A Final Word On Thayer Evans
by Peter Bean on Dec 29, 2008 3:50 AM CST
in Texas Longhorns Recruiting
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PrintBig Roy's excellent and thorough write up on the McFarland saga pretty well covers all my thoughts on this, but I do have two follow-up thoughts I want to add before moving on. Neither has anything to do with bitterness towards McFarland himself or losing him to Oklahoma. Rather, I'm exceptionally peeved that Mack Brown and Texas' names were unnecessarily sullied because the New York Times allowed unchecked Thayer Evans to write what he did.
McFarland's comments yesterday at the Army AA Bowl put a dagger in the heart of any argument that Thayer Evans' article passes the journalistic integrity test. Not only do all of Big Roy's original points still stand, but with the comments yesterday from McFarland came some focus about how this whole article came together. It's clear as day Evans has opportunistically carved a little niche for himself freelancing Oklahoma stories for the New York Times, and that he sensed a woman scorned in Ms. Adams, greedily stroking her wounded ego to get what he needed for the Hit Job.
WHEN I SAY I WAS THERE FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER, I MEANT HIS MOTHER WAS FEEDING ME HATE OVER THE PHONE
Evans article as written makes it sound as though he's been intimately involved with this family -- this story -- and was invited to the family home on Christmas morning for the joyous crimson and cream post-announcement celebration. As written, you can almost picture Evans there on the couch next to the Christmas tree, scribbling notes on the couch while Jamarkus and his mother spoke warmly about their decision. The moment would have made for a hell of a segment on 60 Minutes, except, of course, that any camera crew on hand would have discovered that... Mr. Evans wasn't. even. there.
That alone isn't a problem, but what's becoming increasingly clear is that Evans barely talked to Jamarkus McFarland at all. Not only did he not talk to him on Christmas -- he hardly spoke with him throughout this recruitment. And yet Evans wrote, "Since July, he and his family have provided a reporter for The New York Times with exclusive access to his recruitment, a journey that often divided McFarland and his mother."
O RLY? Pressed on the issue yesterday in San Antonio, McFarland confessed he wasn't even sure how theTimes freelancer got the English paper on which he'd based part of his smear campaign. "[Evans] came to my house one time when I dropped LSU (from consideration) just to observe. I think he got it then."
Inescapable conclusion? This is worse than a two-source/one-sided article... it's a one-source/one-sided article. Had Evans spoken with McFarland after the commitment, he'd have been obligated to ask about this English essay with which he planned to run as part of his story. McFarland's Sunday backtracking proves Evans didn't speak to McFarland and didn't try to confirm the veracity of any of the grenades he was about to launch in his article. Frankly, it seems clear to me Evans didn't want to talk to McFarland, who likely would have spoiled the article's bite with all sorts of clarifications, retractions, and caveats. You can almost hear Evans thinking to himself: Why spoil the juice the mother's feeding me? This is a B- story without the grenades.
TELL ME WHERE THE BAD MAN TOUCHED YOU...
Among all the malodorous garbage, the smelliest might be the timing of all this. In case you need a refresher:
- The week before Christmas: Rumors begin exploding about McFarland's mother getting greedy with the cookie jar.
- McFarland commits to Oklahoma on Christmas and Thayer Freaking Evans is the one to "break the story."
You don't need to be Inspector Morse to ask the right questions here: Given that -- prior to the rumor explosion -- there was little indication from the hyper-obsessors at Rivals/Scout that McFarland was at (or even nearing) a decision point, why the sudden commitment to Oklahoma on Christmas? Though there could be a dozen uncontroversial answers to that question, how is it that Thayer Evans -- of all people -- was the one to find out about it first?
Recruits can't so much as watch SportsCenter without someone, somewhere in the recruiting underworld knowing about it and spreading the "news" for consumption. Don't kid yourself: $100 a year subscription sites would be out of business if they (either moderators or users in the know) weren't providing to the most obsessive of fans these kinds of details -- these days a fan can get everything else for free.
And yet... somehow... it's Thayer Evans who winds up with this scoop. Let me say that again: Thayer Evans. Was the one. Who was the first to know about this story.
So let me ask again: Why?
Inescapable conclusion? Given everything that we know, including what we know about Evans not being in communication with McFarland, the most reasonable explanation for this is hard to dismiss: Namely, after the 'Adams as Greedy Mother' stories started surfacing, Evans could see where this was headed and further inserted himself into the story. How deeply he thrust himself into the mix we'll probably never know, but I'd bet the farm that in the immediate aftermath either he called her or she called him and the article was all but co-authored by the two. Maybe he showed her his Sam Bradford underoos or maybe she just browsed his archives at the Times, but either way Jamarkus McFarland's mother had found in Thayer Evans a sympathetic voice with whom she could enact her revenge.
She was mad, he was willing. And the end result was a single-sourced piece in which she could take her shots at her detractors and he got his exclusive. They don't call 'em Sooners for nothing.
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Am I the only one
who think Evans bears a striking resemblance to Jason White? Separated at birth maybe? Seriously though, they’ve got to be part of the same family wreath (not family tree, that damn thing is entwined).
too late..
Sorry Macfarland..too late…I think this shows what kind of person we missed out on. Just another “I” guy. Go Horns!
What did you expect
from the paper that brought you fed stories on Iraq (Judith Miller) and made up stories on everything (Jayson Blair)? Beyond Paul Krugman and Frank Rich, does the New York Times have any credibility?
At the risk of injecting a political opinion...
Did you just say that Paul Krugman and Frank Rich bring credibility to the NY Times? Holy Misguided Batman…
Those two are as ideological and one-sided as Thayer “Can Someone Buy Me A Brush” Evans.
"There are three kinds of people in this world: those who are good at math, and those who aren't..."
--GA Horn--
So, how many Nobel Prizes did you win in economics?
The NYT tries to balance ideologies, which is akin to balancing cats or greased marbles. Rich is one of their better writers, but I don’t find he’s an ideologue, although his background as a theater critic probably puts him closer to one side of culture than the other.
I think it's pretty clear that something is wrong with their editorial oversight
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
The prize was perhaps not entirely undeserved for some of ...
…his academic work, but the Noble committee being what it is was almost certainly awarded in large part for the unrelenting, violent and utterly deranged Bush hatred emanting from his computer (not that one is particularly eager or able to defend W, but his case vs. Krgman is fairly overwhelming).
marshalld
Whills...
I respect your opinion, and think that you too bring cogent points each time you post. Please don’t lower yourself to tOSU or Sooner status by some flippant remark about how I must be less than intelligent because I don’t have as many Nobel prizes as some “non-partisan” at the NYT. You don’t know me. You don’t know that I graduated with honors whilst working as a student equipment manager. You don’t know that I also graduated from law school. That said, your point remains accurate…I, indeed, don’t possess a Nobel Prize. I’ll remind you that Jimmy Carter also won a Nobel prize…I wouldn’t put him in any category that includes the words “intelligent” or “lucid.”
I’ll take the bullet here. My fault for injecting anything coming close to politics.
Respectfully.
"There are three kinds of people in this world: those who are good at math, and those who aren't..."
--GA Horn--
Clever retort, ass clown.
"There are three kinds of people in this world: those who are good at math, and those who aren't..."
--GA Horn--
The notion that Rich and particularly Krugman...
…(who can be referred as a complete lunatic only with extreme generosity) have credibility is almost as absurd as the proposition that OU actually DEFEATED the Horns this year and deserves a place in the MNCCG on that basis.
marshalld
Well, we shouldn't be discussing politics
although we have veiled this in the relatively squeamish topic of NYT credibility (sic). But I find your mixing these two things as problematic at best and it would probably take a Friedman unit to get through to you, so we had best drop it before we fall off the political edge.
how many Friedman units until we win another national title?
and I have your back on Krugman and Rich. Two of my favorites, even if their vast realm of knowledge doesn’t include squat about Texas football.
The plotting began in the 60s!
It was the NY Times (against a plaintiff by the name of Sullivan, I believe) who tricked the Supreme Court into rewriting defamation laws in all 50 states, thereby shielding themselves from liability some 40 years later.
Well played, NY Times.
NYT is a shell of it's former self
This article is just another example of why the NYT readership is dropping like a dead weight and has been bleeding red for years. NYT will eventualy go bust.
Your tag game is ridiculous.
(good ridiculous)
________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.
Although it was five years ago it’s worth going back and looking at the Time’s infamous saga of one Jayson Blair. i don’t think the fact the Blair situation happened is tantamount to evidence the offerings in the Grey Lady are clearly flawed in total – but it is worth looking at the results of the investigation on the part of the paper that followed the scandal.
That investigation revealed an array of practices that fell on the shady side of the ethical line and the paper promised to fix them. And I believe they sincerely did so. But, of course, the ensuing Judith Miller scandal just more than a year later showed there were still serious loopholes in the system to be taken advantage of by someone detirmined to do so.
Given the rapidly eroding stature of the medium in recent years we should expect more of these types of incidents to occur rather than fewer. Given the wave of layoffs at publications of all circulation sizes what’s left on staff are usually the very best and the very worst – with nothing in the middle.
And, more and more, papers are depending on overworked middle managers to handle a fleet of underpaid stringers to fill the newshole. If they aren’t just printing wire copy wholesale because “heck, we’ve already paid for it.”
A smart freelancer (disclosure – this is what I do for a living) finds out what the editor’s want and provides it to them. That’s dangerous on the “news” side but the system of checks and balances is usually pretty robust. Sadly, the same isn’t the case over in the realm of sports and entertainment – although those sections have a much higher profile among the readership.
What I am trying to point out here is that I seriously doubt there is any type of conspiracy on the part of the paper and the writer to ‘bash’ the University of Texas or it’s football program. Any more than there was a consious bias against Auburn two years ago when they published an article outlining alleged abuses in their program. (disclosure – I am a Bama fan)
What I do think is that there is a crippled system at work here and UT got the short end of the stick with it. As such, the proper way to address it is to bring these concerns up with the Times’ public editor Clark Hoyt who you can email at public@nytimes.com or call at (212) 556-7652. I’d suggest coming up with substanitive arguments that can be addressed if you chose to do this – much as Peter has here.
I would wholly endorse your write up if it were not for 1 glaring ommission.
If it looks like a duck, floats like a duck, quacks like a duck, why would it suddenly be a goat? To quote GOBR
Along with the school as a whole, Mack Brown comes off poorly in the article. In fact, he comes off so poorly that the descriptions of Brown’s behavior are at total odds with everything else that I know about Brown. Why would he refuse a phone call from McFarland’s mother? Why would he ask if McFarland and his mother liked his house better than the houses of Stoops and Miles? Really, this is how “Mr. February” wins so many recruiting battles? This doesn’t pass the smell test either, especially to Ketchum, who has known Mack Brown for a long time.
Relatedly, Adams claims not to have been able to reach Mack Brown, even though everyone with knowledge of the situation asserts that she has had Brown’s number for some time, and, in fact, has spoken with him before on that very line.
At this point in his career, why would Mack Brown risk everything he has built at Texas to concoct a ridiculous plan to plant information on the internet about illegal inducements by Oklahoma? Adams is delusional if she really believes that Brown would stoop to that level. Ridiculous allegation, unworthy of being printed. Your take, Ketchum? “If you believe it, you probably still wet your pants.” Once again, fails the smell test.
So, YES!, I do believe there is a cospiracy on the part of the writer to “bash” the University of Texas and it’s football program.
Perhaps the most recognizable mascot in sports, and certainly the toughest looking, Bevo is a fixture
by run Bevo run on Dec 29, 2008 2:11 PM CST up reply actions
it seems more reasonable that the writer has figured out it’s easier to sell stories about a big twelve powerhouse to whatever editor on the sports page he answers to. like peter said, this is a B- story without the grenades and, like any sharp stringer, he found something explosive with that essay. if there’s a bias it’s against ‘big time college football’ which “the paper of record” seems to treat like a abhorrent oddity.
Again, I disagree
So does Mack.
“One-sided stories usually don’t make it when sources aren’t checked on the other side,” Brown said. “The story has absolutely no credibility with me because the writer did the same thing exactly last year and it’s obvious he has an agenda, in my mind, against Texas.”
One is a flash in the pan, two is a trend.
Perhaps the most recognizable mascot in sports, and certainly the toughest looking, Bevo is a fixture
by run Bevo run on Dec 29, 2008 9:36 PM CST up reply actions
Interesting (sort of) retraction by a Chicago Sun Times blogger that was linked by the OU blog.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2008/12/jamarkus_mcfarland_oklahoma_re.html
Not really, 40AS. I read all the comments, too.
He’s sticking by the “great story” assertion despite everything coming out. As a result of that, I left a comment, although I don’t know if it will survive the “acceptance” required there. I was very formal and direct.
My roommate and his wife followed a job there after graduation and still live in the area around Chicago. Even lost his Texas accent. He says there’s a fair contingent of Horns there. Might as well chop this down as we find it out there.
My comment is under b, just after Tom Wicker, Jr.
Don’t know if that is the son of the Tom Wicker, who was a columnist and political journalist for the NYT, but he’s obviously a Texas fan.
Nice response
The sour grapes suggestion irks me because the Shepherd to LSU commit was a much bigger loss for us than JM IMO but the response from Texas fans was much more understanding. It’s not that JM is going to OU, although obviously I’d rather he went to Texas, it’s entirely the article which should be titled “One Mother’s Perspective on Her Son Committing to Oklahoma”
Real question
A question that begs to be asked is this: to what degree did Evans’ involvement with Adams influence McFarland’s decision? From where I sit, it is easy to imagine that this pro-OU hack set out to manipulate Evans. Again, it is not hard to imagine that a woman unused to being in the public eye would be swayed by the attention of a famous reporter from the New York Times showing an interest in her, rather than her famous son. She has undergone an onslaught of calls from coaches, boosters, agents, and who know what, all pushing her in different directions. Would not this fine reporter seem like someone to help her sort things out?
Did he help her conclude that charges of ‘greed’ were coming from Texas? Did he provoke her to take offense at the suggestion she and her son needed to take some time to get together? Did he imply that Mack Brown had snubbed her while Bob Stoops was a good ol boy? Did he feed her a lot of BS about OU academics?
In short, did Evans disobey the prime directive of journalism and become part of his story? That is a question for the NYT to consider.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
Good point, doc.
The longer this goes on, the more I tend to think he was not a passive witness. Merely supporting OU assertions and denigrating those concerning Texas would put him over the line, aside from the cut and chop nature of the story.
This whole NYT piece
smacks to me of what the military calls a pre-emptive strike.
I think OU (not the coaches, but somebody with an interest in the program) made an illegal inducement to Adams. Hints of that began to surface, and this was the rapid response: Smear UT and make THAT the issue under investigation, thus taking some of the heat off a possible look into illegal recruiting on the OU end. And I strongly suspect the writer, not anyone connected to McFarland, is behind all of that.
Thayer Evans Changes his 4th Quarter Hard Fould Claim to Fame
Did anyone else notice that on Christmas day when this story broke, that Thayer Evans’ Quad NY Times Blog Site referenced him as not only playing basketball at some unkown OK school, but also said something like -he was known for wearing a purple afro wig and would be brought in for the 4th quarter to commit hard fouls? - I’m not kidding, the blog profile said this…this guy was proud of being a HACK!! ….now that the truth is coming out of this obvious hard fould hack job, he deleted that bragodicsiou tidbit from his profile. What a freaking loser. I say boycott the Times and Houston Chronicle if he is still contributing.
I'd forgotten about the Houston Chronicle.
They do have some good sportswriters there. Perhaps I’ll check that out…maybe they don’t that stink to rub off on them.
Not a sportswriter for Chronicle
I often read the sports section of the Houston Chronicle on-line and don’t recall ever seeing Evans’ name, so I just went to the site and found 63 articles by Evans. Every one was a local news article. The most recent two: “Expansion Plans for Marvel City Hall to be Presented” and “Gift Will Help Pay for Two New Parks in Texas City,” both likely to be Pulitizer Price nominees I’m sure. I did not see a single sports story. It would be interesting to get Richard Justice’s take on the guy..
"Only angry people win football games." --DKR
I wonder if he's a stringer or on staff.
If staff, that’s pretty low profile metro area fodder; if a stringer, he’s just surfing the local newspapers and building a story from their leads, which, frankly, is usually a lot of work for the pay involved.
Just got on but I wonder if the Chronicle has jumped into this yet.
That should be "Pulitizer Prize"-- not "Price" of course. nt
"Only angry people win football games." --DKR
That's the thing, PB
That many OU fans seem not to understand. Texas fans aren’t angry simply because MacFarland chose OU. He’s not the first, and he won’t be the last (I mean, it’s such a new thing that top recruits go to good football schools like OU, USC, LSU, Florida, etc. and not just Texas, right?) So when OU fans see Texas fans obliterating this article, they get angry because they think it’s somehow insulting Oklahoma. The only way it’d be insulting to Oklahoma is if the program had anything to do with this, which I don’t think so right now.
What we’re mad about is that this hack job of an article went to print (albeit just in the blog section online) and how many people are not even critically analyzing it. Over on CCmachine, we have OU fans telling Texas fans to get lost simply because they WANT the article to be true. I’m impressed by Oklahoma University’s ability to teach their students critical thinking.
It’s just makes me look at the recruiting process with more cynicism. I already think national signing day is absolutely and incredibly overblown. Stuff like this just makes it all distasteful and absurd sometimes.
by TheElusiveShadow on Dec 29, 2008 2:12 PM CST reply actions
Elusive -
More embarassing for the Times IMO, the article ran in print on Dec. 26, 2008 on page B7 in the New York edition.
Are you sure? I have been under the impression that it did not run in print.
by burntorangehorn on Dec 29, 2008 2:52 PM CST up reply actions
Yep
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/sports/ncaafootball/26recruit.html?ref=ncaafootball
If you look at the bottom of the page after the print and before the ads start it says so in gray.
ha -
Wasn’t trying to overdo it, but they put it in a light shade of gray so it can be overlooked if one skims. And in terms of biting noses, I cancelled my subscription to the NYT and asked the rep to tell her supervisor why. Maybe biting off my own nose to spite my face but if steaming turds like this story can make the paper, who knows what else can. F it. I can get the crossword online anyway.
Amen. I get the headlines and can find what I want.
They ought to be crying with each loss of subscription; that 15-17% decline in advertising revenue every quarter has got to hurt.
Houston Chronicle
is a subscriber to the NYT wire . . . they are free to use copy from there (and many other newspaper sources) . . . all papers do this. Typically, but not always, they credit the paper that produced the story, but sometimes it shows up as Chronicle News Services or the like.
Chronicle on-line jams a lot of stuff onto the web w/o an editor doing much more than recoding the story. Print edition stories must pass a rigid inspection.
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