The news used to be a public service; now it’s mostly a thinly veiled ratings grab where octamoms and brainless starlets get more air time than messy issues like war and unemployment. Empty soundbites, rehashed talking points and emails from uninformed listeners rule. There’s more hard news in a half hour of The Daily Show than there is in an entire day on the news networks. So maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that I find myself at Pokerati or Tao of Poker for poker news more times than the poker media sites.
Hey I know times are tough. With poker affiliate and ad money vanishing like [fill in the blank]’s bankroll, the mad traffic grab is on. And I get the fact that an article with Durrr in the headline or a guy whacking off in the Borgata will get more reads than Bob Stupak’s obituary. But c’mon.
The guy won a WSOP bracelet, built the Stratosphere, once sent 1,001 dozen roses to a girlfriend, made million dollar bets, and bitch slapped a reporter. I mean he wasn’t a boring guy.
I first learned that Bob Stupak had died from Eric Seidel’s Twitter feed — which is one of the few feeds I can recommend so far. I spent the last day looking for tributes and obituaries for Bob Stupak.
I knew it would be too much to ask to find one on PokerPages, which is rehashing a lot of old articles and posting week-old news these days. But I hoped that I could at least find the amazing video interview they had done with Stupak at the 2006 World Poker Open in Tunica. I remember that Stupak was pretty shitfaced tipsy that night and gave up some pretty entertaining stuff from his past. But 50% of PokerPages videos are missing including Stupak’s. And of the ones that are listed, all the links appear to be busted. But I’ll give a titty bingo bumbersticker to anyone who can track that video down.
Sadly, nothing about Stupak yet on Poker News, Bluff Magazine, PokerListings, or even Poker News Daily. I mean even Wicked Chops got in a Stupak tribute piece (in between the boobage). And say what you will about Card Player, but they were among the first of the poker media set to pony up with an obit.
You can read more about Bob Stupak here, at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. And just know that wherever he is now — just got a whole lot more fun.
Note: I took these pictures of Bob at the 2006 World Poker Open
7 Comments
Reading my mind there, Amy. Definitely expected to see more (or at least *something* — on certain sites) on this one.
Did read the piece in the Las Vegas Sun this a.m. — http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep/26/brash-huckster-and-visionary-builder-bob-stupak-di/
I’ve been struggling to come up with a way to say what you said in the first paragraph. It’s about as well-written as I could ever have hoped to do myself.
Thanks for this post.
Can always count on you to tell the truth and tell it well.
Sorry, gang…when you’re not in the editor’s chair, you don’t have a call on what gets on the site.
I’m just in it for the keywords and links. Obits have been a staple of journalism for centuries — so we stick to the mantra of “If it bleeds it leads!”
But I do go to Hard Boiled Poker for thoughtful analysis.
I still remember very clearly being in the room when Bob did that interview with PokerPages in January 2006, and then going out for drinks with him and Nolan Dalla afterward. That was my first sign that I wasn’t in Kansas (or Tennessee, I guess) anymore.
Had I not been on vacation this weekend, Stupak would’ve been at the top of my daily online column for Bluff. As it is, I’m mentioning him today. Shame on him for timing his death so poorly as to coincide with me sustaining my mental health!
It is amazing what is being passed off as “news” at some sites.
Also, I assume you saw that PokerPages is now officially folding at the end of the month. That explains a lot regarding what has been being put up on the site lately.
The only comment my mention of Stupak got was this one:
“What da fck is going on here… wuzup with poker pages closing down? stupak died also… the world must be ending? sarcasm at its fullest… who gives a rat f*CK?”
If you ever wonder why the “news” on poker sites is bereft of any sort of gravity or acknowledgment of the game’s history, take a look first at the people who read the stuff.