News You Can't Use

Well, it's time to dust off News You Can't Use, thanks to this hit piece on Mark Davis.

Titled "Raiders owner Mark Davis is in over his head," this piece is a series of mental leaps designed to arrive at a predetermined conclusion, but it ultimately fails to reach its destination due to numerous dead ends of faulty logic and assumption.

The author begins by quoting anonymous sources who tell stories of Mark Davis being openly belittled by his father Al Davis in front of Raiders staff. The author uses these stories to delve into all sorts of Freudian-style analysis, suggesting that this is the reason why Mark, not McKenzie (despite McKenzie's own words), fired Hue Jackson.

Essentially, the author declares that Mark Davis wants to rid the organization of anyone who saw him belittled by his father, which would be everyone in the organization if the anonymous sources are to be believed: "To project an image of authority, Mark Davis needs to surround himself with employees who didn’t see him routinely disparaged and condescended to by his legendary father."

If this is the case, then why is Hue Jackson the only employee of consequence who has been canned? What about Amy Trask and the rest of the management staff? Surely Ron Wolf and John Madden, Mark's advisors in the GM selection process, would have seen how Al Davis treated his son over the years, right? So why would he "surround" himself with them? Did Mark Davis look at all intimidated or paranoid at the press conference on Tuesday? Could have fooled me.

By using the words "in my opinion," the author is telegraphing that, hey, this is just an opinion piece, just a column, so I can say whatever I want. But, of course, his piece is more than that. If you want to read an example of a traditional opinion column, read Jason Whitlock's work for Fox Sports.

This piece, however, is news masquerading as opinion. The author quotes anonymous sources regarding Mark's relationship with his father, revealing insider anecdotes in the process, and thus he is breaking news. And when reporting the news, it is your obligation to seek the other side of the story. So, did the author call Mark Davis to get his side of the story? No, because nowhere does it say, "Mark Davis declined to comment on this story."

In other words, this is simply drive-by journalism, a takedown instead of a search for the truth.

Along the way, the author compares Mark Davis to Tommy Boy, the bumbling business heir portrayed in the eponymous movie by Chris Farley. It's no coincidence that, in the movie, Farley's haircut resembles Mark Davis's haircut, which has been widely ridiculed across the Internet since Tuesday's press conference.

The author probably thought he struck analogous gold when he came up with his Tommy Boy comparison, but in truth, he sunk to the lowest form of criticism: mocking someone's appearance.

The author also rips Mark Davis for only interviewing one GM candidate. That's one stance that I sort of understand. But at the same time, this wasn't your typical personnel search. It was one guided by two legendary advisors, who helped identify a uniquely qualified candidate employed by one of the NFL's finest organizations. If you're going to only do one interview, this is how you would do it.

Look, I don't know how Mark Davis is going to govern this organization. I'm not thrilled about his non-stance about keeping the Raiders in Oakland. But what I saw on Tuesday was an owner who was confident, competent and humble all at once, one who "knows what he doesn't know." Based on that press conference, he deserves the benefit of the doubt, at least for a few weeks.

Toward the end of his piece, the author also quotes Mark Davis from the press conference, when Mark noted that he “used to talk to my dad on the phone every night...and talk about football and the organization and things of that nature.”

So he was belittled by his father, but also very close to his father. In other words, father-son relationships can be complicated. Hey, who knew? Apparently not the author of this piece.