News You Can't Use

A growing trend in the mainstream media is “news you can use.” You know, stuff like how to maintain the psychological health of your cat, how to figure out if Coca Cola is bad for you by reading the nutrition label, etc. Thus, Raider Take is inspired to launch an irregular (and irreverent) series called “News You Can’t Use.” If you’ve read my earlier posts, such as this and this, you probably saw it coming. These entries are not intended as personal attacks on journalists, but rather to promote fairness, accuracy and intellectual rigor in media coverage of the Oakland Raiders and related topics. After all, it's bloggers who are eroding journalistic standards, right?

Let’s start things off with the following snippet from this article in the San Jose Mercury News: “On paper, the Raiders' running numbers are not much worse than a year ago. After five games in 2004, the Raiders were averaging 102 yards per game. In 2005, they are averaging 71. The difference is, new running back LaMont Jordan has not been the major threat he was expected to be. He's averaging just 3.6 yards per carry.”

Since when is a 30 percent drop in production “not much worse"? I'll tell you what, you give me 102 dollars, and I'll give you 71, and we'll call it even.

And that, Raiders fans, is news you can’t use. If you see anything out there that you think qualifies as News You Can't Use, please feel free email me at raidertake@yahoo.com or just post it in the comments section.