Dan Fleser let go by News Sentinel

#1
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Seymour Vol

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#1
According to today's Knoxville Compass, Dan Fleser, 30 year veteran responsible for Lady Vol coverage, has been given his pink slip by the News Sentinel. I have enjoyed his coverage and expertise and will greatly miss his reporting.
 
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#2
#2
I'm sad about this mostly because it represents what's happening to newspapers these days. Print editions are going the way of, say, former great basketball programs who refuse to modernize their approach.

As far as Fleser's coverage, IMO he's long been nothing but a LV PR guy for years. In fact, the lack of actual meaningful program coverage, especially as the program declines, has been amazing to me. HW has gotten off virtually scotfree by local media.

I realize much of it is because they tiptoe on absolute eggshells for fear of being politically incorrect or incurring the ire of hardcore LV faithful. They also don't care enough about the current LV program to be bothered to do research and find out that segment is growing increasingly small and insignificant. Besides, a new guy is slotted at third string left guard for upcoming spring practice so priorities you know.

Many of ya'll are going to blast me for this, but God bless John Adams, the only local journalist to ever come close to holding orange feet to the fire.
 
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#3
#3
I am sad to see Dan Fleser released by he News Sentinel. Often I had personal e-mail exchanges with him about some particular subject concerning the LV. He was always very gracious in supplying information that I requested. What a shame to see him released. Would have been better if the News Sentinel had fired John Adams. Way back the best ever was Tom Siler who was replaced with Marvin West. Since then the News Sentinel has not had a good sports editor.
 
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#4
#4
Seymour Vol said:
According to today's Knoxville Compass, Dan Fleser, 30 year veteran responsible for Lady Vol coverage, has been given his pink slip by the News Sentinel. I have enjoyed his coverage and expertise and will greatly miss his reporting.
Click to expand...

Didn’t they just fire their cartoonist also.
Sounds like they are dropping their oldest (and highest paid) people. Shame.
 
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#6
#6
glv98 said:
I'm sad about this mostly because it represents what's happening to newspapers these days. Print editions are going the way of, say, former great basketball programs who refuse to modernize their approach.

As far as Fleser's coverage, IMO he's long been nothing but a LV PR guy for years. In fact, the lack of actual meaningful program coverage, especially as the program declines, has been amazing to me. HW has gotten off virtually scotfree by local media.

I realize much of it is because they tiptoe on absolute eggshells for fear of being politically incorrect or incurring the ire of hardcore LV faithful. They also don't care enough about the current LV program to be bothered to do research and find out that segment is growing increasingly small and insignificant. Besides, a new guy is slotted at third string left guard for upcoming spring practice so priorities you know.

Many of ya'll are going to blast me for this, but God bless John Adams, the only local journalist to ever come close to holding orange feet to the fire.
Click to expand...

Great post until the last sentence. For most readers this will "kill" their "like finger". I just chose to ignore it. The one thing thing that popped into my head as I read was "the wrong person was let go". If it had been the right person this guy would have had something new to write about. Something like "a new day on the hill" or "the beginning of the return of prominence".
 
#7
#7
LOL yes I knew JA was a like killer but I usually agree with him plus can't stand the way the local media is SO toady for anything UT. Of course I realize they're pandering to their base of paying customers (the few dozen left) who all bleed Big Orange, but its not what journalists are supposed to do.

Case in point, IMHO the fall of the LV Empire is a huge local sports story which they are embarrassingly afraid to address. That goes for local sports radio as well, which tippy toes like ballarinas around coverage of HW.

Not sure I understand the last part. How would letting JA go bring about a return to prominence?

Last thing, DF and Adams have different jobs. DF is/was a beat writer, JA an editor paid to write opinion pieces.
 
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#8
#8
glv98 said:
I'm sad about this mostly because it represents what's happening to newspapers these days. Print editions are going the way of, say, former great basketball programs who refuse to modernize their approach.

As far as Fleser's coverage, IMO he's long been nothing but a LV PR guy for years. In fact, the lack of actual meaningful program coverage, especially as the program declines, has been amazing to me. HW has gotten off virtually scotfree by local media.

I realize much of it is because they tiptoe on absolute eggshells for fear of being politically incorrect or incurring the ire of hardcore LV faithful. They also don't care enough about the current LV program to be bothered to do research and find out that segment is growing increasingly small and insignificant. Besides, a new guy is slotted at third string left guard for upcoming spring practice so priorities you know.

Many of ya'll are going to blast me for this, but God bless John Adams, the only local journalist to ever come close to holding orange feet to the fire.
Click to expand...

Well, those that don't care for John realize that there are some cool-aide drinkers out there, his plight is of his own making, if you feel he is fair, honest and balance........fine. My only question has been, when was the last time Knoxville News has broken a story on UT Sports? Talk about an organization that has cemented themselves into irrelevance, John is a symptom of today's printed news, they blame everyone else but themselves for their situation vs. modernizing their approach to getting the news vs. voicing his disgruntlement for being irrelevant to UT. Poke the bear too much and you become scat.
 
#11
#11
Welcome to more of the Gannett Gutting. You just got the editor from our local Courier-Journal, which at one time was a Pulitzer machine. Then Gannett got hold of it. Continuous layoffs and buyouts, shrinking staff, shrinking coverage. Now he’s taking over the N-S (the paper my father retired from). Good luck - you’ll need it.
 
#12
#12
Seymour Vol said:
According to today's Knoxville Compass, Dan Fleser, 30 year veteran responsible for Lady Vol coverage, has been given his pink slip by the News Sentinel. I have enjoyed his coverage and expertise and will greatly miss his reporting.
Click to expand...

I have not read his work in years due to my boycott of all KNS output due to John Adams existence on staff..
 
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#13
#13
GUNTERSVOL said:
I have not read his work in years due to my boycott of all KNS output due to John Adams existence on staff..
Click to expand...
You are missing a lot. Just this week they ran the high school basketball rankings for Illinois instead of Tennessee. At least twice recently they’ve run the exact same sports story on different pages of the same edition. The slow decline of the News Sentinel seems to be rapidly accelerating.
 
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#14
#14
glv98 said:
As far as Fleser's coverage, IMO he's long been nothing but a LV PR guy for years. In fact, the lack of actual meaningful program coverage, especially as the program declines, has been amazing to me. HW has gotten off virtually scotfree by local media.
Click to expand...

glv98 said:
Many of ya'll are going to blast me for this, but God bless John Adams, the only local journalist to ever come close to holding orange feet to the fire.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't get blasted, because all of this is completely accurate...
 
#15
#15
I hate to say it, but the decline in the Lady Vols fortunes and interest in the team may have been a factor in Fleser's release. The paper had to cut X bodies and this, along with his age, seniority and salary, may have been a factor.
 
#18
#18
I live in Chattanooga but have relatives in the Knoxville area. I read the KNS some (mostly on weekends) and it has turned into a semi-localized version of the USA Today. It is no longer the newspaper it once was. I subscribe to our paper here, even though the cost has continued to go up and up. I love to read it - it is still a local paper with local people talking about local things. I subscribe to it in hopes that it helps to keep it around. Plenty of Vols coverage, too!
 
#19
#19
For goodness sake LET IT GO. Dan didn't have a job! Do you really subscribe to the Knox Newsless! If you need coupons, go buy it on Sunday at the Gas Station. The paper has so few readers and is so small now, it has become a joke. The Sports page is and has been a joke for years. Little to NO coverage of local High School Sports. The Rag is Dead.
 
#21
#21
The only thing the Knoxville News sentinel is good for is starting a fire in the old wood stove.
 
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