After Michael Waltrip's wreck near his home, very little press coverage has been generated. Why is this? It seems extremely suspicious, odd and you would think that there would be some concern over this considering what his state of mind must be as a result of this season so far.
2007-04-13 03:24:50 · 25 answers · asked by D B Cooper 2 in Sports ➔ Auto Racing ➔ NASCAR
Michael Waltrip; though well known in NASCAR circles; is not a household name. Most press coverage just said a NASCAR driver was in a wreck and that was it.
On the NASCAR side of the world however, there is a tremendous amount of journalistic integrity that severly lacks in the mainstream press.
Mainstream media will print or air anything and everything it can get it paws on and then retract later if they messed up. They don't check their sources; they don't care about what it true or not; they just want to rush a story to the presses. Fortunately for MW the Mainstream media has no interest in him. However if it had happened to say Dale Jr. or Jeff Gordon it would be all over the news and we would hear all kinds of garbage before the real story ever surfaced.
NASCAR Journalist wait until there is something there to print before they print it. Even the NASCAR rumor Guru Jayski is careful to check things out and keep up to date with what he posts. I wouldn't call it a lack of coverage; just typical journalistic integrity of waiting for story before printing a story.
I think most everyone in the NASCAR Nation is worried about MW; but we would rather wait and hear the truth then get a bunch of hurried erroneous reports shoved down our throats.
2007-04-13 10:36:11 · answer #1 · answered by Gene L 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I thought about his state of mind, too - I thought about alcohol right away, which is certainly possible, but I also thought that he could be working really late trying to keep his team intact. But, I don't know him personally, so I am just speculating. Nonetheless, I think there are two aspects to the media coverage:
1. There isn't a whole lot of information publicly available. There was only one witness, no passengers, and nobody was seriously injured. So, you can only report so much before you just start speculating and making stuff up. At this point, there isn't much of a story. It will get more interesting once he appears in court.
2. While the media loves to kick people when they're down as much as possible, sometimes it seems they do tend to lay off a little bit when things aren't going well for people. Mikey's not having a good year, and perhaps people are respecting his feelings a bit. Kind of how the media attention dropped after Britney Spears went into rehab. The media sucks, but every once in a while they can show an ounce of courtesy and respect. Maybe...
2007-04-13 04:17:03 · answer #2 · answered by Duck of Death 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I think the coverage is just starting. Since it happened after an off week things were a bit slow. Then, it seemed like things started being taken at face value by the press. After that, we're at the stage with very interesting eyewitness accounts of the event:
http://www.fantasydope.com/dopefantasynews.aspx?id=5036
The blogging world is also starting to get into it:
http://4ever3canadianeh.blogspot.com/
I suspect this weekend with the Texas race it will be THE story of the weekend. Announcers will be sure to mention it no less than 100 times. The story is far from over too - I don't think he'll automatically get a pass based on the series of events that transpired.
2007-04-13 04:29:55 · answer #3 · answered by fantasydope 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If it were a slower news week you would have heard more about it. The major stories that everyone is talking about now are the 3 Duke lacrosse players being proclaimed innocent and of course the Don Imus faux paus about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Another reason may be that people really don't care as much about Michael Waltrip as his sponsors thought they did. It is big news and I can't wait to see Mikey sweat during his interviews and shows in the next week. Apologizing and saying how embarrassed he is all he seems to do nowdays.
2007-04-13 04:27:16 · answer #4 · answered by Tregosteevo 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
His brother Daryl said that he has too much on his plate right now trying to be an owner AND a driver. Michael is only a mediocre driver at best and needs to quit driving if he is going to get his business going in the right direction. He fell asleep and got lucky that he wasn't killed in the accident. The old addage,"Don't burn the candle at both ends" applies to him. He is fortunate that the press had a lot bigger headlines that week but if he would have been arrested for DUI I think that the headlines would have been a lot stronger on the subject. As it turns out it was a good ole' boy that put his truck in the ditch and had ta go git the tracter ta pull'er out!
2007-04-16 17:26:41 · answer #5 · answered by Lakeman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The story was reported, and there is still an investigation going on.....how much press coverage is required? The press really blew up the Kurt Busch fiasco in Phoenix last year, saying alcohol WAS to blame, when it wasn't, causing all kinds of problems in an already complicated situation with Busch, Rousch, and the sponsers. Over-exposure is not a good thing.
2007-04-16 06:04:26 · answer #6 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I feel sorry for Mikey... you think about the goofy guy that drove the #15 to two Daytona 500 wins, and look at him now. He is really having a hard time. The deal at Daytona was awful, now the car wreck... You have to give it to him though, his teams are not performing, but he has gone from nothing to a fully sponsored 3 car team in 1 year. Thats amazing. If he sticks with it, he will succeed. (As an owner)
As far as press coverage, you will see more this weekend during the race I believe.
2007-04-13 04:42:42 · answer #7 · answered by McClintock 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Because it's a non-story. Man falls asleep behind wheel, goes into ditch and wrecks; wanders to house to collect his thoughts and goes to sleep. If the news reported this everytime it happened, we would be watching these reports probably once an hour after 6p.m. everyday. The only reason it was ever reported to the press is because it is Michael. GO TOYOTA!!
2007-04-13 18:43:13 · answer #8 · answered by bkelstrup 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even though some of the answers have been Mikey who? The real reason is the Nascar media machine will not let bad publicity out! Face it, even if you hate Waltrip, he's still one of the most noticble drivers out there.
2007-04-13 05:40:41 · answer #9 · answered by moo_wah 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He's really not worth the press. He's not a good driver,I don't know how he ever got a sponser. Dale Sr was a smart man about racing but I don't know what he ever saw in Waltrip
2007-04-15 06:15:40 · answer #10 · answered by ? 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋