N.D. radio announcer suspended

Could just as easily go in sports and news, but ...

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8966526/paul-ralston-play-play-announcer-suspended-saying-choke-job-north-dakota-basketball-game

 

I bemoan the wussification of North Dakota sports radio!

 

Sounds like a coach with a hair across his ass.

 

Never would have happened with a certified announcer, says Rush Limbaugh.

 

Wore than that, he's been banned from the Red Pepper.

 

I did far worse than that when I was doing radio. Given what I read of the game, it sounds like choke job was an accurate description.

 

Grand Forks columnist had no problem with the suspension:

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/257042/

 

I follow this guy's logic in his column, but what he fails to get is the public's reaction is justified. While his column is correct, it doesn't state the obvious problem and conflict of interest.

Most people are under the impression that the media is fair and objective, or at least tries to be impartial and unbiased. Most people don't know that the majority of Division I schools own their broadcast rights, sell it, distribute it, and pay the on air talent. Most people believe the announcer is telling them what is actually happening and is truthful. What they don't know is that these people are paid PR pawns for the school and they are at the mercy of the school.

Whether the "choke job" statement was correct or not is NOT the problem here. The radio announcer should have the right to describe what he sees in the frame and context he believes appropriate without consequence. At least, ideally, that's how it's supposed to work.

However, because he's a paid employee of the school, he's supposed to shovel rose-colored shit down your throat and tell you how great the school he covers is and that somehow by miracle of miracles of God Almighty the opponent lucked out and beat the fine young men of North Dakota.

The columnist missed the entire point of exposing what was really going on. Not only that, he went on to defend the damn school. Granted, his logic is not incorrect. It's the whole damn thing that smells of shit though.

This is what's wrong with college athletics and media. Stupid fanboys following their heroes like ducks in a row behind momma duck.

 

Somehow for me, it makes a difference that he said it to the coach post game, and not during play-by-play. Even if your job during the game is to give opinion, once you are in interview mode, the subject is supposed to do the talking. If I had a columnist who wanted to craft his entire story around "choke job," I would find it horribly unprofessional for him to declare it one to the coach. Let the quotes carry that theme, or at least stand in contrast to the pxp if coach has lost touch.

But man, that column ending was brutal.

 

The Grand Forks Herald has been a PR arm of the University of North Dakota for ages. Hasn't changed since Forum Communications bought it several years ago.

 

Wow. That was a brutal read.

 

Yep. He worked for the school and they had every right to discipline him, but the columnist was regurgitating lines from an employment contract. Yech.

Just because the school had the right to do it doesn't mean that it's not newsworthy.