Raymond Carlin III | USA TODAY Sports

The internet is having a conniption over this tweet from the Cowboys’ official account following Sunday’s playoff loss to the 49ers.

People are shocked and appalled a team platform would transmit such a critical (albeit honest) message about quarterback Dak Prescott. But they should be impressed not only with the candor, but the reason for it.

This was not the Cowboys trying to throw Prescott under the bus, or a social media person getting too bitter and emotional after a tough defeat. This was the latest example of why Jerry Jones is smarter and savvier than almost every other owner in professional sports.

Every big league team (and many collegiate athletics departments) has some sort of in-house media apparatus. Sometimes it is because there would be little to no coverage otherwise. This is mostly applicable to colleges and second-tier leagues like MLS, but it can apply to the major four sports. The Devils come to mind locally.

More often, though, in-house media exists because organizations are hell-bent on attempting to control (and then create) their narrative. The goal is for team-friendly spin to color the opinions of fans while, if things really click, undercutting the independent media outlets reporting on the team.

That last goal can come to fruition. There are far too many Knicks fans that embrace Leon Rose’s pre-taped softball sit-downs on MSG and the team’s other shameful media relations behavior. But it rarely does. Because people don’t buy it. Fans know when they are being worked. They realize WFAN’s Giants beat reporter is collecting a paycheck from the team, or that YES Network is pushing bogus and Yankees-serving Isiah Kiner-Falefa metrics. And in the end, even if they think all the traditional beat reporters are jerks who work for horrible liberal newspapers, they still view them as the best resource to learn about their team.

Which is where Jones and the Cowboys’ official website comes in. He employs reporters and has them do the job the same way they would do it if their press badge read Dallas Morning News or The Athletic or Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Facts and opinions, whether they are good, bad or ugly. Which is how the tweet in question came to be. It is just the deck of a game story off the team website.

You don’t become the NFL’s biggest show by being inauthentic. You are also wasting your time if your team-created content is the same and there is no reason to take in-house media seriously. Jones gets that and understands the objective should be to increase exposure of his team, not to curtail or manipulate it. And by telling it like it is, he gets a seat at a table that is not his to begin with.

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James Kratch can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @jameskratch.

James Kratch is the managing editor of ESNY. He previously worked as a Rutgers and Giants (and Mike Francesa) beat reporter for NJ Advance Media.