Florio Owns Stroud!!

[swashbuccaler]

Per PFT:

JOURNALIST LEARNS THE REALITIES OF TWITTER

As most old-school journalists who reluctantly have embraced Twitter continue to wonder when the thing will start continuously flashing “12:00,� some of them might need 101-level training in the consequences of the content they post there.

It’s sort of like the Miranda warning.

Anything you say can and will be used against you.

Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times apparently doesn’t understand this.  As pointed out by our friends at JoeBucsFan.com, Stroud is miffed because people dared to assume that Stroud’s recent tweet regarding the Buccaneers’ potential interest in receiver Marvin Harrison reflected an accurate statement of Stroud’s information and belief.

Said Stroud on May 29, on his Twitter page:  “Hearing reports that Bucs might be interested in Marvin Harrison.â€Â�

The next day, Stroud backed off considerably, chastising those (including our own Aaron Wilson) who were sufficiently foolish to take Stroud’s prior comments to mean what they said.

“People, if I tweet something bout Marvin Harrison it’s agent-driven speculation,â€Â� Stroud said.  “If there’s news, I’ll post it on Tampabay.com.  K?  Sheesh.â€Â�

Rick, what the hell did you expect?  When you said you’re “[h]earing reportsâ€Â� that the team you cover on a regular basis might be interested in signing Marvin Harrison, there was no caveat.  If it was speculation, you should have said you were “[h]earing speculation.â€Â�

Or maybe you should have said nothing.

The other problem with Stroud’s position, as pointed out by JoeBucsFan.com, is that similar speculation-style comments have appeared under his name at Tampabay.com:  “Tampa Bay is considered by many NFL insiders to be a possible landing spot for [defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth].  And we’re not talking about media here.  We’re talking agents and people in front offices â€â€� those in the know.â€Â�

Bottom line?  Folks who write for a living should be able to craft words that properly convey their thoughts, regardless of the format.  If Stroud wanted to convey via Twitter the thought that agents are speculating that the Bucs might pursue Marvin Harrison, Stroud should have said it that way (in 140 characters or less).

In our view, Stroud has compounded his blunder by blaming the folks who reasonably assumed that he is able to say when he means.

Bottom line?  Until further notice, we should all assume that Stroud lacks this ability.

[FartMan]

The rest of the country is finding out what we've known for years.

[flyinbuc]

Silly Ho has taken Stroud's comment as the basis for a rant on how bad the FO is for persuing Harrison.

[FartMan]

I don't believe the Bucs have any interest in Marvin Harrison.

[BucFan9720]

PFT has been so bad this offseason. Not to say they arent bad during the regular season, but they are beyond fishing for news right now.

[swashbuccaler]

PFT has been so bad this offseason. Not to say they arent bad during the regular season, but they are beyond fishing for news right now.

I agree. Florio is just as much ignorant and pompus as Stroud. But it was still nice too see someone take him down.

[MoCheeks]

Florio and JoeBucsFan.com just moan all the time about other people's hard work. I don't get it, but I do read both sites every day. [banghead]

[mxs721]

So on top of giving sketchy info about Harrison, Stroud now wants to blame others for his bad info going worldwide?

[Simms2Clayton05]

I heard reports on it too from ESPN's John Clayton. That must of been where he heard the "reports" too. Still though I love it if any of our media members get bashed outside of Tampa. They deserve it cause they suck!

[The Q]

Florio over Stroud in a Steel Cage Match....I would take Florio. Stroud sucks at whatever is he is trying to do.
When Stroud Twits on Twitter, he even screws that up.

[swashbuccaler]

Florio over Stroud in a Steel Cage Match....I would take Florio. Stroud sucks at whatever is he is trying to do.
When Stroud Twits on Twitter, he even screws that up.

Haha, that would be one of the worst fights of all time.

[CyberDilemma]

Florio over Stroud in a Steel Cage Match....I would take Florio. Stroud sucks at whatever is he is trying to do.
When Stroud Twits on Twitter, he even screws that up.

Haha, that would be one of the worst fights of all time.

I beg to differ...I think this one would have it beat.....

http://www.pewterreport.com/forum/index.php?topic=37136.msg782756#msg782756

[The White Tiger]

I can't remember...did Dr Stroud cite a medical source when pondering why it was that Chris Simms wasn't able to throw the ball the way Dr Rick always remembered?

How about when he said that Gruden had lost the locker room, or that the people of Tampa were ready for a change?

I think we're figuring out the true source of Dr Stroud's inside information...

...he's quoting the voices inside his head.

[dbucfan]

There were no doctor's names provided

[HughC]

What did Stroud do to Florio?  Kick his dog?  Bed his wife?  Florio's acting like he has exclusive rights to presenting speculation about the NFL on the web.

I'm not a big fan of Stroud, but this is clearly a case of the pot calling the kettle black.  98% of PFT is "The Rumor Mill"; i.e., rumors - not facts.  Is Florio that upset that he repeated a rumor and it turned out not to be true?  Did Marvin Harrison haul him off to his car wash and let him know it wasn't true?

One thing that PFT excels at is gathering information, and publishing it to the web quickly - generally, much faster than any other source.  My guess - and this is pure speculation on my part Mr. Florio - is that Stroud was approached by PFT to send along inside information about the Bucs; in return, PFT would send info about the Bucs that he had gathered from his other sources.  Stroud either said no, or didn't hold up his end of the agreement - or, as in the case with Harrison, didn't make it clear to Florio that this was coming from an agent, and not somebody in the Bucs front office.  Florio felt like he had been back stabbed, so he threw Stroud under the bus.

Again, no proof on my part to the above comment; pure speculation by me.

In regards to Florio's comments about Haynesworth, that's a horrible example to use on his part.  Stroud commented that agents and front office people had commented that Haynesworth may end up with the Bucs.  Haynesworth signing elsewhere does not make what he said to be not true.

To look at it another way, how many times have John Clayton or Chris Mortenson said something to the effect of "Player X may be interested in going to play for Team Y", and then it doesn't happen?  If I had a dollar for every time that occurred, I could retire today.