This past week there was a controversy at a UMass basketball game. For those of you who don't know, I'll set the scene.
The UMass basketball team was up by about 40 points with less than 10 minutes remaning in the game. It was Senior Night, this past Wednesday night, and senior Stephane Lasme was one rebound and one block away from his fourth triple-double this season. Coach Travis Ford put him back in the game, risking injury, to try to become just the third person in NCAA history to record four triple-doubles in a season.
I was not at the game. But my colleague, boss, and very good friend Rob Greenfield was. He is the managing editor at the Massachusetts Daily Collegian and covers the basketball team for the paper.
Lasme ended up getting the final stats he needed to get double-digits in all three categories - he finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 blocks. But Greenfield noticed something - or didn't notice it: the 10th block. While I didn't see the play, but Greenfield did, and he believed Lasme was given that last block. It was a questionable call, for sure, and the official scorer gave Lasme the 10th block.
According to Greenfield - and a number of other people at the game - the ball never changed direction, and the spin stayed consistent throughout the flight of the ball. Essentially, they gave him the block to pad his stats and add to the UMass athletics glory fodder.
Greenfield wrote a column about this that night for the Collegian, that can be read here. He called it 'an unforgivable sin in the religious world of competitive sports' and I believe he is right in saying that. However, my opinion on stat-padding is not what this post is about. On UMass Hoops, a forum site for people to discuss UMass Athletics. On one thread, Greenfield was blasted for writing a negative column during such a well-intentioned night. Also blasted was anyone who said he was justified in writing it.
I'm writing this post to say that he had every right to express that opinion and - regardless of whether I agree with him or not on the matter - I respect his right to say that the triple-double was bogus. The Daily Collegian is an independent, student-run newspaper, and everyone on campus needs to learn that.
We get no funding from the University and therefore have no responsibility to constantly write rah-rah BS about the school's sports teams. We have every right to criticize the actions of the teams and the decisions they make, just like writers at the Globe criticize our beloved Red Sox and Patriots.
I am a die-hard Patriots fan and always will be, but when I read a column criticizing a Belichick move, I don't rip that person apart. I read and consider what he (or she) wrote. I don't always agree with what the team does either (trading Deion Branch, for example).
This has happened a number of times this school year. People get upset when the Collegian writes anything critical. Joe Meloni wrote a column on the firing of field hockey coach, Patty Shea that stirred up a lot of anger for criticizing players. They're response? We shouldn't be bashing players because we're the school paper.
I've written some somewhat negative columns myself, about the struggling soccer team
and an up-and-down hockey squad here and here.
Apparently, some people feel we shouldn't say these things about the teams we cover.
Well, frankly, too bad.
We have as much right as any other independent publication. My request to those students out there who still read the Collegian every day: please respect our right to write.
If we make a mistake in editing and mispell a word in a headline? Yeah we deserve to get dumped on a bit for that, as long as you remember that we're students too, and we're learning this trade as we go along just as the business students are learning at their jobs and internships.
But don't ever, ever... please don't ever question our right to publish what we want in a professional, objective, and respectful manner. That's how Mr. Greenfield's opinion was expressed, and any feedback I would expect in the same manner.
The people on UMass hoops don't understand how to do that, nor do they understand what it means to be a journalist. I hope the rest of you do, and I hope you continue to read the Collegian and support it, because I support other student groups. I've spent plenty of money at the Pita Pit anyway...
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4 comments:
Good post.
Stat-padding is sorta lame, but with it being Senior Night and Lasme's last home game, I don't blame Ford for letting sentimentalism take over. That and players are ALWAYS risking getting injured. It's a player's responsibility to take care of himself on the court, but if a freak accident happens, that's sports.
I always thought the Collegian got blasted for misspellings far more than actual articles, at least publically.
I read Greenfield's article in the paper the other day, which says something because I usually just skim the sports section looking for whatever piques my interest in the back pages. I didn't think of how ballsy it was until actually talking to Joe Meloni. For whatever reason, (some) UMass sports fans don't get the concept that just because The Collegian is a UMass-run newspaper, it doesn't mean that all the articles have to praise all UMass sports.
In fact, I think you guys do a great job balancing "positive" and "negative" things about the University in general. And most of the time it's done in a professional manner that has that element of journalistic integrity.
The Collegian is a democratic publication: if someone has a problem with an article, they have every right to respond. What sucks is when they can't retaliate in a mature way. Calling someone out on his or her level of intelligence or mental capacity is just lame.
I hope everything works out for your friend. And as for the kids who criticize the mistakes, they're just losers on the Internet who have too much time on their hands. (bashing someone's social capacity on the Internet doesn't make me a hypocrite, does it?)
I graduated highschool with Rob and we shared some classes, he's a good person, class act. The important thing is that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Different strokes for different folks. I think it's perfectly fine, and encourage that the collegian journalists write in a wide array of angles so to speak. Otherwise it's fake and propaganda basically. On top of that, the professional journalists write in a similar matter. What students should realize is that the collegian is an RSO (perhaps the best run on campus) and what you guys do is practice for your future endeavors. No matter what you do in any aspect of life, you will ALWAYS be criticized, the strength of a good writer, or good anything, is how one responds to that criticism. From what I’ve read, blog wise and in the paper, you and rob have good heads above your shoulders, so keep it up.
I agree that the stat-padding is wrong, and the newspaper has EVERY right to talk about that. If the newspaper started slanting ONLY towards the positive aspects of not only UMass sports, but just EVERYTHING on campus, those criticizers would suddenly be bored by the Collegian and start turning to more online blogs for news. Then they'd start blasting those. Some people will never be happy. But my point, is that Rob Greenfield absolutely did the right thing, it's vital for the news to have a non-biased opinion, which sadly a good chunk of news outlets don't.
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