One of the odd side effects of my constant questioning of Bill Polian and his relationship with local Indianapolis media is that it has made an ally of Mike Florio of PFT; the very same Mike Florio I have rather consistently insulted over the years. It is certainly no 'fun' to question the motives of local media and Bill Polian. I'd much rather write about actual games and Colts players kicking ass.
Unfortunately, when the Colts seemingly do something very dumb, local media is sometimes all too compliant to carry water for them. This might be the case with the 'Bill Polian Show' being blacked out to Internet listeners.
We've written about this a great deal, and we make no apologies for it being something different than what you've come to expect from a Colts 'fan blog.' But, after years of bashing national media for not doing their jobs covering the Colts, it would be hypocritical if we did not hold local media to the same standard.
When we broke the news of 'The Bill Polian Show' being cut off to Internet listeners because it was subject to black out rules similar to a football game, Florio picked up the story and seemed to relish it:
Big Blue Shoe's instincts likely are on the money. There's no "play-by-play" to black out. But Polian surely realizes that the Internet audience is far more likely to include those who may transcribe and repeat his words in a manner that may expose inconsistencies or express criticism of Polian.
On terrestrial radio, the audience is most likely to include folks include to nod along with Polian, including a local media that the team does a nice job of keeping under its thumb.
We appreciate anytime Mike links to us, and thank him for backing us on a story that, quite frankly, not many people want to talk about. I've gotten confirmation from the one NFL league source that Polian's show is most certainly not subject to blackout rules. I'm waiting on confirmation from another source. I've also contacted 1070 The Fan numerous times, including an email this morning to their station producers, asking for any kind of official statement.
Hopefully, later today we will get it because the perception growing is that the Colts asked 1070 The Fan to kill that Internet feed the week after Polian insulted fans on the show after the Week Sixteen PR nightmare last season. If 1070 did this, it's highly unethical. Illegal? No, but unethical. It sends a message that they are nothing more than water carriers for the Colts, and for an independent radio entity like 1070 such a message would be damaging to their credibility.
If this perception is not correct, and I hope it isn't, the best way for 1070 to squash it is to provide us with a logical reason why the feed has been shut down since December last year. We await their statement, and look forward to getting a real answer.