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The Oklahoman retracted a dumb poll about OU – Texas…

2:04 PM EDT on October 1, 2014

"The State's Most Trusted News" is doing a good job at maintaining its sterling reputation of incompetence. Yesterday afternoon, NewsOK.com issued the following faux-apology tweet about some clickbait they posted on the website:

newsok poll tweet

Yes, a website with so many trolls that it makes the YouTube comment section look like a civilized utopia had to remove a poll about a football game because it dealt with a sensitive subject. Uhm, how's that even possible? Did they ask if OU fans have recovered from last year's abortion of a Red River Rivalry? That would piss some people off. Did they ask OU fans to choose if they would let their kids be disciplined by Adrian Peterson if it guaranteed an OU blowout victory over Texas? That would be insensitive. It would also be interesting. I bet a majority would choose a "whoopin." Wounds heal with time. OU - Texas scores do not.

Anyway, let's take a look at the insensitive poll. Although NewsOK has removed it and the accompanying "Digital Desk" article from their site, we have acquired some screenshots va the Ogle Mole Network:

newsok poll
ou texas2

First of all, a better question would have been if an 11am kickoff will prevent people from going to Texas.

Second, that's it?

I think I'm more insulted by the fear mongering and general laziness of the article than I am its insensitivity. It has no depth, and being set-up as a poll as opposed to one-liner or joke isn't funny at all. It's just a sad, blatant attempt at clickbaiting. Basically, it's like all the other stuff you read on the NewsOK.com Digital Desk.

It kind of makes me wonder if it's about time for NewsOK.com to pull the plug on the Digital Desk? It's about as cool and fun as Wimgo. Is the $200 or whatever in additional revenue it brings in each week really worth the shame and embarrassment of publishing the thing? They've tried to be a flat, snark-free version of us and it sucks. Stick to what you're good at, which is... uhm... uhh... autoplaying videos when people click one of your articles?

Also, just because I'm curious...

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