Dusty Saunders takes Drew Soicher to task at long last
“9 News employs dozens of excellent reporters and anchors who help the station set the gold standard with its local news product. Even its other sports anchors, Rod Mackey, Aaron Matas and Suzie Wargin perform their roles without the aid of banana suits and slide whistles.”
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I could almost not believe my eyes when I saw that Denver Post media columnist Dusty Saunders had finally called out 9 News’ Drew Soicher. I staggered at the headline: Drew Soicher’s schtick tends to be a waste of TV time. Finally! Someone with some real clout in Denver said it.
Saunders’ piece ran today. It was triggered by a schmaltzy sports segment 9 News ran on a bummed-out USA soccer fan during which Soicher guffawed. Saunders, however, did not limit his criticism of Soicher’s act to that particular piece of terrible television. He took the anchor to task for his entire goofy routine and by doing so wrote on the behalf off the thousands of frustrated Denver fans who have grown weary of bobble-heads and sea lions and demand that their sports news be delivered from a place of respect.
By continuing to employ Soicher and allowing him to prattle on as he does 9 News makes a statement about the way the station sees its viewers. The assumption is that people want fluff; that sports fans turn elsewhere for their real news gathering and that there is no urgency to deliver a buttoned down nightly update. 9 News believes that the way they do things is what works best and that it is reflected in their ratings. Station management believes that Soicher’s dog and pony show keeps viewers coming back – women in particular.
But Soicher is the only of 9 News’ on-air talents to behave like a child.
Adele Arakawa doesn’t have a schtick. Kyle Clark has earned favor as one of Denver’s most well-liked anchors through fantastic story telling and hard work. Cheryl Preheim, Greg Moss, Will Ripley, Mark Koebrich, Kyle Dyer, Kim Christiansen, Corey Rose, Kathy Sabine and the rest all deliver quality day in and day out.
9 News employs dozens of excellent reporters and anchors who help the station set the gold standard with its local news product. Even its other sports anchors, Rod Mackey, Aaron Matas and Suzie Wargin perform their roles without the aid of banana suits and slide whistles. So why does 9 News continue to allow Drew Soicher to be not only the most obnoxious sports anchor in the market but the least respected by his peers?
The perception across the Denver sports media is that Soicher doesn’t put in the work that others, like Channel 4’s Vic Lombardi, do. It’s widely known that Soicher makes the fewest appearances in the trenches of any prominent sports reporter. He is rarely at Dove Valley or Pepsi Center for practices and work outs and he’s almost never seen at press conferences. Naturally, the hard workers in the field resent that Soicher can maintain such a high profile gig while exerting so little energy. What he lacks in sweat equity he tries to make up for with his routine and folks are tiring of it.
Dusty Saunders finally brought Soicher’s fraud into the light today. We have written expensively about it here at this site but this site isn’t the Denver Post. Hopefully readers will catch Saunders’ commentary and ask themselves why they watch Drew Soicher.
Saunders wrote: “televised time Soicher spends on gimmicks would be better served by commentary or news about what is happening in sports around the world.” That’s exactly the point. But beyond using valuable time to deliver valueless drivel, Soicher insults the intelligence of modern sports fans. He assumes – and apparently 9 News does, too – that their viewers have only a passing interest in Denver sports and that it’s more important to entertain them than it is to inform them.
It’s time for the fans of Denver to let 9 News that they have gotten it wrong. Luckily, Dusty Saunders’ piece is a signal that the station simply cannot ignore. If 9 “wants to know” how Denver fans feel about their silly sports anchor all they have to do is read.
