When Athletics Departments Go Too Far
by Peter Bean on May 8, 2008 3:54 PM CDT
in Texas Longhorns Football
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PrintOne month ago, the Daily Texan reported that John Chiles was a 'suspect' in an incident on MLK Boulevard. We noted the paper's story here, but withheld comment because details were so hazy. The Austin Police Department subsequently dropped the investigation.
Now who, if anybody, is the bad guy here? There are only two potentially bad actors in this story: the person who filed the report or the Austin Police Department. One possibility is that someone wrongfully accused John Chiles of something to the police, who then correctly identified him as a person of interest in their investigation. The other is that the police inappropriately identified Chiles as being under investigation for something.
Apparently, though, there's a third possibility, at least in the mind of the University of Texas Athletic Department. That would be the Daily Texan. As the Texan reported on Tuesday :
When the Texan originally reported that APD confirmed Chiles as a suspect, assistant athletics director John Bianco wrote several threatening e-mails to Daily Texan sports editor and journalism senior Ricky Treon, calling him unprofessional and his reporting "untruthful." Bianco warned that other news agencies (and potential employers) "realize how you do business now," which "will hurt you in the long run." He also said that if the Texan's editors didn't pull the post off the blog, "John Chiles would understandably have an issue with the entire paper" which would be "unfortunate for the Texan's long-term working relationship with him."
Again, to replay the chain of events. The Texan has information that the APD is investigating John Chiles. The Texan contacts APD to confirm the information. APD confirms said information. The Texan reports nothing more, nothing less, than what APD has confirmed. When APD later withdraws its investigation, the Texan reports that as well.
All of which begs the question: what in the hell was John Bianco thinking?
The Texas Athletics Department in action.
I have some experience working with John, who as the AD for the football team was the point man in setting up my interviews with Duane Akina and Larry MacDuff for last year's football annual. I concluded the experience thinking two things: (1) that he was professional and helpful, and (2) that he would be all over me if I published anything from my interviews on BON.
So I'm both surprised and not at all surprised by this report from the Texan. I'm not at all surprised that John was working aggressively in his role as gatekeeper to the football team. But I'm shocked to hear that he handled this situation as he did.
It's inexcusable. Throwing up a moat and high walls around the football team is understandable.1 Bullying the media - the student newspaper, no less - is way out of bounds. Blurry as the line often seems, the Longhorns football program is not a corporation. It is an extension of the University of Texas.
It is not above the law. It is not immune from media scrutiny. It is not privileged to push around those who dare disturb the kingdom.
John Bianco and the Athletics Department have every right to be as protective of the players as they think proper. There's nothing anyone can do about that, and the media isn't owed any special access to these kids. But there has to be a line, and threatening the media for what was not irresponsible reporting crosses that line.
One of the most common questions I get asked as a Longhorns blogger is why I don't try to get access to the team.
Now you know.
1For the record, I'm not convinced it's the best approach, but that's another story.
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Texas AD
There is a very good reason (I’m sure most are aware of it by now) why almost every media outlet around loves to dance on Texas’ grave the first chance they get.
What about this...
... do Burnt Orange people like? Has that not started yet? Am I confused? Well, obviously.
--Horn Brain--
It’s inexcusable…........ Bullying the media – the student newspaper, no less – is way out of bounds. Blurry as the line often seems, the Longhorns football program is not a corporation. It is an extension of the University of Texas..
I couldn’t agree more Peter. Bullying and intimidating witnesses have been a problem in the past. It would be great if UT came to the defense of their everyday students.
--- All roads to the Big-XII Championship lead through OU/RRS. It's not just another game! We're all about championships here. ---
BTW....
......what happened to the AD’s claim that it was John Chiles himself that placed the 911 call to APD?
--- All roads to the Big-XII Championship lead through OU/RRS. It's not just another game! We're all about championships here. ---
Not buying the Texan's "woe is me" routine
On the surface, I would agree that it was not irresponsible reporting. But, reading the rest of that op-ed piece defending Treon’s report, much is made of past brushes with the law involving current and former UT football players, as well as the statement that the media has a responsibility to hold these players “accountable.” That lends the impression that the report was meant not to deliver news to an interested audience but to further drive home the writer’s (and possibly the staff’s) belief that UT athletes feel they are above the law, Mack Brown has entrusted the legacy of Texas football to a bunch of thugs, etc.
As far as the law is concerned, John Chiles is not guilty of anything, so what does he need to be held accountable for, other than perhaps poor judgment in how and with whom he spends his free time? Should he be lumped in with other UT athletes who committed actual crimes just because some faceless person accused him (apparently falsely) of something?
By no means do I think even the UT student newspaper should color the facts to help protect the University’s image or the image of any of its students, be they some faceless liberal arts major or a high-profile football player. But the Texan has made its stance on this issue pretty clear with the editorial vilifying John Bianco. At no point in the editorial does the writer concede that Chiles was never charged with a crime, nor that Chiles is no longer under investigation, aside from a brief mention early on that the investigation had been “suspended,” which is ambiguous at best.
You would think that if Chiles is important enough to warrant writing about random accusations of crime made against him that he’d also be important enough for the Texan staff to write an editorial on athletes being falsely accused rather than big, bad John Bianco “threatening” the Texan sports editor for not painting a clear picture of the situation based on the complete and utter lack of evidence to suggest that Chiles had done anything wrong.
As to the editorial writer’s whining about UT not giving the media enough access to the athletes and being reprimanded for conducting unauthorized interviews, perhaps its because most sports media throw caution to the wind when it comes to painting college kids as criminals, without or without merit.
I think Bianco could use some business communication lessons, but I think he and Chiles are on the right side of this argument.
by bassale47 on May 8, 2008 10:03 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs
good point
Very good point, bassale47. Even though it may not seem so to us fans, there are many people who attend the university (usually not football fans) who believe that too much importance is placed on college athletics in general and specifically UT football. Even though the football team brings in millions of dollars a year, many people get outright angry that so much university money and attention goes to the football team. I’m not saying that anyone specific at the Texan feels this way, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me that someone with issues of “sour grapes” might also be a journalist. I’ve just encountered too many people in college and after who had major problems with UT football as an entity. In this I mean, actual LONGHORNS who attend or graduated from the university.
Me? I’m just happy all this nonsense with Chiles has been cleared up and hopefully we won’t be getting any points in the Fulmer Cup this summer.
Opposing viewpoint
I’m not sure I entirely understand your argument, b47, but I’d like to share my viewpoint.
When I was at UT on the radio side, we covered a lot of pro sports in addition to UT athletics. For some reason, quite possibly the way I smelled or walked or chewed my food, the media relations fellow for the Texas Rangers just didn’t like me….with a vengeance. I mean, the dude wasn’t even subtle about it. Meanwhile, I got along swimmingly with the equivalent at the Astros.
cheevyjames below mentions sour grapes, but it’s not really a matter of that. When you deal with a confident, competent media staff, it makes your job a helluva lot easier AND it makes for more reporting transparency. Bianco’s position is one of paranoid, hands got caught in the cookie jar.
The Texan didn’t speculate. They reported items that literally any of us can get from APD, and they did their job. I believe that calling Bianco out for his actions, in an editorial piece, was fair play.
I agree on sour grapes
I think most sportswriters don’t have inherently negative attitudes about athletes. If they did, they wouldn’t be sportswriters.
But the person who wrote the editorial seems to hate college sports and college athletes. What makes you think you have an automatic right to question athletes about any subject? I think the media, and especially student media, should have the right to make interview requests, and if the players are willing to comply with such requests, then the SIDs should back off unless there is a very legitmate reason to protect an athlete. But if the answer is no, the answer is no. It’s very simple.
For a writer, even in an editorial piece, to lash out at the SID because in the past the writer or one of his colleagues was denied an interview or chastised for printing perceived inaccuracies is unprofessional and unnecessary. But if you’re going to do it, you damn well better have your facts right, and this “CH” person didn’t even have that. I would love to see a list of the alleged 10 UT football players who have been arrested since May 2007. Off the top of my head, I can think of about half that many, and to my knowledge, none have been arrested since September 2007, which was 8 months ago. So to say that 10 UT football players have been arrested in the past year is more than a little misleading.
Public concern for the truth is always high.
The football team does not actually get university money
This is what I don’t understand about the complaints surrounding the profit machine that is UT football. Every penny they get comes from ticket and merchandise sales, donations from fans/alumni, and other revenues that come directly from football operations. And the football team’s money is what pays for every other sport. The university does not give them a dime. The UT athletic department is a completely self-sufficient enterprise, mainly BECAUSE the football team is so profitable.
But I’m not suggesting that any of that means UT football players shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. It’s just getting way too easy to accuse athletes of something, without proof, and make it stick because of the way the media jumps all over it. What I would have liked to see would have been an article that essentially says “John Chiles has not been arrested or charged with a crime, but he is a person of interest in an investigation of assault.” That is a far more accurate picture of events than “The APD has confirmed that Chiles was accused of doing this at this place at this time and the athletic department will not comment because, oh yeah, Chiles was not charged with anything.” The Texan did report anything that was actually untrue, so you can’t call it irresponsible journalism, but you certainly can’t call it responsible journalism either. Regardless of what they think, and I know they have a very high opinion of themselves, THAT is their job, not making sure the public knows about every random, unfounded accusation made against UT athletes.
Instead of harping on the handful of football player who couldn’t stay out of trouble last summer, maybe the Texan could ask to tag along the next time the football team visits the Dell Children’s Medical Center or hosts a group of disabled or terminally ill or underprivileged children or visits a local school to talk to kids about the importance of education. I’m sure the public would be interested in knowing about that too.
by bassale47 on May 9, 2008 8:05 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Two separate issues
B47,
There are two separate issues here. First, there’s the Texan’s diatribe about access. As I noted in the post, there’s no real issue here. The team owes the media nothing in terms of access.
Second, there’s bullying a media organization when they report something that’s factual. You’re making a lot of good points about the first issue, most of which I agree with. But none of which bear on the second point, which is what I have a problem with. Under these circumstances, you can’t call the sports editor of the Texan and just bully him because he’s reporting something that you don’t like and think will eventually go away. It’s just unacceptable.
--PB--
Access
I don’t want to get too political here, but withholding access or threatening to withhold access is a prevalent practice for getting the media to provide favorable coverage. Though the Texan is not in the same competitive, profit-driven environment as mainstream media, the game is the same. Say nice things for us or you won’t get the information you need for your next story. This dynamic has so corrupted our national press that I must give the Texan high marks for its principled stand. Sounds like they are training some real journalists there.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
I agree with this about favorable coverage.
I have been a target of bullying as a media person. Virtually all of the time this centered around raw emotion and coach’s personal perceptions.
In none of these incidents I experienced did the coaches or administration go to the effort to talk reasonably or go through normal channels to resolve what they felt were an issue. They just jumped half-assed. One time they ganged up on me at an event, with one coach just laying into me like the OSU coach while the other coaches physically shield this from the public. It was way overboard. Fortunately, I didn’t get angry whatsoever, very clinical actually, which spooked them even more. And then the paper’s publisher just happened to walk by and I said “Excuse me, but if you have a complaint, this is the person in authority you need to formally speak to.” The publisher was as big an asshole as the coach bitching, this this was double pleasure for me. Seldom do you get opportunities like that.
The real complaint was about a letter which actually supported the coach and his program (not football). However, the coach actually hated the letter writer and wouldn’t accept the good words as stated. In addition, the coach had an extremely inflated opinion of his team (the season was about to start) but his team played poorly and the season went to hell quickly. The coach wouldn’t give me the official stats nor talk to me. I could and did get my own stats and dealt with the team for what it was. The kids did the best they could and I never demeaned them. In a sense, in a smaller venue, it is about the kids unless the coach makes it about something else. He made a serious mistake and would eventually apologise. He got carried away with raw emotion and talked his fellow coaches into supporting him, which only lasted a while. Hey, they have to swim in the same sea and they want their victories and student successes shared with the public. My view is the truth is always on the field.
Another outburst came when my editor affixed a poor headline to one of my stories. I objected but was overruled. And I got jumped immediately the next day, yelled at by someone I considered pretty reasonable and balanced. I could say only two basic things: A) I didn’t control headlines and I did object to it. And B) your team gave up 22 home runs in a double header. What do you expect from that? They were hurting and like an animal in pain, you just leave them alone and keep your body parts out of harm’s way until they get over it.
Blanco should be reprimanded. Anger at the press virtually always gets you in trouble and that can happen in myriad ways. There are always better ways to diffuse the issues involved, and I’m sure he knows that. A simple meeting with principals would have been more effective; so would an attitude of simple concern. Mark Twain’s dictum about never arguing with people who buy ink by the barrel should be in every coaching room. Sport writers are human and have long memories; sports history is an embedded part of the process. I know there are animosities and the metric usually referred to on both sides in this regard is professionalism.
And if you’re not, you get this.:
A select few UT athletes enjoy a luxurious life of private cars and charter planes instead of buses and coach class. They are held to different admissions and academic standards than many fellow athletes and peers, and much recognition and revenue is dependent on their talent. But their actions have the potential to tarnish the image of UT athletics as a whole.
Now, here’s something that is quietly threatening and implies something is known. And for the national sports writers and commentators, who may not be so professional or ethical, this is a little rip in the fabric which could be exploited.
This is a handful of hand grenades. Whether it’s accurate or not. This is dangerous, more dangerous than a dozen arrests.
Normally, if you know this, you can’t publish it without evidence; extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. For the writer this is the future. Without substantial proof, the writer [and editor possibly) is dead in the field, and even more, this opens the paper to legal attack. This is the danger of what anger can do. So, I find this more sad and somewhat frustrating than most, because a serious lack of maturity on both sides can now be exploited in a way that wasn’t possible before.
by whills on May 9, 2008 1:19 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
dealing with an SID
As a college football writer, this story really upset me for a couple of reasons. The first being that the op-ed piece seemed to get away from the real point, which is: an SID threatened the Texan after its reporters followed up, checked facts, and reported on an issue that got statewide attention. The sad thing about this piece is that it instead fell into the trap of ranting about the fairness of the athletic program when dealing with their athletes.
The second thing that upset me about this piece was the fact that an SID actually went this far. I write for Columbia University football, which went 1-9 last season. Yes, that’s right, they won ONE game. And the college newspaper is the only newspaper that gives the team attention. So we get into hot water a lot, mainly with the coach, but also with the SID. And while I don’t agree with them, it’s understandable because this is the only press they get. What is not understandable is how an SID who deals with multiple professional newspapers decided to threaten the student-run newspaper when the same type of article would run in the Austin-American Statesman, the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, etc. The lack of professionalism from Bianco tells me he either doesn’t know how to do his job or he gets a power trip from railing on the only newspaper that won’t laugh in his face.
I think an op-ed piece was the perfect way to get this story out. What the writer of the piece chose to do with it frustrates me because he gets carried away with his own personal frustrations against athletes rather than focusing on the issue: whether or not the University has the right to prohibit its own students from covering the team.
by 4th generation fan on May 10, 2008 11:47 AM CDT up reply actions
Well said
I chose not to get in to the second half of the Texan’s editorial because of the two parties worth frowning upon, it’s the SID that deserves are scorn. The writer for the Texan is more deserving of an eye-roll.
In any case, agree with you 100%. Nicely said.
--PB--
I think you hit the nail squarely.
The SID hit the weakest opponent; I sincerely doubt they would have done that with the DMN. And yet, in doing so, he raised the serious issue:
whether or not the University has the right to prohibit its own students from covering the team.
Or from covering anything else controversial within the University, which has a long history at many universities. The turbulence of the 60s and 70s brought more layers of oversight for many student papers and there have been fights with this “inside censorship,” including the Daily Texan. So, the SID’s anger pulled not only at that bad scab but also whether the School of Journalism is training real journalists or just more stenographers and homers. So, this was really out of line.
I agree with the op-ed approach, too. I’ve had to do that at times.
Last, I sympathize with writing about a 1-9 season. I once had basketball teams (girls and boys) who lost over 40 games total in a season and an 0-10 football season where the coach literally hid under his desk when he spoke. There’s nothing tougher to write; you really earn your money on that one, especially late in the season. Sometimes the straight and direct reporting of the game is a blessing.
Good luck next year. One of my favorite high school teachers had received his masters from Columbia, so I’ve always thought well of it.
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