Oklahoma student newspaper does basic reporting, gets media session canceled

[Shropshire Slasher]

In a business growing younger by the day, the only way these kids don't get decent postgrad gigs out of this is if they are smart enough to do something else with their lives. Do it, kids. Do something else.

The business is growing younger by the day while readership is growing older by the day. Market No. 6, we have a problem.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Didn't Alma see The Front Page? Didn't you Paper Clip? The kid got the story. How he did it doesn't matter unless he broke a law or injured someone in some way. That didn't happen. Just good old resourceful shoe leather reporting.

 

[Alma]

If those professionals got beaten by those college reporters with the news, you can bet they heard about it.

you think the editors at the World and Oklahoman expected their writers to go with binoculars over to an academic building?

 

[Alma]

Didn't Alma see The Front Page? Didn't you Paper Clip? The kid got the story. How he did it doesn't matter unless he broke a law or injured someone in some way. That didn't happen. Just good old resourceful shoe leather reporting.

Yep. Got the story. Never said they didn’t. You can do the ol binoculars thing once as a student journalist. They used it.

 

[PaperClip529]

Didn't Alma see The Front Page? Didn't you Paper Clip? The kid got the story. How he did it doesn't matter unless he broke a law or injured someone in some way. That didn't happen. Just good old resourceful shoe leather reporting.

How the student reporter got the story absolutely matters. Send a 40-year-old beat reporter into an academic building with a pair of binoculars and see what happens. And if the reporter doesn't get arrested, I am sure there would be a lot of discussion in the Tulsa World and Oklahoman newsrooms about whether that story even runs because of how the information was obtained. (I wonder if the story even runs if the Oklahoma student is an Oklahoman intern instead of a student reporter.) And that doesn't even get into the risk/reward argument of having your credentials and access pulled because of a stunt like that.

What the Oklahoma kids did was clever but it wasn't a grand innovation. There is a reason why NFL and NCAA reporters haven't been staked out in nearby buildings with binoculars for years.

Once again, good on the OU Daily for breaking this story. However, some of the posters on this board and the cheerleaders on Twitter are romanticizing a move that they known damn well they wouldn't pull and wouldn't be tolerated on their professional beats.

 

[WriteThinking]

you think the editors at the World and Oklahoman expected their writers to go with binoculars over to an academic building?

No, but only because neither they, nor their bosses, thought of it. I'd bet their bosses still asked them why they didn't think of it, though...

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

How the student reporter got the story absolutely matters. Send a 40-year-old beat reporter into an academic building with a pair of binoculars and see what happens. And if the reporter doesn't get arrested, I am sure there would be a lot of discussion in the Tulsa World and Oklahoman newsrooms about whether that story even runs because of how the information was obtained. (I wonder if the story even runs if the Oklahoma student is an Oklahoman intern instead of a student reporter.) And that doesn't even get into the risk/reward argument of having your credentials and access pulled because of a stunt like that.

What the Oklahoma kids did was clever but it wasn't a grand innovation. There is a reason why NFL and NCAA reporters haven't been staked out in nearby buildings with binoculars for years.

Once again, good on the OU Daily for breaking this story. However, some of the posters on this board and the cheerleaders on Twitter are romanticizing a move that they known damn well they wouldn't pull and wouldn't be tolerated on their professional beats.

Oh my God, I don't know where to start with this. Blocking the major dailies from covering practice is only the FIRST ginormous red flag. Everything cascades from the first whistle. The only thing preventing full coverage is Hurricane Kelly at Notre Dame.

 

[Col. Nathan R. Jessup]

Accurate reporting. Also, bold. Also, creative. And of course in service of the readers. Kudos to these reporters.

Alma, this is not the hill to die on.

 

[PaperClip529]

Blocking the major dailies from covering practice is only the FIRST ginormous red flag.

Tell me you don’t cover a major college football program without telling me that you don’t cover a major college football program.

 

[Alma]

Accurate reporting. Also, bold. Also, creative. And of course in service of the readers. Kudos to these reporters.

Alma, this is not the hill to die on.

What hill am I dying on? That you can only do this once? If they pull it off again, hell, I’ll send them a case of Stoops tequila.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I don’t buy the first part of your argument at all. The kids did something that they likely will not be able to replicate at their first post-college gig (the spying on practice part, not the calling the parents part). It was smart and they should be applauded for executing this plan, but I am very skeptical that this is going to open a bunch of doors.

They're young, they'll presumably work cheap, they're not easily fazed or intimidated and they've got some chops. If they want to do this (and again, they may be too smart to do something that dumb), my guess is they'll have pretty good gigs by the summer after graduation.

 

[MeanGreenATO]

We can clearly debate whether or not this was something one should do.

But the payoff isn't up for debate. This is a massive story that has moved the needle and also served readers incredibly well. Thought the quotes from Rattler's dad gave great insight.

There should be more conversations about whether the access granted to cover major college football is actually worth it. This story clearly shows more is to be gained by breaking the rules. And that avenue might even be more profitable.

 

[wicked]

As has been said elsewhere on this thread, Lincoln Riley didn’t have to be an asshole.

Also, are you telling me there were zero interns/assistants in Riley’s office or the SID’s office who weren’t aware that there is a perfect perch from which to watch practice? These coaches know every item in the vending machines in the football dorms and you’re going to tell me they overlooked this significant detail?

Riley wanted this out there. Now he can blame the big bad “fake news” folks for the week and get the kids to buy into whatever game plan he has.

 

[Alma]

We can clearly debate whether or not this was something one should do.

But the payoff isn't up for debate. This is a massive story that has moved the needle and also served readers incredibly well. Thought the quotes from Rattler's dad gave great insight.

There should be more conversations about whether the access granted to cover major college football is actually worth it. This story clearly shows more is to be gained by breaking the rules. And that avenue might even be more profitable.

I actually agree with all of this. Great payoff for a college journalist.

Access may not be worth it when every interview is on some video outlet anyway. You play nice to some degree for the right to ask questions, to get the occasional extra access when you need it for a feature and to not be labeled an asshole. A lot of beat writers really want to be the person who buddies up to the coaches and athletes and functions as an “insider.” Mouthpieces go a long way.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

As has been said elsewhere on this thread, Lincoln Riley didn’t have to be an asshole.

Also, are you telling me there were zero interns/assistants in Riley’s office or the SID’s office who weren’t aware that there is a perfect perch from which to watch practice? These coaches know every item in the vending machines in the football dorms and you’re going to tell me they overlooked this significant detail?

Riley wanted this out there. Now he can blame the big bad “fake news” folks for the week and get the kids to buy into whatever game plan he has.

supposedly they put some kind of coating or film on windows of buildings adjacent to the practice field last year so people couldn’t see out of them. So they knew-ish, maybe they should roof access wasn’t allowed or safe

Football coaches thinking they’re cold war era spies is so stupid

 

[Batman]

They're young, they'll presumably work cheap, they're not easily fazed or intimidated and they've got some chops. If they want to do this (and again, they may be too smart to do something that dumb), my guess is they'll have pretty good gigs by the summer after graduation.

They'll get offers from every Gannett paper in the country.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

They'll get offers from every Gannett paper in the country.

RUN!!!!!

 

[ChrisLong]

I don't get Alma and Paper Clip. The buzzword that sports editors like to throw around is "enterprise." Simply, I know it to mean go get your own stories, don't wait for what is given to you.

 

[Songbird]

The kids got the story. -30-

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

We did the same thing when Tommy Maddox beat out Bret Johnson for UCLA's starting quarterback job. A reporter went to the top of the parking garage next to the UCLA practice field. He saw that Johnson wasn't there. We reached him by phone later that morning, said he didn't know what he was going to do. He then transferred to Michigan State.

When they were in Anaheim, the Rams barred the media from practice. The writers went onto a golf course next door and watched from the other side of the chain-link fence.

Pete Carroll at USC, as a motivational tool, dressed up a mannequin in a blue and gold UCLA sweatshirt. A student aid took it to the top of an adjacent parking structure. At Carroll's signal, the aid shouted, "Hey, what are you doing here?" As all the players looked up to see what was going on, the aid grabbed the mannequin and threw if off the roof.

I remember that stunt.