Does the public care?

Nice find, JD... I love the anecdote at the end,

 

I can't respect the statement without questioning the person making it?

As I said, at the top, I don't think people care. But I respect someone (now, three people) saying it.

And Scooter Hobbs turned the phrase quite nicely there. Better than I could've done (or was mulling doing/had written as an internal trial balloon/etc.)

rb

 

Only read first page of this thread, but is anyone else not struck by the admission of manipulation in this column?
"We created you falsely, because you fed us phony tips about jobs (etc) that we didn't really bother to confirm and your record would suggest you weren't qualified for, and now you won't talk to us.
"Well, now we're going to write bad thigns about you. What do you think of that?"
Did Mary Shelley write that column?

 

That was a great take from Scooter Hobbs. Very solid column. Thanks JD.

 

Agreed. Moon is an Auburn grad who made it clear that he wasn't happy on the beat - and actually covered an Auburn-Louisiana Monroe game on his off-weekend and seemed happiest about it.
I think his nickname was "The Ghost," if I remember right, and the only beat writer who didn't give any of his contact info to the SID staff.
Knowing what I know, that column isn't surprising.

 

Oh, and one more thing - I'm pretty sure Tim Gayle, Montgomery's beat writer, won't be buying Moon a Christmas present anytime soon.
He just made Gayle's job that much harder...

 

You can't write a column on this. I appreciate the sentiments and am in a similar managed environment, though I havent heard anything quite as bad as Saban. Don't go to practic, and dont' cover them. Tell the fans to call the SIDs office and the AD's office if they want coverage.

But this is classic making the media the story. Nothing makes fans happier than the coach fighting the evil media.

Investigative journalism? On what? On how the QB is doing in practice? Is that a joke?

People don't understand that when a guy isn't available you can't talk to him on the record. The only way to talk is to go and ambush the guy out of sight of the coaches and SID. Then, you can't quote him or the coach will be come down hard. Then they will kick you out of the press box.

If the guy is transferring, arrested, or like stuff, I will by pass the SID. But for basic daily stories you need cooperation by the athletic department. It is their team, isn't it?

 

And the public doesn't care at all about why "their" fine coach won't let "the media" watch the team.

 

I'd disagree with you, Elliotte. You can learn a ton while watching practice.

It's a wonderful place to check out players' attitudes toward hard work, how they interact with their positon/head coach, who is hurt and whose injury is being hid, who really stands where on the depth chart, the attitude of the team, which guys can catch and throw, etc.

It's a wonderful resource. I truly believe beat reporters who aren't allowed to watch practice, as much of a waste of time it may seem to some, are losing out and not getting a 100 percent feel for the team they're covering.

I've been lucky. The football teams I've covered, under four different head coaches, almost exxclusively held open practices and gave unlimited (within reasonable boundaries) access to players and assistant coaches. Hard to imagine operating in a Saban-like atmosphere after experiencing the exact opposite.

 

Micro,

You and Elliotte agree. He was disagreeing with Hobbs, who does not see the value of watching 20 minutes of practice.

 

Oh well, reading comprehension was never one of my strongpoints.

But I knew I disagreed with somebody about the value of watching practice.