In today’s open thread, we look to talk about the people who talk about other people for a living.
In a major market like Chicago, sports media coverage plays a big role in a professional team’s existence. That rings especially true for the Bears, being a football team in a football city that just so happens to be the third-largest market in the United States.
A professional job working on the Bears beat is a big deal for a journalist. As bad as the team can be sometimes, you know your work will be digested by more people than nearly any other NFL beat out there.
There are a lot of outlets that cover the Bears, both professionally and part-time. In today’s open thread, I’ll ask the question: which media outlet does the best job of covering the Bears?
To remove bias from the equation, I won’t mention Windy City Gridiron, even though I feel very strongly about how strong our staff’s work is. I just reached eight years writing for this website — which is crazy to think about — and I feel like the work here is as strong as it’s ever been.
As far as the full-time Bears beat goes, I think that the duo at The Athletic of Adam Jahns and Kevin Fishbain report on the team well, however with Jahns recently moving to CHGO, we’ll see how that goes.
It’s not a full staff, but Courtney Cronin at ESPN does good work, too. Obviously, there are many others whose work I read, but those are just a few of the highlights.
From the blogosphere, Bears On Tap and Bears Wire I think have solid coverage, among many others. I’m not a big podcast guy, so I can’t say I have too much input from the long-form video or audio content. I keep up with some of the Barstool folks, though.
Which media outlets are your favorite to digest Bears content from? Outside of WCG, because we know we’re the best, obviously. Duh. Anyway, sound off in the comments with which websites, channels or organizations you think do the best work. Additionally, if there are any individual personalities you like, feel free to give them a shout!