Trade Deadline: Click Baiting & What Happened to Actually Reporting on News?

Sources: Yankees may deal Chapman to Cubs https://t.co/NJ6ED6uLvP the story is via @ESPNChiCubs Send your comments his way, he loves them

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) July 25, 2016

What the hell happened to actually reporting on the news? I’m sorry to start your Tuesday morning off with a rant but I feel like there is a lot of things I have to get off my chest right now and this is the best place for me to do so because I don’t want to be blocked by half of twitter or hated on by half my friends. What happened to actual journalism and why is click baiting so damn “necessary” in an era where news is always up to the minute and people are going to be reading anyway? It’s sickening and it’s why I got into blogging, not to change the world but to show people that it can be done the “right” way. 

On Sunday night I went on a bit of a sarcastic rampage because anyone and everyone was reporting what they “knew” about the potential Aroldis Chapman trade to the Chicago Cubs. Now I was on twitter when people like Chris Cotillo were still essentially “nobodies” in the grand scheme of things so I’m not knocking on people because they just own a blog or don’t have millions of followers but I saw people “breaking news” that had 36 and 46 followers citing “sources.” To complicate matters you then had real and true insiders citing these same “sources” with the vaguest titles or the most click baiting titles I have ever seen in my life. 

Andrew Marchand of ESPN “reported” that the Yankees “may” trade Chapman to the Chicago Cubs a good three-or-four hours into the whole debacle where names were being leaked and the trade was reportedly close. And of course they “may” trade him, they may not trade him as well. What’s your point? And where did the journalism in all these things go? Are there anymore journalists left in the world or are we as fans subject to the same recycled crap with a few words changed around for the rest of our reading lives? 

Twelve hours prior to the Yankees being “close” to trading Chapman to the Cubs these same “sources” and insiders had him going to the Washington Nationals. Six hours later they had him going to the Cleveland Indians. Then the Cubs. Do you guys actually believe anything that you write or is being first, whether it’s accurate or not, or does being first mean THAT much to you? What happened to integrity first? Come on guys you are better than this. I know it because I’m old enough to have seen it. Believe it or not you may get more clicks and more views, which I understand is what pays your bills, for being real than being a d-bag. Ask Robert Casey and his Bleeding Yankee Blue site who probably get more clicks per day than you do. Why? Because they are awesome and better yet they are ACCOUNTABLE. 

Oh and Cubs fans. You ought to be ashamed of yourself talking to Julie DiCario the way that you do. Shame the hell on you and I hope I’m around when karma comes back to bite you in the ass. Sad and pathetic little people. Rant over!