Friendship vs. Integrity: FIGHT!

Submitted by Aequitas on

After listening to John Bacon last night, dancing around the subject of Rosenbergs intentions, and listening again this morning to Eric Adelson, a common theme emerged:  "I don't want to judge Rosenberg's intentions because he's my friend / I know him / I have a relationship with him...."

 

And yet it doesn't seem like there's any such rush from Bacon or Adelson to afford Rich Rodriguez the same sentiments.  Why?

 

Rosenberg is simply following the Jim Carty parasitic shortcut to job security by "make a name for myself before the ship sinks"; while Rodriguez is trying his hardest to make a dreadful team better.  Rodriguez isn't perfect, none of us are.  But explain to me how a team that is "over-worked" and just concentrates on football managed to put forth the best team GPA in recorded Michigan history?

 

Eric Adelson is a regular guest on WTKA, and John Bacon is an occasional host and author of “Bo’s Lasting Lessons”.  Adelson I tolerate but his views are rarely relevant as he's generally not even close to being in-touch with anything local.  After this morning, I'm wondering why the heck he's even on there?  Any "valuable national opinion" he may have of the team is being blurred by his relationship with Rosenberg.

 

John Bacon, however, should know better.  He wrote a book about one of the highest caliber human beings on the planet.  Stubborn Bo was, yes, but the man had integrity.  I cannot picture him standing by silently while something, or someone, he believed in was being unfairly and unneccessarily attacked simply because a "friend" was behind it.  John KNOWS what this is about.  Dammit, Snyder, the co-writer of Rosenberg’s hit-piece, won't even field questions as to what he considers a "countable hour"!  Why then is Michigan supposed to scurry about madly trying to disprove an allegation the accuser can't (or won’t) even properly frame or define?

 

The timing couldn't be worse for desperate journalists trying to make a name for themselves at the expense of program trying to climb out of the mire of an awful transitional season.   Meanwhile, both John Bacon and Eric Adelson are refusing to acknowledge the upset players and furious parents, the head coach pouring his heart and soul into the team, the integrity of Michigan's compliance department - they're ignoring these other sources because of a friendship?  Both John Bacon and Eric Adelson are choosing to put their integrity aside by refusing to condemn what they know is wrong. 

 

It’s not like any of this yellow journalism is new.  The way the Freep has handled recent stories about Feagin and MSUs prison-to-practice field nonsense, the way they've handled this story by talking with anonymous disgruntled sources at Michigan, the way they've taken advantage of Rodriguez' player access by misleading two freshman - not to mention how Carty's Ann Arbor News writers mislead football players by telling them they were going to do a piece "honoring" their professor, only to field another unjust attack on Michigan athletic academics – all of it shows that there ARE people at work trying to, at the very minimum, damage the program.

I don't care if Adelson is ever asked back.  Getting the “out of touch national perspective” is seldom enough of a draw to keep me tuned in during the commute.  John Bacon, on the other hand, I very much enjoy.  To say that I'm disappointed in him is an understatement.  John is intelligent, humorous and insightful.  I also believe him to be a man of high integrity that is making a very poor decision by not condemning the recent Rosenberg piece in particular.

 

The good news is that the morning show on WTKA is quite solid and MGoBrian has somehow managed to infiltrate the station’s airwaves more and more frequently.

 

All of the recent hit-pieces and “I won’t comment on that because he’s my friend” crap have really made me appreciate the efforts of Brian and the MGoBlog staff more and more lately.

 

Thank you for a forum to wallow in the unvarnished truth.  And vent when the need arises…

Comments

Saluki

September 1st, 2009 at 1:07 PM ^

Discussion and a link to the audio is on MGoBoard. The interview is good stuff. Bacon calls out Rosenberg's vendetta against RR and the crappy journalism of the article. Let's hope Bacon gets interview by ESPN.

Aequitas

September 1st, 2009 at 1:43 PM ^

He's one of the few people that I'll (still) turn the radio on for if I know he's on. On the drive home last night, I felt like he interrupted Brian's points a few times and was really going out of his way not to indict Rosenberg, literally citing their friendship as the reason for him holding back. I'm hoping Bacon's had time to reflect on it and has changed his mind. Like I said, I was pretty disappointed. The point still stands that a lot of radio personalities and writers will hold back on criticizing a friend for a journalistic mistake, but will jump on certain coaches in a heartbeat if there's any semblance of wrong-doing.

Wolv54

September 1st, 2009 at 4:50 PM ^

they don't know and they are careful enough not to go off on emotion and start throwing themselves out there in the first few days/hours after the story broke. I have no problem with them not throwing themselves in front of the tidal wave for the sake of the program unless they had first hand knowledge that the story was intentionally created to hurt RR and/or the program and had no merit. Everyone just needs to calm down and quite typing so much and just let this thing die, it has no legs and it will die along with the Free Press. I am mad and ashamed of the way RR has been treated since he got here and I want those irresponsible reporters to get theirs, but I think it's time we spend more time showing the Coaches and the team that we support and believe in them than another diary or message board rant about something we can change at this point. My good buddy always says "you can't unfuck a pregnant woman", which is crass and less than eloquent, but there is some truth in it. What's done is done and we need to vent our outrage in a way that only lifts up those who have been affected the most by this unfortunate incident. Hell, I'm sporting a 4 week old porn 'stache to support Mustaches for Michigan right now! Let's channel this outrage into supporting the coaches and the team and for God's Sake, grow a 'stache.

Aequitas

September 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 PM ^

Born and raised = local tie, yep. But not what was written. Read it again. As far as letting "it" die, as a few of you are suggesting, it's not going to die until and unless Michigan rips off 6 straight wins. You're not going to be able to silence Rosendouche, Sharp or any of their media buddies, so why try and silence a few Michigan fans venting or defending their school on MGoBlog? Doesn't even make sense. Don't read the stuff if you're tired of it. I don't think anyone's writing tricky or misleading topics to lure you in are they? More and more Michigan fans are reaching their boiling points. This crap is, and has been, non stop and it's time we shot back. "Just ignore it, it'll go away" hasn't worked for the last year or so. And try telling that to the parents of student-athletes bustig their asses for a program, coach and staff they believe in.

Toledo Tornado

September 1st, 2009 at 6:55 PM ^

I HOPE ALL THIS HORSE DU-DU MOTIVATES THE HELL OUT OF THE PLAYERS AND COACHES... THAT THEY ALL GET THAT WOLF LIKE KILLER STARE OF BARWIS, AND THEY DONT JUST BEAT TEAMS, BUT RUN THEM OVER LIKE A BULLDOZER. TAKE NO PRISONERS WOLVERINES!

Swayze Howell Sheen

September 1st, 2009 at 8:43 PM ^

I was also disappointed by the ridiculous Adelson interview on WTKA. He kept defending Rosen and saying how the bigger story was about "whether RichRod can fit in at Michigan" and some crap like that. If that is the story, then why not write a story about that? Instead we got a piece of shit article that intentionally misleads. Long ago I knew Eric Adelson (in school), and he was a bright kid. He seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way. If journalists can't condemn other journalists because they are friends, you know something has gone wrong with the institution.