Is Citius Mag the HuffPo/MSNBC of Running news?

Had never heard of them till just now. Quick review of their web site shows it's mostly podcasts, which is an automatic downvote for me. I need content to be quick, concise, to the point, that I can read the high points and move on. Ain't nobody got time to listen to some airbag bloviate endlessly.

Although I suspect OP is somewhat trolling with this thread, and it will likely be overcome with insincere comments and shallow takes - I find this to be a valid and important discussion. I think many folks can agree that due to the sport's small audience, media coverage anywhere along the quality spectrum is still #goodforthesport...

That said, I agree with a few folks' take that while Citius is an overall positive presence, I personally feel that some of their media, specifically their podcast, can be a bit canned. I've never been a big fan of Chavez's questioning and conversational style. I've always felt that the questions asked were somewhat shallow, and although I don't think he intends for it, his responses can be somewhat shallow or disingenuous.

I am, however, a fan of Merber's Lap Count (does this fall under the umbrella of CM?) Merber's self-deprecating style and heavy-on-the-content newsletters deliver solid coverage with minimal overly-biased takes.

As of late I've spread my running news consumption between the LRC homepage (I try to stay away from the boards and especially the LRC podcast...), the Lap Count, Tempo Journal social media posts, and episodes here and there of the Half Step/'Coffee' Club/Strength Runner, Citius podcasts. IMO all of the aforementioned podcasts have their faults, but taken as a whole are good for the sport.

I guess the comparison holds once you concede LRC is the Daily Stormer of running sites.

Used to love them, and never missed an episode.

But when they started taking a stance of criticising other publications and running journalists/journalism, they started to lose them.

The good work they do for the sport (Chris' passion is outstanding) is compromised by their criticism of others.

The only thing I move when I hear anything to do with WesFly are my bowels. I change my shorts, not the sport.

I’m a liberal, and a person of color. I can’t stand David. And Erin, and Alison, and Chavez. Here’s why:

Shelby.

The liberal scold journalists of the running world are quick to point out wrongdoing. Just look at their pages now it’s just filled with perceived injustices. David offers spicy takes yelling at anyone who doesn’t abide by his worldview and then they are all silent on Shelby. silent, or even supportive.

people of color know what racism is, what it feels like, and it doesn’t always come in the form of insults. Sometimes it comes in the form of extreme bias that is so blatant to the POC and so so unconscious to the white liberal who truly believes they “check it”.

”I checked my bias” protested Lauren freshman after posting a long diatribe about how Shelby’s doping ban was a tragedy, and stating she believed Shelby was innocent because she KNOWS HER COACH.

david who is so loud when it comes to sifan doping or Galen was dead silent on Shelby. Well no, he wasn’t. He deleted a ridiculous stream of tweets lecturing about how “improbable doesn’t mean IMPOSSIBLE!” When the full cas report was released.

Nothing but high character references from scoldy Erin. Nothing, silence from Alison wade. As a person of color this hurts as much as anything because we’d know how it would go if this were…

marielle hall

athing mu

ajee wilson

In the brief time when we knew sha’carri had been busted and we didn’t know what for, David gleefully tweeted about sha’carri suspicious coach. But when Shelby was banned it was silence.

but what about Galen????

what about him? It’s not just whiteness that gets you this protection, but it is a requirement for it. No matter how likable marielle or athing are, if they were busted, they’d be exposed and then dropped.

if Galen just grabbed a beer with David and Chris they’d be in his pocket. I promise.

I’ve been listening to Citius since it’s inception. The professional style of Chavez has come a long way. I enjoy the content. I do prefer LRC for its rawness, hot takes, and pioneering in this space.
Chavez is no longer with SI so I suspect in order to advance CM and his own career forward then there is no other choice but to hedge a bit on the woke side. I think CM is overall good for the sport and the tone in which the content is delivered has to deal more with personal opinion and preference. This is just our world now where the media will get blasted by not calling a person ‘they.’ I have very conservative, traditional views and those won’t get swayed by listening to a podcast about running with woke undertones. Frankly, I get more taken aback by Rojos F-bombs. But I still love me some Roooojjjooooo’s rants!!!

Woke propaganda episodes? What are you on about, precisely?

Chavez is following the playbook of The Athletic, which sold for $550M. I don't subscribe to Citius Mag or Final Lap as it's dated media, but love the passion and efforts. I will read it them when something special comes across my desk.

.

cnbc.com

The Athletic co-founders explain why they sold to The New York Times in their first post-deal interview

https://www.facebook.com/CNBC

In an exclusive CNBC interview, The Athletic co-founders explain why they sold to The New York Times.

Link:www.cnbc.com/2022/02/10/the-athletic-c...

But what is the worst thing you've read about yourself on Let's Run? (because one time some random poster called you a hobby jogger)

Not sure anyone takes them seriously. Except for the few "wannabe" runners they choose for their podcasts who have no one else interested in them. The actual elites look at them like a "mercy f" and have to say something when they shove the mic in their face.

David Melly is gay so sounds like your "creeply flirting" radar is broken

This dumb thread is exactly the reason why most pro runners hate let's run. If kgault left this site then there would be zero credibility left.

everyone keeps saying they hate it, yet everyone keeps coming back 🤷

I'm actually not a big Citius Mag guy. Ignoring the nonsense identity politics that started this thread, I more/less expected a ton more from them when they gained some popularity. I thought they could actually challenge LRC & cover the sport in a healthier way that might change the way the brojos/others think about how they cover the sport. But they've basically just resorted to memes & interviewing the same athlete making rounds on half a dozen podcasts. The site feels insular in that they bring on friends/people they know to contribute. After a good number of years, I'm still confused about their end game. What are they adding to the sport? What are they trying to change or raise up? It seems, sometimes, that they're just about building the brand up for some of the people involved with it. It's too self-serving at times for me.

100%

Holier-than-thou folks reveal themselves when they are silent on people they like or are biased about.

Also, David has always had a checkered history when it comes to racism. He will "call out" racism on twitter, but rarely invites guests of color on his show or promotes them in any meaningful ways. It's just empty tweets from him. He's also more fond of clapbacks than making actual changes. He put both Katie Rainsberger and Whitney Orton Morgan on "blast" for reasons that ended up being false or misleading. Whenever there's an opportunity to call someone out, David rarely takes time to be thoughtful.

When Shelby was busted and everyone was silent from Clean Sport Collective to Citius, I had to laugh. When they went to the mat for clean sport, creating whole organizations promoting it, didn't they consider the possibility that one of their white American loves could be caught? Did they consider how that would be handled?

I want to also add something to this regarding Katie and Whitney. Where Whitney is concerned, he was mad at her because she said of her school, BYU, "I don't see why anyone wouldn't want to come to BYU!" this was directly after she had won the national championship and she was probably feeling pretty euphoric in that interview. David was angry at her and clapped back with her because of BYU's horrible policies towards LGBTQ people.

I AGREE that BYU's (dis)honor code policies are terrible. I would even go as far as to say that the NCAA should actually not allow BYU to compete as long as they have these horribly discriminatory policies on the books. If this is about "religious freedom" and "don't go there if you don't like it" then what's stopping every Catholic school like Fordham, Notre Dame, Boston College, and Georgetown from adopting policies similar to theirs too? Discrriminatory policies ANYWHERE is bad, and BYU should be held accountable more.

But these policies aren't Whitney's fault and we don't know how she actually feels about them. She had a moment of happiness where she maybe didn't think about every nuance before blurting what she said out. What she said was objectively wrong--I can see why a lot of people wouldn't want to go to BYU, but she shouldn't be humiliated by running media for it.

The same thing goes for Katie Rainsberger who's name was on a petition that attempted to get the NCAA to reconsider it's views on trans participation. Katie's name was mistakenly added to the petition, but it didn't stop David Melly from humiliating her without understanding the whole situation. David loves to demonize people more than he actually cares about the issues he's fighting for. He should have demonized Shelby for something before she was busted and maybe we'd be hearing a different tune.

Really well said. He’d rather have the tweet out first even if it’s wrong and hurts other people. What a gasbag.

Is it true that Chavez pays his contributors peanuts if at all?