Pre Flock Talk

LOOKING INTO THIS WEEKS FLOCK TALK

Tomorrow Flock Talk comes out. It is the first in a two part series covering the new Football Operations Center. Yes, it has been covered to death, but there is still more that needs to be covered, in my opinion.

So far I have seen two types of responses to the building. The first are those in awe who appreciate its beauty, the opposite side of the coin has shown the people who feel that any spending is probably too much unless every penny spent on a college campus is directly funnelled to an academic department

In between these two topics are a plethora of other possibilities that seem to get ignored. Why? Well, it probably goes back to Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent thoughts.

On one side of the coin there are the unimaginative writers who simply look at the sheer aesthetic beauty of the building and regurgitate what they saw on the tour of the facilities. On the other? Those who consider anyone outside of newspapers and television news "non-journalists" who do not understand the technicalities of their responsibility. Nevermind that many of us have read the same journalism text books and understand exactly what they learned; we just do not understand.

To an extent, that may be true. I cannot be inside the consciousness of another man. I cannot feel his past and have that past affect my interpretation of journalism textbooks. Nonetheless, the cynicism is a corporate objective designed to maximize advertising dollars.

None of this means that I feel myself any more qualified than any other writer to tell a story. I am simply telling the story I know from my perspective. This story has the same value and validity as any member of traditional mass media and it is also something I truly enjoy.

So, the first part talks about the road that led to the building. That comes out tomorrow. Next Friday, I go deeper into numbers. There is another story to be told that, once again, seems to be ignored.

I started writing about the Ducks in this format two years ago. Much has changed over that time, but much has also stayed the same. If there is story that is being talked about, I want to see if there is another side to the story I can tell.

With the opening of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, I feel as if that opportunity has arrived. The relative freedom I have in my weekly editorial piece we call Flock Talk gives me the ability to be flexible in topics. I am grateful for that because that becomes a platform to share my own personal thoughts on a wider scale.

Hope you all enjoy tomorrow's Flock Talk