Welcome to the Pac-10, Lane Kiffin

The TV news director showed some guts. And he was 100 percent right.

I understand if there were a bunch of print people with the attitude, "I am getting what I want out of this, so I am not going to stand beside him." Although I also think it's shortsighted, because it just emboldens an SID like that to try to dictate terms to THEIR coverage down the line.

But if you watch the first part of that pre-presser mess, the news director wasn't happy with the groundnrules -- no live. But as long as everyone there to report it was being treated equally, he was rightfully ready to roll.

Then the SID comes back with a change. Kiffin had new chickenshit rules. And they were rules that specifically put his TV coverage at a disadvantage to the other mediums in the room, because Kiffin was too much of a coward to face a TV camera while on the record.

Good for that news director for not giving in to the peer pressure in that room and the fact that no one was really standing up with him. It wasn't HIS job to make it easy for Kiffin to scoot out of town without having to face TV cameras or answer questions. And it wasn't his job to capitulate so a bunch of print guys could get a canned story wrapped with a bow, while he's being told he can't record it.

The end result was that because of that guy, the public really did get an honest reporting of the situation. The way it played--and this is what I saw before I knew the backstory about how this went down--was "Lane Kiffin fucked Tennessee and then didn't have the guts to face the media before trying a getaway. He came out gave a 30 second statement, didn't answer questions like a man, and then needed a police escort to get out of the building."

Because of that one guy, an honest reporting of the situation did come out of it, rather than a bullshit scripted one that gave Kiffin the pass he was looking for.

Ya'll aren't a PR agency. It was Kiffin's decision to either face the media or not face it, speak or not speak, answer questions or not answer questions. Kiffin made his choice.

That guy showed backbone and didn't allow Kiffin to get out of his responsibility for making that decision.

 

It has nothing to do with whether he is an employee of the University.

Kiffin was a story. Those reporters were there to try to get him on the record about quitting. Kiffin was either going to face the media or not face the media. Answer questions (which he had already decided not to) or not answer questions.

The game you say that news director had to play was: 1) Kiffin agrees to go on the record. 2) But the TV cameras are not allowed to record all of it--only a smalled scripted part Lane Kiffin wants to orchestrate for the TV news.

Why would anyone expect a guy who makes his living reporting news with a TV camera to go along with that?

Kiffin didn't have to face those reporters. But either face them or don't face them. I think it's great that rather than letting Kiffin dictate terms like those which put him at a disadvantage, that news director forced him to either face the media or NOT face the media. Not try to manipulate the media for the exact coverage Lane Kiffin wanted. It worked out perfectly as far as I am concerned as a distant observer.

Of course, that news director isn't getting paid for advancing a principle. He was being told he couldn't record, while everyone else was going to get something more from Kiffin for their mediums than he could have for his. And he decided NOT to play that game. Why should he have?

 

Get what somewhere else? And this really wasn't about principles, probably. It was about that TV guy saying no to useless garbage.

The story for those fans was that Kiffin quit and took the USC job.

At that point, the question was whether 1) Kiffin was going say something on the record, and 2) whether he was going to answer questions.

He wasn't going to answer questions. And he told the TV guys they weren't welcome to record his ON THE RECORD comments and that all he would give them on camera was something carefully scripted by Lane Kiffin.

What exactly did that TV guy miss out on? Allowing Kiffin to dictate a sound bite agreeable to Lane Kiffen for broadcast news?

What he got was better than that. Rather than that dreck, people saw a guy who gave a surly 30 seconds, wouldn't answer questions and had to bolt with a police escort. That told the story quite honestly. And it was more compelling for a fan tuning in than Lane Kiffin's attempt at orchestrated bullshit.