Tennessee bans Knoxville reporter

I'm not sure this is the case any more. There definitely are some homer towns in the SEC, but I think that applies to all of college sports.

I have experienced virtually no problems in SEC press boxes, although I came close during a Tennessee football game a while back. If newspapers that cover the SEC are unfair, then I have yet to see it across the board. I am surprised by Knoxville's response to its reporter's suspension. And I continue to grow tired of the cutesy means of explaining it.

"...whistled for a false start" is patronizing and downplays what the reporter is likely going through.

 

Giving fans what they want is one thing. Kowtowing to the athletic department is another.

 

Ace, If I don't end up working for you, or you don't end up working for me...

...Stuff like this really does fire me up to go into First Amendment law as a "next career."

The sad thing is, by the time I'd get out of law school, I don't know if there would be any media companies left interested in hiring a lawyer who wants to fight for reporters.

Hell, we can't even get other reporters on this website to fully support their colleagues. [/Williams, F.-Wada reference]

 

Someone please explain what this reporter did wrong. The way I read it, nearly three weeks after a player may or may not have been injured, he did was the SID department wouldn't -- made something happen and got his own interview.
Sure, schools overreact, so I'm not so surprised that they tried to suspend his credential. But why is his editor cowering? I don't get it.
Please, someone, make this make sense to me.

 

The hell it does.
All you're doing is announcing that you will do some real journalism about the institution. And you also point out that, if the suspension is lifted, then the real journalism will continue.
Screw these people. Theyre public employees.
And Phil Fulmer is still a boob.

 

A lot of times I think stuff like this stems more from the wounded pride of an SID rather than a pissed off head coach.

 

That's just it. The reporter might have gone outside standard protocol in contacting an athlete, but if it was the writer's last resort after trying for weeks with the SID staff, then he did his job. It's not an SID department's job to determine what we write about.

However, what the SE is doing is sickening. To throw his reporter under the bus to keep things amiable with the UT folks is wrong. Vols fans no longer can trust the N-S as an unbiased news source, the SID staff has precedent for suspending reporters' credentials in the future, and the reporter now knows that pandering to UT's interests comes before journalism.

Way to go, News Sentinel.

 

Here's the question: with Tennessee being a public institution, does it have any legal right to forbid a credentialed member of the free press from attending a game on University property?

Wouldn't this be pretty easy to challenge in court, particularly since UT came right out and said the ban was enacted because of information that was reported?

 

Conversation I had with an AD after a basketball coach was fired.

ME: Players X, Y, and Z said they asked you not to fire the coach. . .
AD: What were you doing talking to players? You aren't allowed to do interviews unless they are set up through the university.
ME: OK. Can I talk to Players X, Y, and Z?
AD: No.
ME: As I was saying. . .

 

Paging Just an SID, Just an SID, what say you?

 

The SID is an idiot, but a puppet of the coach, no doubt. I can't believe the SE didn't stand up for his reporter. His quote was crap.

But this is another case of an athletic department wanting to filter what gets to the press. It would be interesting to see how another DI school would handle the same situation. But in my experience, if an athlete has a medical issue, the SID folks act like freaks. But if the athlete spoke to the reporter, that's his choice.

 

Careful. Credentials have been yanked for less.