Axe has been axed

[Cusefan69]

I want to reframe this conversation a bit.

The issue here isn't whether or not Axe is any good. I don't listen to talk radio, and I know Axe personally. He's a good dude.

The issue why Axe was dumped. The real holder of power in this situation, Syracuse University Athletics, feels they should be immune from criticism, and a media partner agrees because the owner wants to look good at cocktail parties. That's a huge issue with implications that go well beyond Axe.

How do you back up your comment that Syracuse athletics feels they should be immune? Has JW or anyone actually said that?

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

If Levine thought that level was detrimental to his business then he has every right to try and real that in. Remember Levine is trying to run a business, one that is very hard to make profitable.

And therein lies the issue. If the owner of a media entity thinks he can't make money by allowing anyone to say anything negative because access will be stripped, that's a giant problem because it gives all the power to those who can abuse that power the most.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

How do you back up your comment that Syracuse athletics feels they should be immune? Has JW or anyone actually said that?

Levine said people inside SU Athletics felt Axe was too negative. How is that not an indication?

 

[oldpinepoint]

Levine said people inside SU Athletics felt Axe was too negative. How is that not an indication?

Too negative and immune are different things

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Too negative and immune are different things

Okay, so they need to have thicker skins. It's a highly visible, competitive space that SU Athletics officials have chosen to work in.

 

[oldpinepoint]

Okay, so they need to have thicker skins. It's a highly visible, competitive space that SU Athletics officials have chosen to work in.

Oh I don’t disagree with you there. The best thing here was for Levine to keep his mouth shut and keep it in house. I would have just bought out the remainder of his contract and told him it’s not being renewed. The timing of this stinks, should have waited a week or two to let everything blow over

 

[OrangePA]

and nobody knows if Axe was warned to tone it down a bit as well and then he goes in guns blazing at the presser. I bet that was it. Nobody will ever know the entire truth, nothing left now but 1/2 truths from both sides as the media continues to run with it and yeah guess who the media is going to side with? It's going to blow over very soon, Axe should be looking for new start somewhere else.

Axe is a bit of a buffoon.

I suspect that if he had strong ratings, Axe would still be on the air.

 

[upperdeck]

I would think making a show that tries to make the team more popular would make the ratings better.

 

[Cuse181]

Okay, so they need to have thicker skins. It's a highly visible, competitive space that SU Athletics officials have chosen to work in.

For Levine the choice was easy: Take the money or don't. As a business owner he took the money. If I was SU I probably wouldn't support an enterprise that chit on me for an entire year either. This has nothing to do with thick skin, it is simple economics, I dont get a return on my investment if I am being bad mouthed by some whose show I directly support.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

For Levine the choice was easy: Take the money or don't. As a business owner he took the money. If I was SU I probably wouldn't support an enterprise that chit on me for an entire year either. This has nothing to do with thick skin, it is simple economics, I dont get a return on my investment if I am being bad mouthed by some whose show I directly support.

See my post from 10:08AM EST.

 

[Cuse181]

See my post from 10:08AM EST.

I see what you're saying, but when you're a one sport town, you have to play the game. Its not unfair, its how business works. Maybe the product needs to be better to attract other advertisers.

 

[CuseLegacy]

Levine said people inside SU Athletics felt Axe was too negative. How is that not an indication?

Is Axe not still an employee of the University.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Is Axe not still an employee of the University.

He worked as an adjunct in Newhouse. Not sure what the terms of employment for that are.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

I see what you're saying, but when you're a one sport town, you have to play the game. Its not unfair, its how business works. Maybe the product needs to be better to attract other advertisers.

I hear your argument. But no one seems to care that "it's a business" when complaining about Syracuse.com "click bait."

Also, the fact that "it's a business" doesn't solve the problem I raise because it causes and is causing huge problems that go well beyond this isolated incident.

 

[GoSU96]

he's an easy target these days and media is always going to come to the defense of their peers in situations such as this.

Except Matt Tabbi

 

[Stern]

another one from the n

Nobody will care in another 24-28 hours. All the journalists making a big deal out of it will move on and write another piece and once the tournament starts it will no longer be anywhere.

and Boeheim at age 78 could care less, I don't think he's accepting applications for new friends and definitely not in the media.

Boomer and Gio on WFAN this morning spent 20 min on this story and blasted Boeheim and Levine. Destroyed them both. Not sure this story is going away in a day or two like many think.

 

[Cuse181]

I hear your argument. But no one seems to care that "it's a business" when complaining about Syracuse.com "click bait."

Also, the fact that "it's a business" doesn't solve the problem I raise because it causes and is causing huge problems that go well beyond this isolated incident.

I don't follow the point you're trying make there.

 

[Cuse181]

another one from the n

Boomer and Gio on WFAN this morning spent 20 min on this story and blasted Boeheim and Levine. Destroyed them both. Not sure this story is going away in a day or two like many think.

Who?

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

I don't follow the point you're trying make there.

It's a general observation that this board, a faceless non-person-specific entity, likes to decry Syracuse.com for trying to attract readership because it's a business, but then defend the firing of a long-standing host because "it's a business." The common thread of what's being decried is the presentation of information they don't like.

 

[Cuse181]

It's a general observation that this board, a faceless non-person-specific entity, likes to decry Syracuse.com for trying to attract readership because it's a business, but then defend the firing of a long-standing host because "it's a business." The common thread of what's being decried is the presentation of information they don't like.

People decry dotcom because the product is terrible. Axe's product was also terrible, he was just the perfect combo of terrible and bad for business with your largest advertiser

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

People decry dotcom because the product is terrible. Axe's product was also terrible, he was just the perfect combo of terrible and bad for business with your largest advertiser

Regardless, "bad for business with your largest advertiser" is the issue here, and I am of the opinion that Ed Levine has a more responsibility to the public as the owner of local radio stations than to his own bottom line.

 

[Cuse181]

Regardless, "bad for business with your largest advertiser" is the issue here, and I am of the opinion that Ed Levine has a more responsibility to the public as the owner of local radio stations than to his own bottom line.

You should listen to NPR then.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

You should listen to NPR then.

I will do whatever I please, thank you.

 

[Cuse181]

I will do whatever I please, thank you.

I 'm just saying, if you're worried about business interests versus public interests NPR is a better bet than a privately owned radio station.

 

[GoSU96]

Regardless, "bad for business with your largest advertiser" is the issue here, and I am of the opinion that Ed Levine has a more responsibility to the public as the owner of local radio stations than to his own bottom line.

That’s silly. It’s a commercial entertainment station, it’s not a journalistic enterprise.

And beyond that he can dictate any tone/slant he wants and expect his employees execute that.