On Sunday, the Orlando CBS affiliate apologized via screen crawl for having to televise the Jaguars-Raiders game instead of Manning Bowl III.
Now, in lieu of apologizing to the Jaguars for apologizing about the Jaguars, WKMG in Orlando claims it never apologized.
In a Facebook message, WKMG General Manager Skip Valet says the station never issued an apology for having to show the Jaguars game.
“Friends, please don’t believe the fictitious nonsense you read on the lazy blogs,” the message begins. “They aggregate news, spin it to be funny, and don’t bother to do any real reporting, even the simplest step of calling someone. Below is the truth.”
The truth (at least WKMG’s current version of it) is that the station felt compelled to issue a clarification because fans were confused by the constant promotion of the Broncos-Giants game during the 1:00 p.m. ET game televised locally by CBS. (You know, the promotion that included an express mention that some viewers would be getting Jaguars-Raiders instead.)
“Our viewers were confused and angry,” Valet said. “We clarified why we were broadcasting the Jaguars’ game and apologized to viewers who may have been confused by the constant ‘Manning Bowl’ promotion.”
Still, the message that was placed on the screen didn’t make clear whether folks were upset because they possibly wouldn’t see the Jaguars game, or because they were being led to believe they possibly wouldn’t have to see the Jaguars game.
“In accordance with NFL policy, WKMG must carry all Jacksonville Jaguars’ away games. We apologize for any inconvenience,” the in-game screen message stated.
That doesn’t sound like an effort to make folks who feared they’d have to watch Broncos-Giants realize that they’d get to watch the Jaguars. Instead, that sounds like an effort to make folks who wanted to watch Broncos-Giants understand why they couldn’t.
Making it sound even more like an effort to explain why Broncos-Giants wouldn’t be shown is the quote given at the time to the Associated Press (that lazy blog) by Valet himself: “I know it’s frustrating, but as a CBS station in this market you have to carry the away games.”
By using the words “we apologize for any inconvenience,” WKMG necessarily was apologizing for something. Instead of apologizing for making the Jaguars look like a lesser option, WKMG has opted for a strident and dismissive denial of reality.
Which rarely works out well for the person doing the strident dismissing.
