Mike Missanelli is a longtime Crossing Broad reader, and we appreciate his support. Occasional beefs play out in the public sphere, but truly it’s not personal. We don’t hate the guy; we just write about the Philadelphia sports media as part of the brand, and sometimes you end up in the territory of headphone throwing and fake African-American radio callers.

In the past, we’ve even been on Mike’s side, like that one time we helped clarify that he was NOT threatening the Vice President of the United States, and that other time when we posted the full transcript of his apology in order to provide the context you weren’t getting from the mainstream fake news media.

We do fair and balanced journalism at Crossing Broad.

However, Mike took a few swipes at us on a General Knowledge Wednesday evening, and we cannot allow that to stand. We must defend our reputable site from SLANDEROUS accusations and hold fast to our convictions.

The audio:


 

A portion of the transcript:

Mike: “Let me just say this one thing. I go on Twitter during the break and read some tweets. This Kevin dude from the Crossing Broad, seems like a nice enough fella.”

Tyrone: “Yeah he’s a nice guy.”

Natalie: “Yeah he’s cool.”

I appreciate that. We’re off to a good start. Natalie actually used to work with my wife at CBS Radio, and everybody in the Philly sports media knows each other.

More:

Mike: “Now he writes to this other guy, ‘bro they work for sports radio and need something to fill the time.'”

Fact check – true!

It was total fluff. A filler story, like the back half of an alt rock album. Everybody knows the Brett Favre and Doug Pederson thing was an absolute nothing burger of a story. It was a nonsensical media creation that both sports talk radio stations picked up because it was juicy and it centered on the Eagles and a dumbass quarterback controversy. God forbid we talk about something other than Carson Wentz and Nick Foles for the ten millionth time, as if football is the only sport in town. It’s old and it’s tired, for real. Nobody fucking cares what Doug Pederson thinks of what Brett Favre thinks of Carson Wentz.

More:

Mike: “Check your logo, it doesn’t say NBC, CBS, ABC News on it, does it?”

No, but it used to. I spent two years at the ABC affiliate in Augusta and seven years at Eyewitness News in Philadelphia. It was alright. I got to work with some fantastic people like Pat Ciarrocchi and Ukee Washington and even won a 2013 Mid-Atlantic Emmy that sits on my mantle at home, collecting dust. Working in corporate media was fine, but there was always some middle manager telling you what to do, and the folks running the place were sales people who didn’t care about journalism; they just wanted to please whatever New York City asshole they were currently reporting to.

Crossing Broad pays better than Eyewitness News and we do more interesting things here. We write stories other “traditional” outlets don’t touch. We’re still credentialed to cover the teams but we’re not as stiff and crotchety as the outlets Mike Missanelli likes. It’s all in good fun and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Anybody would love to write about sports all day long, same way I’d love to roll in at 1:30 p.m.,  then sit in a chair for four hours talking about the same Eagles topics while shitting all over Flyers fans and justifying the insult by telling them I’m just “playing the hits” for archaic Nielsen ratings purposes.

Plus, most outlets all run the same “crap” anyway, so it’s not like we’re the only site aggregating reports and rumors and posting them. You can go to Bleeding Green Nation or Philly Voice or NBC Sports Philadelphia and find the same “Report: This guy says blah blah blah” type of story. Those sites still do solid, original content to go along with the aggregation, which is just part of the gig in 2020. Mike seems deflated and sad because the once-impregnable bastion of sports journalism just ain’t what it used to be.

Like I said, it’s nothing personal, but we must defend ourselves when Mike spews pernicious and false allegations, like his favorite politician, Donald Trump.