Sports Radio Interviews

Mark Cuban: On Media Fabrications, Blog Access, And Twitter

A very insightful interview with a man who is always ahead of the curve in many industries, especially when it comes to the developing media field.  Cuban came on The Dan Patrick Show to clarify statements he made about both new and old media on his blog.  I don’t really have much to add here regarding what Cuban points out but it’s clear that his knowledge of the media game is likely greater than any other North American sports owner’s.  Cuban discusses why media outlets make things up, how newspapers get away with it, why he lets anyone in to his dressing room to cover the Mavs, and how he does background checks on players via their Twitter accounts.

Why do you say that media outlets, whether traditional or not, are making things up?

“There’s so many blogs, there’s so many things being written in sports that everyone has to really work hard to stand out.  And, the shortcut is to just make something up.  What’s happened now is traditional media, when I say traditional media, it’s just not newspapers, radio, print, but also bigger blogs even if they didn’t exist five years ago.  But, traditional media, now they don’t trust their own sources and they don’t trust their own abilities, so they always have to go out and try to figure out what these guys are saying is true or not.  And, it’s created kind of a slippery slope or vicious circle where it just pays to make stuff up, and I think that makes it worse for all of sports.”

Don’t newspaper writers make things up?

“Oh yeah, but they say they’re columnists.  They say they’re hypothesizing usually, whereas there’s a lot of people out there, whether tweeting, blogging, websites, whatever you wanna call it, that’ll just make it up and try to report as if they talked to somebody, or as if they sourced it.”

What are your requirements for letting a blog in to your locker room?

“None anymore.  Just show up, just get permission in advance and we’ll let you in.  (Host: Do you look at that sports blog ahead of time?)  Not really, not anymore.  (Host: Why?)  Why is the exact question.  I mean, there’s no good reason to anymore.  If I was gonna try and evaluate qualitatively in this day and age, it’s almost impossible.  There’s just so many different angles, so many approaches, and there’s such a fragmented face of readership, and the expectations of readership are so different among them, that there’s no good reason to qualitatively make a choice.”

Should people follow players tweets and take them seriously?

“Oh yeah, you should.  They tell you more than anything they’ll ever tell you face to face.  Oh my goodness, and free agents, are you kidding me?  Following the tweets of free agents is like the best thing ever.  It gives you such an insight in to players and their minds, if they’re active.  If they’re inactive, you know, Shawn Marion just tweeted, he got in the car and he was driving somewhere.  That’s not real insightful from my perspective… This morning I followed Kevin Durant, it was like seven in the morning, I’m up checking stuff, and he’s already in the gym, alright, I like that kid (laughs)… (Host: If you were looking to sign a free agent, would you go back and look at all of his tweets and his blogs?)  Oh yeah, absolutely, and we do, already do.”

Listen to Mark Cuban on The Dan Patrick Show

Tags: Basketball, Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, NBA