Clemson student newspaper doesn't run Watkins arrest story

I was interested in your guys' opinion on this matter. Sammy Watkins, star player on Clemson's football team, got arrested this morning for possession of marijuana.

Not a huge murder type of story, but still a story. TheTigerNews.com, the website for the student newspaper, declined to run a story on the matter.

The sports' twitter handle only ran this:

The Tiger Sports ‏ @TheTigerSports
BREAKING NEWS: A college student got caught with marijuana! It just so happened to be a really good football player, so now it's a big deal.

Is this appropriate journalism or a case of students becoming fans?

 

Appropriate journalism might - might - apply if this were a sourced story and the publication claimed not to run sourced/anonymous source stories. And even that's a major stretch.

But this one is as black and white as Clemson is orange and purple. It smells like Tiger crap ...

 

It should definitely be a story. While it should go up online ASAP, I honestly have no idea how the paper manages its site. I have to imagine there will be a story in the next print edition, but yes, there should be a story online right away because, in addition to his arrest, I have to imagine there will be a suspension.

 

That's how many student newspapers work. It's unprofessional, but they're student journalists. Clemson's journalism school isn't Missouri's, and its newspaper isn't UPenn's. This thread is a massive stretch. Thanks for registering just to post it, HecklingHarry.

 

Um ... so if Jack Leggett hit a milestone win mark, they would bury it until it was more convenient at a later time?

Um, yeah ...

 

They're not student journalists. They're students.

 

No opinion on question but it was clear that Clemson had huge problems with their team at the end of last year.

 

My alma mater won a spring championship in a sport people care about two or three years ago. The title game was after finals. The story didn't go up on the website until two weeks after the game, the same time as the first of the weekly summer editions.

They're students. The student newspaper exists primarily to give students a chance to show their skills for prospective employers. That kind of news delay reflects poorly on the publication to those who notice. But most prospective employers don't, unless it's brought up in a random-ass thread created by someone with one post on this message board.

It's very interesting that HecklingHarry decided to delete his second post. It featured a quote from a response by the sports editor: The newspaper is on delay, but they'll have the story in their orientation issue in June.

 

The person updating the Twitter feed has a bright future.

 

Maybe so. But it does seem awfully convenient.

It would hard to believe that if they had dumped Tommy Bowden at this time of year - especially considering that the vultures, er, fan base, had been wanting to get rid of him for a while - they wouldn't find a way to publish something, even on a stopgap basis?

And why do they have the technology and energy to give you an update on their inability to post, yet not have the means to produce something on their site?

 

The technology and energy to post a tweet? You sound like a dinosaur.

 

The Tweeter, as a beat writer, has the right to opine if he thinks this isn't a big deal. He still has to report it. If there's no story in the next print edition then that's horrible news judgment on the part of the SE/ME of the student paper.

Was he arrested by campus PD? Would it therefore run the pol beat regardless? It's a layered issue I think.