Coaches wife confronts columnist in press box

According to this, they're kind of divorced with separate residences. If they're back together, then that's his mistake.

Don't I remember Mrs. Bellotti as the one who was busted for, um, carrying on in public with her neighbor while still married to Coach Bellotti?

 

If this was an afternoon, it makes you wonder how many issues she has if she was liquored up that early. And if this happened to me, damn right I'd get it in print somewhere. If she's going to do that shit at my workplace I'm going to let the world know what a flaming fucking idiot she truly is. (Assuming, of course, the world reads my stuff.)

 

I don't think Canzano should have written it. She's just another (allegedly drunken) asshole, she just happens to be married to a coach, who seems to be aware that she has problems since they've already had at least one separation and may not even be living together now. I wouldn't consider her (or the nanny) a public figure. There's no news value in it -- the sole purpose is to embarrass. A columnist's blog shouldn't be used to settle personal scores.

In the immortal words of Deion Sanders, "I can't control my females." And you know what -- truer words were never spoken, and I mean that in a good way. It's just kind of caveman to believe men control the women in their lives.

 

Noon PDT kickoff. And there's no question that she has "issues."

Exactly right.

 

The point is, I doubt she said, "Hey, Mike, I think I'm going to take the kids and the nanny to the stadium, walk up to the press box and tell that writer what I think of his work." Therefore, how could Mike prevent this? Even if they did have that talk, the only thing he could do is call the SID and tell him to keep Mrs. Bellotti out of the box. Aside from that, she's in complete control of everything she is going to do. You can only police a person to a certain extent. He does not own her -- married, divorced, fucking on the side, whatever -- she is not his property.

I don't think it's fair to castigate Mike Bellotti for the things his wife did, saying he should have controlled her better.

 

It's interesting to note that Canzano is responding personally to each comment on that blog story. Not sure if I agree with fueling the fires like that, but it takes cojones.

 

Too one-sided. If there's a pressbox altercation and the paper thinks it's newsworthy, it should run a brief in the notes like others papers have when a writer gets into it with another writer or an athlete or fans. Obviously the newspaper did not believe it had news value or it would have run something, written by someone who was not involved. Otherwise, you're abusing a newspaper-provided platform to settle a personal grievance. I don't think that's remotely appropriate for a news organization to permit.

 

I think it's fair game because it's a repeated offense, but Frank brings up an interesting point about whether or not she is a public figure. Google her name. The only results are for this. There is one image, of her with Mike on the field after a game. She's not a name, she just has a last name.

 

Frank's too classy to attach the word to it. He leaves it to me.

SMUG.

 

What an ugly situation to deal with. Dave Williford deserves better. And you know what? People aren't going to be talking about Oregon's chances against Arizona State this week...

 

It's smug, but that's not the problem I have with it. The basis of most newspaper ethics is that we don't use our professional standing to advance a personal agenda or give us an advantage that the average person wouldn't have or create the impression that we do. Where is the other party's side to the story? It does not exist. Mrs. Bellotti does not have the advantage of newspaper-provided audience and thus credibility that Canzano has. If Canzano wanted to blast her on a personal blog unaffiliated with The Oregonian, I'd think it was smug and unseemly and unnecessary, but not an abuse of power. Let someone uninvolved write it if it needs to be written and at least give her a chance to defend herself.