Jimmy Hyams Retiring.......

#78
#78
I've never really understood all the Jimmy Hyams hate. The guy has done a great job. Sports journalism isn't about being a homer for the team you're covering. (At least, it didn't used to be. I suspect we're seeing sports journalism being redefined by this current generation that cannot tolerate any viewpoint that doesn't jive with their own.) Sports journalism is about informing your audience, and Hyams has done a great job of that in Knoxville for almost 40 years. Personally, I don't want to read my UT football/basketball news from a rah-rah cheerleader. I can get that viewpoint at UTsports.com.
 
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#81
#81
UTFanHades said:
He literally said on the air once that he doesn’t care about UT losing when a caller asked if he cared. His words, not mine.
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He would say the exact same thing about any team he is covering or reporting on. He tries to be impartial to report accurately. Jimmy is a good man, husband and father. He started at 13 writing for the Natchitoches Times and you will see the same impartiality in the articles he wrote back then to include the high school team he played on and even his teammates. He was a highly acclaimed sports writer because of this approach and ability to separate his fandom from sports reporting.
 
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#84
#84
MurphyVol said:
I'm in the minority; but I've always liked Jimmy. I've met him in passing a couple times and he was a really nice guy.

I'm hoping he finally admits he's a Vol fan. He has proudly worn his impartial reporting badge for years but you can tell fandom has crept in. He now often refers to the Vols as "we" and other little things that he didn't used to do years ago.
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You are not alone. I grew up reading Tom Siler and Jimmy was a more modern counterpart.
 
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#88
#88
John Adams has been known to be an LSU fan for a long time. This is the first I have heard that Hyams was.
 
#92
#92
Hyams took over the show from Mike Keith when he moved back to Nashville with the Titans, didn't change the format much except to take it on the road to a sponsor's place of business from time to time. There has been a world of talking heads trying to turn a dollar off Tennessee athletics for decades, some with more success than others, but SportsTalk was a haven for homers, there were some lean years in there with Tennessee down so far in so many sports, nobody wanted anything dp do with it, but Hyams kept chugging along.
 
#93
#93
TartanTurff said:
Hyams took over the show from Mike Keith when he moved back to Nashville with the Titans, didn't change the format much except to take it on the road to a sponsor's place of business from time to time. There has been a world of talking heads trying to turn a dollar off Tennessee athletics for decades, some with more success than others, but SportsTalk was a haven for homers, there were some lean years in there with Tennessee down so far in so many sports, nobody wanted anything dp do with it, but Hyams kept chugging along.
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Keith did as well. I can remember winning tickets and stopping by a dealership on the motor mile where Mike was doing the broadcast.
 
#96
#96
Biso said:
I've never really understood all the Jimmy Hyams hate. The guy has done a great job. Sports journalism isn't about being a homer for the team you're covering. (At least, it didn't used to be. I suspect we're seeing sports journalism being redefined by this current generation that cannot tolerate any viewpoint that doesn't jive with their own.) Sports journalism is about informing your audience, and Hyams has done a great job of that in Knoxville for almost 40 years. Personally, I don't want to read my UT football/basketball news from a rah-rah cheerleader. I can get that viewpoint at UTsports.com.
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If you're not a diehard UT fan just say it
 
#97
#97
Biso said:
I've never really understood all the Jimmy Hyams hate. The guy has done a great job. Sports journalism isn't about being a homer for the team you're covering. (At least, it didn't used to be. I suspect we're seeing sports journalism being redefined by this current generation that cannot tolerate any viewpoint that doesn't jive with their own.) Sports journalism is about informing your audience, and Hyams has done a great job of that in Knoxville for almost 40 years. Personally, I don't want to read my UT football/basketball news from a rah-rah cheerleader. I can get that viewpoint at UTsports.com.
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If he is a homer, it is for LSU. I hope he enjoys retirement and wish John Adams would tag along.
 
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#98
#98
Any dealings I ever had with Hyams around town, I have found him to be a jerk. However, I enjoyed his show. He and John have contacts and give good information and don't let callers put out baseless opinions without calling them on it. I hope John Wilkerson will continue the show and if i had to guess, Vince will probably replace Jimmy. Just don't let it be John Adams.

I wish Jimmy well in retirement.
 
#100
#100
VOLINVONORE said:
If he is a homer, it is for LSU. I hope he enjoys retirement and wish John Adams would tag along.
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No, Jimmy is absolutely not a homer for Tennessee. That's okay. He doesn't have to be a homer to do his job well. In fact, the strongest argument to be made is that you can't have true, objective journalism from a homer. The two are mutually exclusive. That's the way journalism is supposed to be. The guys covering these schools need to be able to be objective. If Tennessee coaches are, say, giving recruits money in McDonald's bags, someone needs to be able to write that story effectively instead of glossing over it or sweeping it under a rug. For that reason, the News Sentinel isn't hiring UT fans to cover UT. The Tuscaloosa newspaper isn't hiring Bama fans to cover Bama. As fans we've gotten a little spoiled by these "news sites" from Fansided and SI and everyone else that give a little incentive to homers to write about their teams and generate page views. But that's not really journalism, and all those guys are doing, with few exceptions, is regurgitating what an actual journalist somewhere is writing.

I don't always agree with Jimmy but I appreciate his commitment to his craft.
 
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