A journalist's view on the Freep story
I also work with an excellent columnist who I believe does his research and asks all the questions as thoroughly as anyone I've ever known. He is very good at what he does (this obviously rules out the Detroit papers).
I'm not a columnist or an investigative reporter, but I can honestly say that for the sake of journalism in general, stories like the one in the Free Press are incredibly frustrating. When I can look at the story and immediately say, "they're jumping to an incorrect conclusion about time spent, because some of this -- like meals -- obviously isn't mandatory," there's a problem with the reporting or the editing (or both).
I just don't understand how an educated reporter could look at that and not even attempt to figure out the breakdown of "required" and "voluntary" activities. Just because I often spent 12 hours on the Michigan campus on weekdays does not mean that I had 60 credit hours per semester, and that's basically what Rosenberg and Snyder are saying when they total up the hours and say that the players all spent "two to three times more than the NCAA allowed" on required activities.
The same holds true with the comments about "mandatory" workouts resulting in punishment. This could be the key to the investigation here if they would only ask the question, "What was the punishment?" If players were forced to come in for extra lifting or run stadium steps, that would be meaningful information.
But like Brian said, it would appear that they didn't ask these questions -- if they did, they simply left out the details and explanations because it didn't fit their version of the story, which is even worse (and obviously unethical).
I just wish more people were aware of research like what's been done here by Brian and the mgoboarder who dug into the NCAA rulebook (sorry, I don't remember the name).
I truly believe that most journalists do their best to report the facts and stay unbiased, but that doesn't always mean a whole lot by the time the story is written and gets to the general public. It's unfortunate that for most people, the news they receive (either from TV or a trimmed-down story in the paper) is often a very one-sided or poorly reported version of it.
* As for the bankruptcy issue, I don't know what it holds for my paper, only that I really, really hope I still have a job at the end of the week. I have a wife and two kids to support, and while there are other things I could do (PR, etc.), I at least feel some satisfaction in trying to accurately report things the best I can rather than spin them in favor of the all-powerful corporation holding a paycheck over my head.
www.foreversaturdayblog.blogspot.com
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