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*Punter Lawrence
It’s the donut money and Feld sensing they might get a piece of the pie. Anytime there is a chance of them milking some money they will do what they can, ie the CBD money from a couple years ago…
Still bullshit to me that so many bend over backwards for these two….
Definitely not a genius move. Yes, we're still talking about it, but the majority of the talk is against Mirtl/Hunter. That's not exactly good promotion for your rider.
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I think we should view Moto media like WWE wrestling media and enjoy the stories and wait until the subjects retire and hear the really good stuff.
The motocross media will never be objective journalism because it is so small that the PulpMX’s or Vital’s of the world rely on sponsors and relationships to do their jobs and they do NOT have an entity like FELD backing them up and demanding they maintain access to teams that they offend. I’ve only been watching Moto content and racing for 12 years but in my experience it has always been this way.
Yeah I hear that but in this day and age 'negative' press doesn't really seem to matter anymore.. Something about making the superfan even more of a fan and only losing the people that weren't a fan anyway.. Again I'm not saying I agree with it or say it's true haha.. but there's definitely a lot of very popular people in the world that get a lot of negative press
I'm a fan of Hunter and really can't see this coming from him he's never seemed to shy away from an opinion in the past
And the “journalist” that fill that press conference room week in and week out will do as they say knowing if they don’t obey the rules of FELD and the agent they will no longer receive likes from Hunter on their Instagram post throughout the week which really does mean the world to them!
genuine question for ML and the other media guys:
this week ET3 rolled around in 8th, which is a pretty big story. We got some weak Yam PR about "We had a tough week" and that's it.
Is it impossible to get a real comment from him? Does he just stonewall you and say "I ain't talking about it"? Can you not even just text him for a few words? It's just an example of the strangeness of the moto-media in our sport. If Michael Jordan scored 7 points in a game, the media would be all over it talking about it nonstop and getting actual responses from MJ. But instead ET3 just goes back on his bus, lets the Yam PR speak for him.....and that's it??
I wasn’t present this week so I can’t say for sure, but if a rider is outside the top three they aren’t required to press conference. So it’s up to them if they want do interviews. Eli will basically always do an interview, if you can find him. Some weeks he goes straight to his motorhome though, so he’s hard to access.
We get denied interviews all the time depending how a guy’s night went. This year alone, I think I’ve had at least half the 450 field turn me down at some point or another.
thanks for responding.
but when ET podiums this week, you can start your questions with: Man, what the hell happened last week and why is tonight different? (thus getting him to address the question we'd all like answered)
Eli will just say he wasn't comfortable and that tonight was a better night.
Why was tonight a better night?
I gelled with the bike from this morning, and didn't have to change much on the bike.
On to the next reporter.
orrrrrrrrrrrr....
How do you respond to critics that wonder what's going on when you go from winning Daytona to making no forward movement in the next race and ending 8th?
You've had a historical issue of sometimes just randomly having REALLY bad races....is that because of the bike or is it just that when you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it?
Do you feel like you were out of sync and just decided to salvage whatever points you could?
How do you respond to people that wonder why one weekend you drop the hammer and can put 2s on everyone, and then the next weekend you're rolling the whoops?
See how we could get actual answers to actual questions instead of just allowing what you described? That's how the media normally tries to work.
I get that a rider might not want to dwell on a bad performance, but welcome to being a professional athlete.
I hate to say this but there’s a lot of riders that shut down when you go straight in like that. They dance around it and won’t answer. Gotta ease into or find a way to mix it into other questions. Also, I’m not attending Detroit, Lewis is.
Roll another one...
i truly don't mean to beat a dead horse, but the reason they "dance around and won't answer" is because they're allowed to. A pool of reporters hammering the same topic/question would FORCE an answer or he'd just have to get up and walk out. I know this is is one of those "this is how it's always been" things, but the moto-media has fascinated me (not in a good way) because of how it's not actually MEDIA...it's public relations. But I digress.
In press conference we can abit but we’re also usually only allowed one question per rider and if I’m looking for quotes from that night, setup, other things, I can’t circle back to past races.
lol. i learn more and more. yet another thing that is ridiculous. but thanks for the insight.
I say this all the time to one of our contacts at Feld. We have little to no power, riders and teams aren’t really required to do media time unlike other sports. Hell, we had a round of outdoors last year where there was no 250 press conference cause the riders decided to leave early. I’ve pushed as much as I can lately and it results in push back. I can only get banned from so many trucks and pit areas before I run out of work.
Pit Row
That's funny, gotta catch him first & can't let him run you down & pass you in the last turn
I think most people in any profession go "turtle" with pointed questions like that. Not that they aren't good questions and things people would like to know.
How do you respond to critics that wonder what's going on when you go from winning Daytona to making no forward movement in the next race and ending 8th?
- It was a tough one out there today. The track was pretty gnarly, and we just struggled to find our comfort zone all day. We'll put this one behind us and come back next weekend in Detroit.
You've had a historical issue of sometimes just randomly having REALLY bad races....is that because of the bike or is it just that when you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it?
- As I said we struggled to find our comfort zone, which is the same as not feeling it. However you want to say it.
Do you feel like you were out of sync and just decided to salvage whatever points you could?
- Out of sync, not feeling it, struggled to find our comfort zone, however you want to say it. Yes we did our best to salvage some points.
How do you respond to people that wonder why one weekend you drop the hammer and can put 2s on everyone, and then the next weekend you're rolling the whoops?
- Some weekends I am comfortable, or feeling it, or in sync, or however you want to say it, and some weekends we struggle to find our comfort zone like this weekend.
Actual Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing PR:
“It was a tough one today,” said Tomac. “The track was pretty gnarly, and we just struggled to find our comfort zone all day. We did our best to salvage some points. We’ll put this one behind us and come back next weekend in Detroit.”
that's fine.
The questions were asked. Currently, NOTHING gets asked and the point to this thread is that FELD can dictate WHAT gets asked. if a rider pussyfoots around the question, ok. at least we can see that the questions were asked.
Oh no you didn't!!!
Do you watch the interview of any politician? It’s the same. Either answer with a non-answer, talk about something other than the question or lie. No follow up to the response with fact checks. And these are “journalists”, you think a bunch of bros are going to jeopardize their access and perks of playing nice to the OEMs? I commend ML for how much he pushes to get us info, few have done that before, but maybe he’ll blaze a trail for future reporters
Hahaha
I'm a Hunter fan....but you got my upvote
Or How do you respond to critics that wonder what's going on when you go from winning Daytona to making no forward movement in the next race and ending 8th?
Eli: Well to be honest I'm struggling with the bike a little and I'm feeling under the weather so I got really tired..
Vital/'fans': Eli just blamed the bike that bike is obviously a piece of shit I'm not spending my hard earned on one if even the factory team can't work it out, and what's with crying about being a little sick when I'm sick I gotta show up to work why is he any different? Maybe he should spend less time hunting and more time training.. So on and so forth
Me, now: To be honest I don't really know why guys need so many answers.. He struggled backed it down got a finish on to next week
What's the point, you'll just get some generic reply about setting, tough track, hard to find the flow.
"Thanks for the answer Eli, but that's a pretty canned response. Your fans would like an explanation. You went from winning Daytona to literally rolling through the whoops like on a sight lap. What gives?"
yeah, he could repeat his BS answer, but my point the entire time is that the answer is ON HIM because at least the moto-media is asking the damn question that people want the answer. No clue why you guys keep defending the lack of engagement when present with an opportunity to ask the questions that you WANT answered.
"No clue why you guys keep defending the lack of engagement when present with an opportunity to ask the questions that you WANT answered."
You posted the following earlier:
"See how we could get actual answers to actual questions instead of just allowing what you described? That's how the media normally tries to work."
It doesn't matter how you structure the questions. The riders being questioned will always find a way to dance around it if they don't want to give honest answers. If you keep pushing the issue, the teams will say we no longer want to answer questions from X person or X company. See Michael's point above.
Get banned from enough teams, and you no longer have enough material to produce content.
The sport is too small/Bro oriented to ask the hard questions.
Does WSX censor the media like this?
Post a reply to: Silencing the Media? (Hunter v Thrasher)