boss), Dave Ritchie, Brendan Taman, Mike Kelly, Doug Berry, Jeff Reinebold to hall of famers like Chris Walby, Milt Stegall, Charles Roberts, Doug Brown, James West, Tyrone Jones… really, too many to mention here.

Yours truly has been lucky enough to chronicle the last Grey Cup title in these parts – my first year as the full-time beat writer – as well as those dark days when the franchise was struggling for survival at the turn of the millennium to today’s struggles to get back in the playoffs.

I’ve long said writing about this team has been like chronicling Winnipeg’s longest soap opera. Good times and bad, it’s never been dull.

That will continue now, just with me now working under the Blue Bomber brand.

Cheers

http://www.bluebombers.com/2016/04/29/187924/

The website should make a deal to make this forum the official bombers forum with the current regime in charge of moderation rules. Yeah I guess that wouldn't work but the insight offered here by some of you smart guys is the best coverage of the team by anyone. 

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

The website should make a deal to make this forum the official bombers forum with the current regime in charge of moderation rules. Yeah I guess that wouldn't work but the insight offered here by some of you smart guys is the best coverage of the team by anyone. 

tep might have a problem with this idea lol.

 

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

The website should make a deal to make this forum the official bombers forum with the current regime in charge of moderation rules. Yeah I guess that wouldn't work but the insight offered here by some of you smart guys is the best coverage of the team by anyone. 

7 hours ago, IC Khari said:

Nope.

3 hours ago, Dee Urban Hermit said:

Nope.

Not even remote..

On ‎4‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 9:06 AM, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Post Media is reporting staggering quarterly losses and print media in general is circling the drain.  Most people are not willing to pay for on-line news, the next couple of years will be interesting to see what evolves.

I don't live in Winnipeg so why should I pay for the Freep's online service to read stories? Only Canadian newspaper to do so as far as I can see. The Freep can shove it.

I think we like being an alternative to the "official" forum. That being said, my own personal opinion is that I'd be curious about Tait's approach to dealing with a forum like this one seen as how he's posted here before.

The official site, plus the Blue Bomber site are going to have to raise the bar, big time, in order to provide the coverage necessary to meet the standards set by Ed Tait, in my opinion. That site should be the leader in all things Blue Bomberish. Instead, this site, and many posters break stories long before 'official word'. I can see this happening once in a while. But this is the norm. Maybe, we can see a livening up of the official site..because it's become dated.

I hope we would never become the "official" site.  TEP was ok, but they seemed to have some unwritten rules about certain posters.  If you were one of those, you could pretty much say anything you wanted and those who disagreed and had the audacity to say so got censored.  I find the moderation here to be much more even handed and for the most part, the best posters on TEP are here too (with the exception of GBill, the greatest poster of the last two millennia), so those of us that lurk here don't miss out.

So thanks everyone, I enjoy the info and the discourse.

Edited April 30, 20169 yr by WBBFanWest

I spent some time over at TEP recently, and had forgotten just how awful it is. Looks awful, operates worse. 

2 hours ago, Mike said:

I think we like being an alternative to the "official" forum. That being said, my own personal opinion is that I'd be curious about Tait's approach to dealing with a forum like this one seen as how he's posted here before.

I would hazard a guess & say he'll never post here anymore. 

55 minutes ago, Noeller said:

I spent some time over at TEP recently, and had forgotten just how awful it is. Looks awful, operates worse. 

What is TEP?

If I worked for the Bombers or the Freep, and read some of the insights here, especially some of the details of training camp and games, I;d be asking those posters to provide those reports "officially".  We usually end up complaining every year when the reporters at training camp tweet about everything but the players and events on the field and seem to relish in being paid to sit around all day while fans here attend and provide much more insightful reports.

Although it reminds me of when the owner of Jetsowner forum took a deal to work for the Freep and as part of the deal he had to kill Jetsowner and ask everyone to join the Freep's official Jets forum.  Went over like a lead balloon.  I don't even know if the Freep has a Jets forum anymore but I do know the Jetsowner owner wasn't kept on staff for very long.  

16 minutes ago, iso_55 said:

What is TEP?

Bombers official message board. The Extra Point.... 

• I go there but not a lot. Looks like Aardvark kind of drinks the blue & gold kool aid & fights anyone who says even a slightly negative thing about the team over there. My biggest complaint is I periodically get kicked out of the site then when I go to Log In it in doesn't recognize my user name which is the same there as it is here. So I can't Log In. Then I need someone like Jacquie here to help me contact the admin over there to straighten it all out. Just a real inconvenience. Happens over & over. I've asked their admin to fix it but they never do. How can the program not recognize my user name when I use it on their site?

39 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Bombers official message board. The Extra Point.... 

Thanks.