Bradley's beat writer barred by BU

by **ptownbraves** » March 15th, 2019, 9:49 pm

Bradley's long-time beat writer Dave Reynolds has been barred from a local event because Bradley University felt that he hadn't been promoting the Bradley brand. His access to the team seems to be limited going forward.

This is a small-time move and is entirely Bradley's own doing. Reynolds has a reputation of being a pretty matter-of-fact and even-keeled writer. This is not a good look for the University.

https://www.pjstar.com/sports/20190315/ ... 1446690273

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by **VUGrad1314** » March 15th, 2019, 9:56 pm

That's embarrassing. He's one of the best beat writers in the conference. I thought he was promoting Bradley just fine. What on Earth could have brought this on?

by **MissouriValleyUnite** » March 15th, 2019, 10:10 pm

Good luck with the media coverage at a P6, Brian. PJS is child’s play compared to what’s up the ladder.

by **ptownbraves** » March 15th, 2019, 10:20 pm

VUGrad1314 wrote:That's embarrassing. He's one of the best beat writers in the conference. I thought he was promoting Bradley just fine. What on Earth could have brought this on?

Seems like it has been building for some time. The best guess is it maybe stemmed from an article titled "Fire Wardle? Not with these Bradley fans who smiled through a dismal day". https://www.pjstar.com/sports/20190126/ ... dismal-day

The article was a puff piece about how great and loyal Bradley's fanbase is and referenced a thread on the Bradley message board ("Fire Wardle") that was basically a bunch of fans blowing off steam and wondering if Wardle was the right guy because of Bradley's 0-5 start and bad non-conference losses.

Apparently Bradley people got upset by that article and somehow interpreted it as Dave Reynolds calling for Wardle's job.

by **RacerJoeD** » March 15th, 2019, 10:49 pm

It’s not a journalists job to run PR for your university

by **tribecalledquest** » March 15th, 2019, 11:35 pm

RacerJoeD wrote:It’s not a journalists job to run PR for your university

This is what most rational, functioning humans know to be true.

by **Blers** » March 16th, 2019, 12:12 am

This is so cringey. Why would you even consider doing this, especially at this time!? There are journalists everywhere around the valley (even from the Chicago tribune who presumably would/will cover the team as the only Illinois team this year) tweeting about this.

Let this players enjoy this time and the extra attention they earned; don’t taint their experience with stupid insecurities/weird grudges. If it was that article I remember reading it and appreciating how relatively tame and respectful it was if the whole situation.

Come on man. Bad look.

by **pafan** » March 16th, 2019, 6:17 am

The high road here for the Journal-Star would simply to have reprinted Bradley's tweet, and say that as such the paper would be offering limited coverage of the team until the impasse was resolved.

A column like this makes the paper look petty, too. "This should be a glorious moment, but Bradley won't let us make it one." Please. You're a freaking newspaper.

by **Mikovio** » March 16th, 2019, 7:11 am

pafan wrote:The high road here for the Journal-Star would simply to have reprinted Bradley's tweet, and say that as such the paper would be offering limited coverage of the team until the impasse was resolved.

A column like this makes the paper look petty, too. "This should be a glorious moment, but Bradley won't let us make it one." Please. You're a freaking newspaper.

No freaking kidding. An NCAA bid is only glorious if the Urinal Jar makes it one! Step aside, NCAA and CBS!

Wardle operates with a chip on his shoulder and looks for any and all slights, perceived or real, to motivate him to work harder. It probably makes him a good coach and player motivator. It also means if he sees "Fire Wardle?" headline in the paper he's going to lash out at said paper.

Is Wardle too thin skinned? Yea. Is Dave Eminian a drama queen? Yea. Hopefully someone can step in and mediate this because it's a distraction for the team, although given the team's us-against-the-world mantra this might not actually be a bad thing. But many PJS subscribers do depend on their coverage, so there's that.

by **unipanther99** » March 16th, 2019, 7:16 am

This is stunningly petty and small-time-ish. Shame on Bradley. Do they know how lucky they are to have a paper able to cover their team full-time? Let alone a legand like Dave.