Tennessee bans Knoxville reporter

If they haven't got CPF yet, they never will...
But this is a bullshit move that you'd expect from Bama or Florida.
And you'd like to think the other reporters would band together to catch his back, but their editors would never allow it.

 

Sure. Go through them first. If they refuse, tough for them. They created the situation. If the kid wants to talk, talk to him.

 

One more idea. At every enormous state university of my acquaintance, there are distinguished faculty members who hate the athletic department and all its works. I'd start talking to them a lot, too.

Riddick got to the point. You can't work for a paper where your editors don't have your back. More to the point, you can't READ a paper like that. Every sentient citizen in Knoxville, and I'm sure there are more than a few, now knows their daily paper's on the record with a proud lack of integrity.

 

And the kind of town where the newspaper's website is called "Govols."

Any newspaper that submits to that kind of control by an athletic department or by any other public relations agency is no longer credible. Period. The dirty little secret, looks like, is that newspapers and broadcast outlets in the UTenn orbit have been cowering before the school's athletic department for years.

I'd like to hear from those with more experience: Is this normal? What do you do about it?

 

Cute, but retaliation puts you in the same mosh pit as the athletic department.

 

Considering this is a Scripps paper, I'm really surprised that shit took place. The Scripps papers are usually pretty good with their coverage, so to see Knox drop the ball like this is insane.

 

Never, ever be surprised at anything Scripps does or doesn't do... trust me.

 

I lived in Knoxville for six months and had some dealings with the paper. They are nice people there... but every media outlet in that town is full of homers. The fact that the SE would throw his reporter under the bus is a shame.

 

Was just going to type that, oldhack. Any paper that allows the URL www.govols.com to lead to the sports page, is definitely a homer rag.

Here's the section I find most troubling:

If his colleagues weren't attempting the same, then they're nothing but a bunch of UT lemmings.

Also, will UT repremand/suspend/fire the employee that helped Hooker get the story?

 

Damn. I'm madder than Luggie!

Beyond the spineless SE's quotes, the whole story was written as if the reporter did something wrong. Hell, he should be praised and UT should be villified for being petty martinets.

The basis of your "accepted guidelines," Orange People, is so that you can control news and keep whiny reporters who get beat from bugging you.

Well, tough crap. We don't have to play that game. An SE with guts would send Hooker right back or instruct each replacement to interview a kid without going through the SID.

 

Isn't this a problem with many college-town papers? I remember at IU having to deal with Bob Knight's No. 1 fan, Bob Hammel, at the Bloomington paper. Hammel actually was a talented reporter and editor, but he blew his reputation by becoming so close to Knight. But it was very clear the readership favored Knight over hard-hitting journalism. That makes it very easy for the hometown paper to kowtow. Not right, but easy.