Columnist hangs beat writer out to dry

always been a pet peeve of mine. i go out of my way to tease any reporter who addresses a coach as "coach." they have first names. use them.

crap, these folks aren't dignataries. most of them are a--holes not worthy of being addressed by their job description.

 

If calling a coach "Coach" gets a reporter better quotes and scoops, or at least improves the relationship, I'd say do it. It's not really that big a deal. Not like you're being asked to call him "His Highness" or somesuch.

 

This ain't the pope ... he coaches basketball ... he's Jim. I'd call John Wooden "Mr. Wooden," simply out of respect for the age of the man. I understand guys who do the "coach" thing, as in the setting it seems (and is, for the most part) appropriate. It's just not something I would ever do.

Gotta agree here ... Calhoun behaved like a dick, but that's not the column. The column is the kids who failed to play well against WVU. The choice to use the question in the presser as his point of entry, I'd say, had at least a little to do with Calhoun's aggressive nature.

And the guy deserved to get beat over the head by Calhoun after the "I don't write columns" line. Nobody outside the business makes the distinction. The beat guy's reply should have been a smile and a nod as Calhoun acted like a horse's ass following a very fair question. The response made the reporter no better than Calhoun ... two dumbasses trading blows.

 

I found the column interesting ... although I think I found that column interesting mainly because I'm in the business. In other words, I still don't think the public cares about how the hot dogs are made.

As far as columnist hanging beat writer out to dry, I don't think he did that at all. And to dispute an earlier post, no, that would NOT be cool to me if he HAD.

 

I don't see it as a dig at the beat guy at all.

(The guy is a competitor anyway).

I like to see Jacobs whack Calhoun.

If Calhoun had a different job and treated people that way, he'd get fired.

Too many people in Connecticut -- including some newspaper people -- think he walks on water.

Jacobs was right the last time, and he's right this time.

But, yeah, it gets old sometimes.

 

I call my friends by their first names, and I always went out of my way to tease reporters who called coaches by their first names. Since to me it implied I was the coach's friend, when I wasn't.
Plus just saying coach is a handy way to keep track of all the GAs, assistants and other assorted people without actually having to remember first names.

 

I call coaches by their first name, but I don't give one shred of a shit if a reporter calls him "coach", "sir" or "master".

Just more stupid shit we worry about that has no consequence to anything.

And Calhoun is a dick.

 

so, if when asking a question, would referring to calhoun as 'coach dick' be acceptable?

 

Agreed.

Also, I think the original question to Calhoun is legit, but the response of "I don't write columns" is absolutely unnecessary and smartass. It's not our job to argue with the coaches and athletes. Coaches say stuff like you don't know anything about the sport because you didn't play it. I could say "Actually, I did" but I don't. I'd be right, just like the New Haven guy is right about not writing columns, but it's not our place to assert that.

On a side note, I wonder why writers are so sensitive about this kind of stuff. We "tell it like it is" when the teams we cover play poorly, and we should. But I've read a ton of writers at non-major and major papers and their work is crap too. I believe the coaches and players, who are sources but also readers, should have to right to "tell it like it is" too. When we're rightly criticized, we often respond more classlessly than the coaches and players.

 

Very, very good point. You know ... "I don't write COLUMNS ... nyah-nyah-nyah."

 

A vet at my shop sat me down last year and said, "Son, if you learn nothing else from me, learn never to call these assholes 'Coach.' You cede control of the interview to them if you do so. You're implying that they are more important than they really are. You control the interview. Call them by their first name. If they can't handle it, fuck 'em."

 

It is, but we'll keep seeing it because people keep doing it and editors keep allowing it.