Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Spin...And The Money

The Spin – Here It Comes

In the 24/7 news cycle, the BranDictator – Hoke - Concussion story actually had pretty good legs.  4 days in a row, it was the lead story on the National News and all the morning shows.  But now, we are in the “Everyone has made their statements, hunker down in the bunkers, and let’s see exactly where were at” mode.   If another college football scandal erupts (which I’m sure BranDictator is praying for - I heard he tweeted Jameis Winston a new meme) then Michigan will be temporarily off the hook, press wise, anyway. 

But this is one story I’m not totally sure will just go away.   It’s going to linger and create further damage, if that’s possible, than has already been done.  And of course, time begins to heal all wounds and it also gives the spin doctors and master manipulators time to do their thing.  Which, as we all know, time is a precious commodity.  In either direction…You’re either using it wisely or wasting it.

There’s now a “handful” of groups that are coming out in support of BranDictator, as I knew there would be.  BranDictator is a master of spin and when he does finally “bare his soul”, which will also need to happen, but he will wait to do that, he will explain that he is “always acting in the best interests of Michigan”. 

And here it is!  I was trying to get this put together and post this afternoon when I got a tweet that “Brandon has Spoken”  And frankly, I’m disappointed the Daily, which I’m still kind of an avid reader of “on-line” didn’t take on the tough questions!  This entire thing has a “PR Firm/Specialist” tone to it as well….Sickening….The Daily Link:


Some Excerpts:

On communicating to Hoke:

Brandon said he doesn’t know how Hoke eventually learned of the concussion. As of Monday afternoon’s press conference, the coach had claimed he was only aware of Morris’ high ankle sprain, also suffered against Minnesota.

I can’t believe we’re still sticking with this story….Incompetence and no communication….Dysfunction at its finest.  I mean, that’s a pretty damning statement and he’s just saying, “Yeah, we need to do better.”

The Statement

As the person “responsible for Michigan athletics,” Brandon explained that he made the decision to release Tuesday morning’s statement, despite Hoke previously saying it would come from medical professionals. The Athletic Director said information learned throughout the day Monday led to the release being finalized close to 1 a.m.
“The appropriate person in athletics — and I judged that to be me — needed to make it very clear that a mistake was made,” Brandon said. “We own it, we recognize and we acknowledge that a mistake was made, we apologize for it — and I did — and we immediately committed that we would learn from it and make changes to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again.”
Uh, I think this was covered pretty well in the earlier post/rant.  Dave couldn’t get his way and decided that “instead of letting the medical guys make the statement”, he would make it and weasel word it in his own way.  And release it at 1:00 AM.
BranDictator’s “Pain” and “Hurt”

For Brandon, though, he said he hopes to fix his relationship with students. The protest Tuesday, he said, hit him hard.
“That’s very hurtful,” Brandon said. “Anybody who thinks that they want groups to gather with the topic being criticism and sometimes very personal attacks on the work and the job. It’s hurtful. It’s hurtful to me, it’s hurtful to my family.”
“I’m not tone-deaf,” he added. “I felt very badly. My job and my personality is to the best of my ability, I have to fix that.”
Brandon also noted that he has received incessant feedback from alumni and donors. He noted that some of it was constructive, though he did not mention how much of it was negative.
And to that, we can all say, “PHHHBBBTTTT!!” 

OOOhhhhh…..We’re so sorry we hurt your feelings Dave!!!  

Gee, you’re only making a cool $1M a year to make dumb decisions and get those feeling hurt!  And were sorry that your family thinks we’re being mean….maybe you should step down if you can’t take the heat on what are fair job critiques?  And how about the fan’s feelings of lost trust, ever escalating prices and everything on “The List”?

The Money…

As with anything, it always pays to follow the money and the real decision and direction makers for the University.  An alert blog follower (HT: TJH ) found these articles and they unfortunately paint an all too real situation that we’re probably looking at when it comes to the BranDictator.  TJH’s Comments:

I suspect this articulates the Dave Brandon situation best. The Brown guy is going to learn who the President of Michigan really is and he lives in Miami. Always follow the money.  Brandon will marginalize Schizel quickly. The rehabilitation of Dave Brandon has already begun. He forced the Michigan Student Athlete Association to issue a public endorsement and forced Brady to give him a big character reference in his press conference today.

The articles are lengthy, but worth the read.  I’m starting another heading, in objective fairness to BranDictator, to the right that will be the reasons we should keep BranDictator.  Unfortunately, most of those reasons are focused on and around the money and growth he has brought into the Athletics Department. 

Here’s the links in their entirety.  From the Big Lead:


This Crain’s Business article is an interview with Stephen Ross and his public endorsement of Brandon that is also gaining some local attenthion…



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