Cleanup Common, Heavy When Quoting Raheem
June 26th, 2010
Joe’s inbox has been peppered lately with inquiries as to why Joe offers up different quotes for Raheem The Dream than those read in the mainstream media and on the Web-only, formerly environmentally unfriendly Pewter site.
Some readers are confused.Â
First, Joe must explain that the tenets of journalism allow for quotes to be “cleaned up” in order to help convey a clear message and/or to not to be used to make someone look bad through quoting misspoken words. So it’s considered perfectly acceptable to fix grammar and chop up quotes.
It happens all the time in news, sports and more.
Joe, however, uses a very gentle hand on Raheem The Dream’s quotes when transcribing them. Little is cleaned up when compared to others’ heavy touch.
Joe believes that as a leader of the organization, how Raheem The Dream delivers his message is nearly as important — and nearly as interesting — as the message itself. For example, historically the President of the United States is quoted without any editing beyond uhs and ums.
Frankly, some local publications use wide latitude to clean up Raheemspeak, far more than Joe thinks is acceptable. Joe gets that the head coach goes on some incredible rambles that need to be condensed for public consumption, especially inside a newspaper where space is an issue. But for the Internet, where space is a non-issue?
But Joe repeatedly has seen situations where Raheem’s words are sliced and diced to the point of creating a false impression of him and his message. And Joe has seen the same done for other Bucs coaches.
The next time Joe comes across a great example, he’s going to publish some side-by-side comparisons right here.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Joe,
Maybe we should get the paper media to also clean-up and translate Rah’s words and statements for his players – and the fans for that matter.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Statements may be cleaned up for press (print), but the internet also allows for video of press conferences. Hard to clean up the spoken word. If anyone wants to know what is said word for word, watch the press conference it came from.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Mention the name Morris and Thomas will be there to throw his (axe) two cents in. 🙂
If the Bucs were 13-3 last season, people would view Morris’ comments as charming or endearing. 3-13, not so much.
June 26th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Yes Jimbuc – his mumbling would be charming at 3-13, agreed. At 3-13 his mumbling sounds about as bothersome as thousands of vuvuzelas sounding off in the background of a soccer game.
It shouldnt be a shocker that coaches who succeed get away with more than those who fail embarrassingly.
BTW – communication skills are not far down the list of important qualities for a successful H.C. I coach I respect once said: coaches come generally in 2 forms: communicators and demonstrators. Communicators are Head Coaches and managers, demonstrators are assistant coaches. Rah, Marinelli, Monte etc were demonstrators, Dungy, Bellichick etc are communicators.
June 26th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
at 13-3
June 26th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Would that be “clean-up”, or just trying to interpret what Raheem is saying? I can understand the “interpret” because it’s hard to figure out what he’s saying when he gots on a roll.
June 26th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
i have a raheem to english dictionary if anyone needs help translating the blabber
June 26th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Well. Mr. Dream has admitted to having no direction last year.
Unfortunately, no one can really determine whether He knows what he is doing or not, as he was hired to implement the Glazer’s plan, not Rah’s plan. Actually, he was hred because they knew he would go along with whatever plan they wanted. More specifically, the money saving plan.
Left to develop his own plan, would he choose to go into the season with this receiving corp? Would he have passed on Marshall and Holmes? Would he have sacked Brooks in 09? Rookies across the board at key positions? Brought in Bates?
Who knows, but the man has been given Mission Impossible, and he aint Tom Cruise. His communication skills are obviously pathetic, but it must be said he can only play the cards he has been dealt.
At some point the cowardly Glazers will throw him under the bus. Hell, they have done that with far better coaches. Of course the dark hand of blame will never be pointed toward them, will it?
June 26th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Eric — your true (hater) colors are showing through. You said:
“Well. Mr. Dream has admitted to having no direction last year”
Think has actually siggested that he was still learning and had a clearer understading of the direction this year, not that he had NO DIRECTION last year. LOL. Here’s the actual quote:
In Year 2, you have a better sense of direction and where you should be,” Morris said. “Before you become a head coach, you just think you know what you should do and hope it’s right.”
That is a reasonable statement, but of course it is used by people like you as an “admission” of “no direction.”
June 27th, 2010 at 7:05 am
@jimbuc
If Raheem did not possess the knowledge or direction to be a head coach last year, how can one “assume” that the man that didn’t have that knowledge or direction be any more knowledgeable or better directed this year? Did he read “Coaching 101” to get this direction?
June 27th, 2010 at 8:00 am
In order for Raheem to become a better communicator he needs to take off his underwear, watch a couple of Baby Einstein and Hooked on Phonics videos, and put his face on some people.
June 27th, 2010 at 8:19 am
Tampa2 — maybe he took a class with Madoff?
June 27th, 2010 at 8:25 am
We do call him Mushmouth for a reason….
June 27th, 2010 at 10:00 am
@ tampa2
It’s called a year of experience at the position.
It’s like hiring a framer and telling him to build a whole house from the ground up. He may have an idea of how to build the house because he’s been working for builders for years, but when it comes to actually building the house there’s a lot more to it than he figured. Also (in this situation, the previous builder left him with seriously depleted level of skilled workers to build the house with). After the first house is built (and not very well), he moves on to the second house… this time with knowledge of things he didn’t know before and a few more skilled tradesmen to do the work. He has more insight and direction into completing the project than before due to the experience. The second house will be better than the first, and the third will be better than the second.
This is how one can say he’ll be better (or has more direction) in year 2. He’s “been there, done that” and knows better what to do or not to do.
June 27th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Why would anyone hire builder to build them a house with a non-experienced builder in the first place???
That’s the point! Great analogy bambam.
In the Bucs case, it is running a National League Franchise, with a 80-100 million dollar payroll, and revenue reliant on ticket sales, merchandise sales, et al.
Yeah, go with the inexperienced, and after watching him implode before our very eyes, let him have another crack at it.
Makes ALL of the SENSE in the WORLD.
June 27th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
RahDom…
The team obviously sees things in Morris that they like. It was obvious from the start he’d need to get more experience, but he had something they felt was worth it to let him learn. It’s called “on the job training” in some fields. Someone has a “talent” that could be beneficial, you hire them and let them learn the trade and incorporate their “skills” to end up with a better product. It doesn’t always work out, but when you are looking for a new direction, it’s sometimes a good plan.
It’s like a young artist. If you don’t give them the chance to paint or sculpt or whatever, you’ll never know if they’re good. If someone had told MichaelAngelo he was too inexperienced, we’d never have the Sistine Chapel. Take the paint away from Da Vinci because he’s too “raw” and you’d never have the Mona Lisa. Give the man a chance to see if he can find some way to incorporate whatever creative ideas the team found to be interesting enough to hire him, and we’ll know if he’s good or not. But don’t tear up the canvas after his first horrible year.
June 27th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Raheem Morris being the head coach of the Bucs feels like a blissful nightmare.