Tennessee bans Knoxville reporter

... and as an add, do you think we'd stand for it if someone banned a reporter from a city council meeting?

 

Welcome to covering this fucking conference.

As someone else mentioned, this is a chickenshit tactic that you would expect from Florida or Alabama. South Carolina got a writer from the State demoted to preps after Eddie Fogler stopped talking to him.

If the Knoxville paper doesn't go to bat for its writer, he should start sending out resumes immediately.

 

This is an interesting approach. So it's not like they just tried to sneak a buddy in or sell a credential. The SE just had a really bad idea for a story and went with it.

 

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/editor/2006/10/behind_dave_hookers_suspension.shtml

McElroy's blog ...

Behind Dave Hooker's suspension

Yesterday, the University of Tennessee pulled Dave Hooker's credentials to cover the Vols through the Alabama game. http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/govols/article/0,1406,KNS_294_5057490,00.html There's a bit more to the story than seemed necessary to spell out in print.

Hooker got in trouble for violating the media rule that says all contacts with players should be cleared and arranged in advance by the UT Sports Information Office. It's a rule that often has been bent in the past. In this case, though, the interview was with Inky Johnson, the cornerback who was seriously injured in the Air Force game. (That story is attached as an extended entry). The Sports Info Office had been promising the press corps access to Inky at some point in the future. But Hooker, working through an intermediary within the UT athletic department, arranged independently to talk to the player. He conducted the interview by phone with Inky's cooperation.

When the story hit, though, Johnson told UT offiicials that Hooker had "ambushed" him on campus. In fact, the two had crossed paths on campus, and they both said "hi," but there was no interview. That was arranged at another time and occurred later. However, Johnson, like Hooker, did not want to implicate the anonymous intermediary who facilitated the interview.

The athletic department already was perturbed at the Sentinel for a string of stories, columns and occurrences it found objectionable. The most recent had been Sports Editor John Adams' profile of a woman who was asked by UT not to cheer so much at Neyland Stadium because she was disturbing other fans. After the brouhaha broke, Adams used one of the News Sentinel's credentials to bring the woman into the press box. He had in mind her writing a column about what it was like to watch a UT game in a situation in which she could not cheer. UT subsequently warned Adams of misuse of credentials.

When the athletic department then heard that Hooker had "ambushed" Johnson, AD Mike Hamilton apparently decided it was time to crack down. On Monday, Publisher Bruce Hartmann, executive sports editor Steve Ahillen and I met with Hamilton and explained Hooker's side of the story. But the AD could not be dissuaded. He pulled the credentials yesterday. Since then, Hooker has dug out the tape of his interview with Inky and sent it to UT. It begins with the sound of a phone ringing and shows clearly that the interview was consensual and no "ambush" at all.

One thing the News Sentinel and UT would agree on, though, is that we both want the best for Inky Johnson and regret any hassle this has created for him.

 

This is the same paper whose site is GoVols.com.

And amazingly, Knoxville is nowhere close to the bigger homer rag in the conference. That title would go to Gainesville or Tuscaloosa.

Reading this story just makes you appreciate the SEC schools like Georgia and Auburn where the SIDs actually get it.

 

I wouldn't hold that against the sports department. That's a marketing thing. I cringed the other day when I saw our own delivery trucks had "Go XXX!" on them, followed by something like, "Read the best coverage of the Blanks in the ..." I think the marketing staffs are trying to play on the fans' mentality more than the mentality they expect the paper to express.

I just read McElroy's blog and saw the usual fan bluster - you guys make all kinds of money off the school, you should follow their rules and keep in your place! I got the same b.s. when I went through a very similar situation not so long ago. Unfortunately, I think the schools think that way, too.

 

Drew became the main guy on the UT football beat back in August, on little to no notice. Burgess is in more of a utility role, kind of like what Chuck Cavalaris did.

I think people are misinterpreting alwayswrite's comment "thrown to the wolves" remark regarding Drew. That beat is pretty cutthroat on the inside of the KNS, or at least it has been in the past...

Adams credentialing a fan is bad business and unprofessional any way you slice it. Even the FWAA was displeased when they heard about that, from what I understand...

There's really not much more I can say on this situation without outing myself, but I do have a few thoughts regarding the general issue of SID policies.

I believe no SID policies are perfect. I believe every practice should be open, and every locker room postgame should be open. But they're not. And they're not going to be. Like it or not, college writers have to work within the confines of SID rules more often than not. Are there times when the rules should be broken? Sure. But I'm a big believer in picking your battles. If I'm going to bother lurking outside the athletes' cafeteria or dorm to get some quotes on the down low, I'm going to get them about a story with some oomph, not to get secondary or tertiary sources on my weekly player feature.

 

I wonder what would happen if they tried to do this to Chris Low.

 

They think that way down here a lot more than they do in other places. In the SEC, in certain markets like Knoxville, Gainesville and Tuscaloosa, the paper can be the University's bitch. The Knoxville paper has fought this successfully in the past. I remember the N-S had top notch coverage of the meltdown by the basketball team in 2000-01. Of course, the columnist who did that, who was one of the best around, is no longer with us.

This kind of shit just pisses me off.

 

If a paper's marketing department wants to convey to the fan base that the product covers the team well, run a big photo of a fan holding a sign that says "Go Vols!" Run a big photo of a fan wearing face paint or body paint and holding a sign that says something similar. Run any photo your staffers have taken that illustrates the fervor of the fan base and the passion associated with the program.

That's an extension of your mission. You're running a photo that tells a story. You're running it to promote your coverage, not the team. It accomplishes the same goal, but you're not crossing a line.

Printing "Go Vols" in big letters on the side of a van or on newspaper rack placards is boosterism, plain and simple.

 

I'm talking about the overriding attitude of coaches and SIDs at the university I cover that ALL we do is hunt for negative stories. By all means, if dirt comes up, dig for and report it.

 

What happened to Mike Griffith? He'd been there for a long time.