When the reporting of a story kills the story

[tapintoamerica]

I don't claim to know anything about the Michigan search or Kirk Herbstreit's sources, but I'll throw this out there anyway: Is it possible that Herbstreit's report was accurate and that its release in a very public forum killed the deal?

Has anyone ever suspected this sort of thing may have happened to them? (Sources tell you something and you write it; the subject intended to take a job/do whatever but needed the secret kept for another few days; and then his own embargo was inconveniently broken, he backed out of his intentions and claimed he never had them at all?)

 

[DanOregon]

Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) told a story in "All The President's Men" (the movie, don't know if it was in the book, about a time when he heard LBJ was going to replace J. Edgar Hoover and wrote about it. When LBJ saw the story, he reappointed Hoover for life.

 

[jlee]

It was in the book, too.

I'm sure if there's any Washington bureau folk on this board, they could give you pages of examples.

 

[da man]

I seem to remember something like that happening years ago with a college football coach. Georgia, maybe? A coach agrees to take the job, AJC (I think) reports it, coach backs out and denies the story. Anyone else remember that?

 

[Boomer7]

Dan Shaughnessy's column on Theo Epstein (temporarily) convinced Epstein not to sign the extension he planned on signing two years ago.

 

[steveu]

Personally, I think Herbstreit wanted to stick it to Michigan. You know how those Ohio State folk can be.

All right, on a serious note... he claims his sources were correct. And they might have been. Maybe LSU got wind of those rumors and prepared a huge contract extension to keep him there. We'll never know the truth now, I guess.

 

[Ace]

Sources can be correct (at the time anyway) and still burn you.

The best stories where your reporting kills it is if you are reporting on something where people are misbehaving and they change policies or people resign or whatever before you even write the story. Happens quite a bit in news.

 

[TheMethod]

I seem to remember something like that happening years ago with a college football coach. Georgia, maybe? A coach agrees to take the job, AJC (I think) reports it, coach backs out and denies the story. Anyone else remember that?

Are you talking about Glen Mason? As I recall, he was at Kansas, accepted the Georgia job, then immediately backed out, then jumped ship and went to Minnesota. (my chronology could be off here, but this happened in 1995-96)

 

[ink-stained wretch]

What!!?? A source might be forwarding a personal or professional agenda by speaking with a reporter?

Never! People are not like that at all. [end sarcasm font]

Jesus! Every frickin' time they open their mouth, they are working you. Get use to it.

 

[DanOregon]

That time when JLo and Ben Affleck were going to get married

 

[SixToe]

da man is talking about the former N.C. State coach who accepted the Tech job, but told Tech brass he did not want it reported or showing up in the press.

AJC reported it based on solid facts. The story was correct, that Tech had a new coach.

Then the Wolfpack coach got pissed and took his name out of the job.

 

[SF_Express]

We've had that happen to us. I might have told the story before, but a couple of years ago, we had a prominent coach leaving one place to go to another. One source story, but a pretty good source: the coach, who told us he was doing this.

Next day, he changed his mind, and although he didn't mention us specifically, he commented on false rumors in the media.

What are you going to do? Happens these days.

 

[John]

I don't know if it was ultimately the case with Rich Rodriguez and Alabama, but it kind of sounded like it.

 

[wickedwritah]

Who was the Bears assistant who went to interview for the Cardinals job, heard on the radio that he'd been named coach -- before formalizing his deal -- and turned around and went home?

 

[Chi City 81]

Who was the Bears assistant who went to interview for the Cardinals job, heard on the radio that he'd been named coach -- before formalizing his deal -- and turned around and went home?

Dave McGinnis, which led to Michael McCaskey being kicked out of the front office by his mom. Except you mixed up the teams. The Bears were the ones who wanted to hire him.

 

[wickedwritah]

You're right, Doc. No wonder I couldn't successfully Google it up.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Who was the Bears assistant who went to interview for the Cardinals job, heard on the radio that he'd been named coach -- before formalizing his deal -- and turned around and went home?

Dave McGinnis, which led to Michael McCaskey being kicked out of the front office by his mom. Except you mixed up the teams. The Bears were the ones who wanted to hire him.

The Tribune had a nice photo of an empty podium the next day. A nadir for the franchise.

Whatever happened to McGinnis?

 

[Clerk Typist]

McGinnis balked and flew home because he saw the news release, which naturally had been prepared in advance, on someone's desk.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Who was the Bears assistant who went to interview for the Cardinals job, heard on the radio that he'd been named coach -- before formalizing his deal -- and turned around and went home?

Dave McGinnis, which led to Michael McCaskey being kicked out of the front office by his mom. Except you mixed up the teams. The Bears were the ones who wanted to hire him.

The Tribune had a nice photo of an empty podium the next day. A nadir for the franchise.

Whatever happened to McGinnis?

He's the assistant head coach and linebackers coach for the Tennessee Titans.

 

[da man]

da man is talking about the former N.C. State coach who accepted the Tech job, but told Tech brass he did not want it reported or showing up in the press.

AJC reported it based on solid facts. The story was correct, that Tech had a new coach.

Then the Wolfpack coach got pissed and took his name out of the job.

You're right that it was N.C. State's **** Sheridan, but the job was Georgia -- replacing Vince Dooley, no less. At least that's what I was able to deduce from this excerpt from a feature on Ray Goff, the guy who actually got the job, from Scout.com's Dawg Post.

Thanks for jogging my memory enough so I could look it up on Google.


The mad scramble at Georgia was a result of Vince Dooley’s stepping down after being a successful head coach at Georgia for 25 years. Dooley stepped down in the middle of December 1988, and conventional thinking was that a replacement had already been lined up – it may have been. But it didn’t work out that easy for Dooley, who, as Athletic Director, was trying to find his own replacement. The later it went in December, the more difficult he found it to replace himself. The most logical choice, it seemed, was winding down his career and he was not willing to make the trip back to Athens for his swan song.

“Everyone’s top choice, even mine, was Erk Russell,” admitted Goff talking about the long-time defensive coordinator under Dooley. “He was offered the job, but he didn’t want to leave Georgia Southern because he knew that he was only going to be down there for another year or two, and I think he was just kind of ready to get out.”

At that point **** Sheridan, the head coach at NC State at the time, was offered the job.

“As I understood it, Coach Sheridan actually took the Georgia job,” Goff said. “But from what I was told, he wanted to talk privately with his football team – they were playing in the Peach Bowl that year. Word got out before Christmas that he was offered the Georgia job, and that he was going to take it. Well, he called a press conference and turned it down.”

Many thought Sheridan was just leveraging the Georgia job for more money in Raleigh.

Russell is still a legend at Georgia – the team honored him after his death last September. Sheridan coached at NC State until he resigned after the 1992 season and has been in private business in the Carolinas since.