Daily Universe lashes out at BYU Athletics

[Mars]

http://universe.byu.edu/node/6259

Wow.

[snoscythe]

What a joke. Complaining because the student paper gets the same level of access as the local media. Oh the humanity!

These guys need to get over themselves. Guess what--in the real world, if you represent some podunk bottom-feeder paper and the team you cover thinks you gave a misleading interview and pulled things out of context, there's going to be consequences. The baseball team doesn't do post-game interviews after away games because they'd rather get on the road? Seems like the professional newspapers are doing fine covering those games without crying like Nancy Kerrigan. The basketball and football teams put gag orders on players who cross a line "hurts the students?" How?

This kid needs to grow a pair and get over himself. You write for the least important paper that covers the programs--when you're a bottom feeder, you're going to have to eat some crap to survive. More people read your paper for the indignant opinions and police reports of streakers than the coverage of the baseball team. Get used to it....you're entering a dying profession.

[BroncoBot]

What a joke. Complaining because the student paper gets the same level of access as the local media. Oh the humanity!

These guys need to get over themselves. Guess what--in the real world, if you represent some podunk bottom-feeder paper and the team you cover thinks you gave a misleading interview and pulled things out of context, there's going to be consequences. The baseball team doesn't do post-game interviews after away games because they'd rather get on the road? Seems like the professional newspapers are doing fine covering those games without crying like Nancy Kerrigan. The basketball and football teams put gag orders on players who cross a line "hurts the students?" How?

This kid needs to grow a pair and get over himself. You write for the least important paper that covers the programs--when you're a bottom feeder, you're going to have to eat some crap to survive. More people read your paper for the indignant opinions and police reports of streakers than the coverage of the baseball team. Get used to it....you're entering a dying profession.

HA HA HA....... HA HAHA.

Sno, saying it how it is.

[SpiffCoug]

The kid - which is what he acting like - needs to grow up. Some quotes from his article:

Apparently BYU baseball coach Vance Law won’t allow his players or himself to be interviewed after away games. How is our baseball reporter supposed to give the fans a proper report on the baseball team if the reporter can’t even talk to the team?

Umm... You can talk to the team. Just not after road games.

We won’t know how Heaps feels about spring camp until after the team’s Sept. 4 game against Washington.

Then I guess we won't know. Somehow my life will go on.

The BYU football team has a policy that bans any media from interviewing new freshman players until after the first game of the season.

Oh the humanity! A BYU team wants to get some of the brand new players, many of whom have likely never had to deal with the media a chance to observe how it's done before doing it themselves and getting some instructions and lessons in how to do it.

Let me be very clear: The Daily Universe has no vendetta against any athlete or coach, nor does it hold a grudge against any employee of BYU Athletic Communications. But a problem arises when the athletics department or a coach feels the best way to get back at a perceived bias by the paper is to blacklist the student reporters who are trying to find stories that interest the BYU student body.

Really?! Because this whole article screams we certainly do.

However, if you feel the article was unfair, how about talking to the reporter about some of the concerns you had?

How about instead of calling a coach out in the paper, you talk to them about an issue they apparently have with the reporter? Seems hypocritical to me to say the coach should have talked to the reporter and then have a reporter not talking to a coach for the same issue.

Decisions like placing gag orders on Jonathan Tavernari and O’Neill Chambers, both of which happened last year, need to stop. It does nothing to protect the athletes and it won’t destroy The Daily Universe. The only thing it does is hurt the students and also BYU sports fans.

Really, didn't you just say your baseball article wasn't as good because you couldn't get quotes? And I didn't realize JT and O'Neill were the only players on the team. I mean, there certainly aren't 13 teammates of JT or 104 teammates of O'Neill who could have been interviewed instead.

For sports like men’s volleyball and baseball, you need to realize that if we can’t get access to coaches and athletes, then we might have no choice but to not cover your sports as much as you would like.

Wait, I thought,

The Daily Universe has no vendetta against any athlete or coach, nor does it hold a grudge against any employee of BYU Athletic Communications.

What a truly awful piece of journalism. The editor of the Daily Universe who allowed this run needs to bring this Christian Carlson in for some serious remedial training. He clearly hasn't been listening in class about dealing respectfully with the beats you cover.

[urroner]

When I was going to the Y, we had complaints in the Daily Universe about Neil Diamond being invited to sing on campus and he had long hair. We had some girl writing in and complaining about the no blue denim pants for women on campus and how she was forced to take a test only after she took off her pants and wore a long coat to take a test.

The older I get, the more I realize how silly some of the things I did as a young adult, thinking I was being helpful and making excellent points in some of my arguments, now I realize that my wisdom was just being a dumb ass. In most cases, age comes with wisdom, in my case, it came alone.

Ask this reporter in twenty years what he thinks of this article and he'll probably either try to change the subject or just laughing at his silliness.

[hawkwing]

Wow, and Journalists wonder why the news paper business is dying. It's not the internet, it's poor quality work like this mixed with a strong dose of entitlement.

[Schmoe]

You guys are quoting all kinds of things that I don't see anywhere in the article, all I saw was "WWAAAHHHH!!"

[urroner]

You guys are quoting all kinds of things that I don't see anywhere in the article, all I saw was "WWAAAHHHH!!"

[Mars]

One of the quotes following the article was very succinct in pointing out how Graham Watson from ESPN twisted freshman O'Neil Chambers quotes to make it sound like he was insulting his fellow wide receivers. Some policies may seem stupider than others to outsiders, but all have been put in place by BYU and its coaches for a reason.

It's like the caution label on a ladder warning you not to secure it in manure. That sure seems stupid, but it wouldn't be there if that one dumb farmer hadn't broken his leg out in a cow pasture...

[ABYUFAN]

Do you guys think that this sentence is as poorly written as I think it is?

This is just one of several recent examples of some of the BYU athletic teams, along with BYU Athletic Communications, thinking it’s a good idea to protect its athletes from the media, and including The Daily Universe.

I was waiting for this guy to start on about "U.S. Americans and the Iraq"