Montana coach freezes out student paper

I'd consider that as part of the total package. People like Hauck invariably create enemies along the way. I wouldn't plan on leaving Montana any time soon if I were him.

 

“You’re done for the day,” said Hauck, while covering up the tape recorder. “And you’ll be done for the season if you keep bugging me about this thing that I’ve answered four fucking times.”

“He expressed that he was sorry about what happened,” Richardson said. “He said that it would be handled internally and there would be some punishment for the players. The only thing that I expressed to him was that after they kicked him, they thought it would be cool to do their ‘oh Compton, bloods, crips, this and that shit.’ I told Bobby that and he was livid.”

http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/news/news_article/allegations_against_griz_football_players_surface/

 

Care to expand on your point?

 

To an extent. You also have to keep a good relationship with your sources, and bombarding them with FOIs that are trivial at best is not a good way to keep a good relationship. It's a good way to annoy your sources. You have to pick and choose your FOI battles in normal circumstances.

But when the coach tells you to eat shit? By all means, release the FOI hounds.

 

Just can't remember having seen fuck and shit in a newspaper story before.

 

I don't like that either. If college newspapers are supposed to be a training ground for the real world, then there's no place for those two words in a story. Chances are you won't get away with using them in print ever unless you end up working for an alt-weekly or something.

 

Can't disagree but I am not going to let them detract from an otherwise solid piece of work.

 

Not at all. And my point wasn't to condemn them for running it. Just surprised me to read it.

Hauk's quote would not have lost much by (censoring) it. Second one could have ended with "this and that."

 

I'd like to second this. In college, I was blacklisted by the SID. Turns out, it was much easier to speak with the athletes at local bars and house parties instead. Sometimes while the athletes were "three-sheets-to-the-wind" or "totally baked dude"

Eventually I was allowed to interview players again.

I guess what I mean is: There is always another way to get your information. And once you find that avenue the athletic dept or coach or who ever will find they have no power to stop you from gaining that information - so they may as well control what information you do get.

 

I nearly went through something like this last month. A RB for the college I covered - a local kid - ran for 176 yards and two touchdowns. It was his best performance since high school. He didn't compete his freshman year at another school after being arrested for aggravated battery.

He said to me how neat it was to score a touchdown because, "I haven't had one in awhile."

Naturally, I followed that up by explaining why he hadn't scored in awhile. Boy, the coach flew off the deep end. Texted me the next day, saying "No meeting this week." (we meet midweek for interviews) He added how bad our paper would look without any quotes from him.

I laughed at that, but luckily, his hissy fit didn't last long. Part of it is because we do have a good relationship, but it was more the SID and AD will never stand for a coach not talking to the media. The AD apologized repeatedly to me, and kept saying, "He can't treat you like that."

I also pissed off the men's basketball coach here last year. I heard he came out of his office after I tried calling him a week after my column pissed him off, and he goes to the SID and says, "Uh ... kingcreole just called me. Do I really have to call him back?"

SID told me he looked at the coach and said, "Uh ... yeah."

 

See, that's the thing. Where's the SID in this? That person's job is to regulate media contact between athletic representatives of the University and the media, and that includes student productions. When I was a student journalist, everything we did involving the coaches went through the SID, and much of what we did with the athletes went through him as well. It just got to the point with the athletes where the SID said, "Just give me a heads up who you're having on the show and when" regarding the athletes.

Sounds like Montana screwed this one up from the start by not regulating things properly.

 

A lot of it starts with the university's attitude. If they see you as a real paper, then, they need to expect to take some lumps. But if they think of you as being their house organ or expect you to be the club notes section. In reality, they're teachers as much as anyone in a classroom.