Dooley "rewards" reporters with access to scrimmage

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/editor/2010/08/dooleys_rewarding_of_reporters.shtml

Does anyone else find it odd that the one daily newspaper reporter in the group was apparently untroubled by this arrangement?

 

Dooley's a nice guy but he's also a Nick Saban disciple, which means the media is kept at arm's length at all times. He is just nicer about it than most Saban/Belichick guys. And no, I don't think this is good.

 

What defines how a reporter is "respectful" to the team? Does it mean they treat team officials professionally, or does it mean the reporters suck up to Dooley?

 

That's terrible.

"You've been good little boys and girls during training camp, so here's your lollipop ... a scrimmage! Yea!"

 

I can imagine the great stories that come out of those scrimmages. "Jimmy Wideout looked sharp catching that wide-open 10-yard pass."

 

The comments go back and forth, but the ones that support "CDD" -- Coach Derek Dooley, I surmise -- are disturbing.

 

I gotta do what I gotta do

 

What a douchebag.

 

If I were the beat writer, I would have no qualms about sticking up for the right to attend the "mock game."

But I would not go under those terms.

If Dooley just agreed to let those reporters in and didn't give any reason, that's one thing.

But the pat on the head from the coach is pathetic.

 

I think anybody who has been on a college beat for a while has had some sort of exposure to this, but likely not as public.

If you do a good job, are fair and are professional, you might get a call from an assistant coach or a SID saying to come to practice. If you might ask the SID for some special access for a story and have it granted. You might call the coach at home when something is going down and get a phone call returned while one of the other beat writers doesn't.

It's called working the beat. It's the reality.

Now would it have been better if there wasn't a public proclamation about this? Probably. But the reality of life on a beat is that if you show up all the time, you are fair and you aren't a d-bag, sometimes you get things thrown in your direction that help you.

Here's an example: I was new on a beat where access is traditionally pretty tight. When we got to basketball season and I got off to a fine start with the coach, I asked the SID to see if I could attend a practice or two to get a sense of how the staff worked, what they emphasized, etc. The coach was cool with it and I went to a couple of practices over the semester break. At one of these practices, a starter (not a star, but a solid player) got hurt. I was there, I asked the coach about it afterwards and it was a scoop.

 

I don't disagree with most of the above, but the fact is there was a public proclamation and it does make one wonder whether a dogged, aggressive reporter would get an invite over the fanboy contingent.

The fact that this apparently didn't even raise eyebrows with the News-Sentinel until well after the fact makes me wonder...

 

Sure, if you show the initiative, fine. No reason to stay with the pack.

But if Dooley made this announcement before the mockery game, no way in hell I would go. I wouldn't let my reporter go, either, under those terms.

It's insulting and patronizing.