Sports Director’s Notebook - When reporting the news becomes the news
WRBB is a small part of a large student media fraternity, not only at Northeastern, but throughout the United States. It gives us great pride to provide opportunity to aspiring sports journalists, as well as provide quality broadcasts of Huskies sports to the Northeastern community.
It is interesting how, in recent years, WRBB has drawn the interest of talented print reporters. Patrick McHugh, Jared Shafran, and Andrew Parente all cover Northeastern sports for the Huntington News (proud underwriter of the Huntington News Halftime/Intermission Report), and there are some newcomers to the station who are also double-dipping. It gives us a feeling of legitimacy when so many journalism students volunteer their time to become involved with the WRBB Sports. I admire those who, in addition to their professional work, do both radio and print work here at Northeastern, because they are two very different disciplines and require unique skill sets.
The contrast between a news source and simple broadcast outlet became apparent to me when we broke the Steve Quailer injury story. WRBB general manager Keith Lavon was at the forefront of a frantic scramble to get information. As a radio station, we don’t often get the opportunity to break news, but when we do, we must be as credible and professional as any other outlet would be in presenting the story. As it turns out, Northeastern released a statement the very next day about the injury. I would love to pump my chest and say that it was our reporting that forced some sort of statement to be made, but with rumors flying around, it is very possible that something was bound to be published - we just happened to get the story first.
We are very lucky at Northeastern - we have developed a great relationship with the athletic department. I’ll be the first to admit my fair share of mistakes, but we have the good fortune of working with a school that embraces student journalists.
There are other schools that are not so accommodating. Student journalists at the University of Montana wrote a controversial story in the campus paper, the Montana Kaimin, about two football players who allegedly assaulted a fellow student outside a fraternity house near the school’s campus. School officials and the head coach of the program, Bobby Hauck, dealt with the matter internally, handing down punishments to the players involved. However, when reporters from the Kaimin published the story about the incident, they were subsequently ignored at press conferences and excluded from interviews.
This isn’t the first time an incident like this has happened. In the spring, the Royal Purple at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater was banned from covering the school’s football team after a scathing editorial. The head coach later issued an apology to the paper.
In the same month, Texas Christian University excluded student broadcaster Brian Smith from appearing on the mtn., a regional sports network owned by the MountainWest Conference (and its member schools), after the student questioned whether the right player was given the starting quarterback job. Mark Cohen, director of athletic media relations for TCU, said at the time, “My office will not take time out of its busy schedule to assist in putting TCU students on the air to make negative comments about our student athletes.” It was later reported that the team’s head coach, Gary Patterson, was the man responsible for the banishment.
These incidents illustrate what a fine line student journalists operate on. On one hand, they are more closely tied to their institution than any independent reporter would ever be. As such, it is difficult to report on or submit an opinion on any subject that may paint their respective school in a negative light. The Quailer story was far from an earth-shattering story, and a player’s injury is totally insignificant when compared to the other stories I referenced. However, it does drive home the point that, especially when working outside the bounds of official information, student journalists have the same responsibilities as the pros (if not more) to be careful with what is published or broadcast.
These three incidents from Montana, Texas, and Wisconsin show the overreaction (and immaturity) from each school, and highlight the fact that as student media, we must be careful not to damage our own credibility when reporting a story or stating an opinion. It is a privilege to cover sports like we do here at WRBB, and it’s a priority to maintain the trust of the school we cover. So long as we remain professional, people will take us seriously.
Alex Faust is the sports director for WRBB-FM. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent those of WRBB, Northeastern University, sponsors, or affiliates.
The below article was written by the adjunct professor at the
University of Montana who oversees the Kaimin and, therefore,
it’s staff. Think he is fair in his reporting? I think not!
Esquire Magazine
August 13, 2008
Football Coaches Are Jerks
Somewhere along the way, all football coaches started acting like assholes. But last year’s defeat of the Patriots and Bill Belichick — today’s biggest asshole in sports — means there might be hope for us all.
By: Chris Jones
I’m not sure when, exactly, Motorola headsets started coming with a license to act like an asshole. My guess is it began with Bill Parcells, although he might have been just the most visible of a new breed, because he was fat and lived in New York. And also because he was a good coach — I refuse to call any adult male who teaches other adult males how to play a game a “genius” — and because he was occasionally funny when he got upset, Parcells could get away with acting like a tyrant. He was like a cross between Bill Walsh (the last football coach who might qualify as a genuine intellect) and Bobby Knight, the World’s Worst Human.(tm) Parcells was the zenith and the nadir of the profession embodied in a single sealike creature.
The problem came when lesser coaches decided to start emulating the Big Tuna, if not in his on-field success, then in his off-field behavior. It became trendy to exude disdain like sweat; to maintain a level of paranoid secrecy that makes the Department of Homeland Security seem benign; to watch film for 18 hours a day and sleep in the office, because somehow that was a demonstration of dedication, not of Jon Gruden’s sociopathic insecurity. It doesn’t take a degree in child psychology to figure out why Andy Reid’s kids turned into such upright citizens.
And still the trickle down has continued unabated, through the college ranks and down into our high schools, even high schools that aren’t in Texas or Pennsylvania. Catch a game at any scrub field across the country and you’ll see the bastard sideline spawn of Bill Belichick wearing his cutoff sweatshirt and throwing his clipboard at the kids.
Thank God, then, that the Patriots lost to the Giants last season. Coach Hoodie was finally revealed for what he is: a man blessed with players who could be told to play football like they did in their backyards when they were young and still go something like 10-6.
Ask the fans in Cleveland if Belichick’s a genius.
“No,” they’ll say. “He’s an asshole.”
We might yet be saved.
Find this article at: http://www.esquire.com/features/the-game/football-coaches-0908