My Take on Gundy and The Column
I've been hearing both sides of the Gundy/Carlson argument, and I've reached a few conclusions. If I were a real columnist, I'd say that either Gundy was right or that Carlson was spot on.
Unfortunately, I can't provide anything so clear cut.
I think Gundy's reaction was over the top and uncalled for. I think he should be ashamed of it, and I think he did all but one of his players a huge disservice by refusing to talk about what had just been a great win.
I think Carlson's column was poorly written, poorly researched and unfair. Using that anecdote with Reid being fed chicken by his mother in that manner was inappropriate.
She made more mistakes. Most importantly, she credited "rumors and the rumblings" for one controversial assertion. Another she began with the most bloggish of phrases — " Word is..."
From talking to sports writers who know her, I believe that the rumors, rumblings and words come from very legitimate sources. But that's not good enough. If she's going to write something this controversial, she owes it to Bobby Reid and her readers to cite her sources. If she can't get anything from a source who can be named, then she has nothing. This is especially true because her assertions are largely unprovable. If an unnamed source provides insight on an injury, we'll know on gameday whether or not the information was legitimate. In this case, we may never know if her sources were accurate.
Her next big mistake was a by-product of bad, lazy reporting. She only uses two quotes and both were taken second hand. This raises the possibility that they were taken out of context. If you read the quotes, you have good cause to be suspicious. She should have done her own reporting and avoided this pitfall.
Jason Whitlock pointed out a lot of the same things as I did, and his column on this is worth reading. The problem with Whitlock's column is that he gives Gundy a pass on his bad behavior. My guess is that it's because Jason's a real columnist and he has to have a right-or-wrong straight opinion. I don't.
Gundy's worst mistake was overshadowing his team's big win over Texas Tech with this tirade. The Cowboys are in national news for the first time in a long time because he started pointing his fingers and yelling — at a woman. It's kind of funny, Gundy is a coach for a BCS school, so he's been around awhile. But he's never gone off like this, not until a woman provoked his ire. Now, he suddenly has the guts to take a stand and stick up for his player?
I don't buy it.
He's naive and self-righteous. He talks about hurting the "kid's" feelings, but he's the guy who benched the quarterback. Think that didn't hurt?
Another thing — frankly, he sounds like a moron.
"This was brought to me by a mother — of children," he says, in case we weren't clear what kind of mother we're thinking of.
"Three-fourths of this is inaccurate," he charges.
Carlson asked him Monday to divulge where the inaccuracies in the story lie.
"I don't have to," he answered.
Yes you do, Mike, if you want to be taken seriously.
"This article embarrasses me to be involved with athletics," he said after the game.
Why? That just doesn't make sense. Maybe he should quit his job if he's ashamed about it.
Another annoying this is his use of the word "downgrade." Apparently Carlson, downgraded Bobby with her column... No, more accurately, she denigrated him. That's the word he was looking for, but never would have found, as evidenced by the fact that he stuck with the word "downgrade" throughout the tirade and even into the next few days.
Jenni denigrated Bobby. She didn't downgrade him To downgrade someone is to "assign to a lower status." For example... Oh, I don't know, making your starting quarterback your backup quarterback.
That's downgrading someone, Mike.
Unfortunately, I can't provide anything so clear cut.
I think Gundy's reaction was over the top and uncalled for. I think he should be ashamed of it, and I think he did all but one of his players a huge disservice by refusing to talk about what had just been a great win.
I think Carlson's column was poorly written, poorly researched and unfair. Using that anecdote with Reid being fed chicken by his mother in that manner was inappropriate.
She made more mistakes. Most importantly, she credited "rumors and the rumblings" for one controversial assertion. Another she began with the most bloggish of phrases — " Word is..."
From talking to sports writers who know her, I believe that the rumors, rumblings and words come from very legitimate sources. But that's not good enough. If she's going to write something this controversial, she owes it to Bobby Reid and her readers to cite her sources. If she can't get anything from a source who can be named, then she has nothing. This is especially true because her assertions are largely unprovable. If an unnamed source provides insight on an injury, we'll know on gameday whether or not the information was legitimate. In this case, we may never know if her sources were accurate.
Her next big mistake was a by-product of bad, lazy reporting. She only uses two quotes and both were taken second hand. This raises the possibility that they were taken out of context. If you read the quotes, you have good cause to be suspicious. She should have done her own reporting and avoided this pitfall.
Jason Whitlock pointed out a lot of the same things as I did, and his column on this is worth reading. The problem with Whitlock's column is that he gives Gundy a pass on his bad behavior. My guess is that it's because Jason's a real columnist and he has to have a right-or-wrong straight opinion. I don't.
Gundy's worst mistake was overshadowing his team's big win over Texas Tech with this tirade. The Cowboys are in national news for the first time in a long time because he started pointing his fingers and yelling — at a woman. It's kind of funny, Gundy is a coach for a BCS school, so he's been around awhile. But he's never gone off like this, not until a woman provoked his ire. Now, he suddenly has the guts to take a stand and stick up for his player?
I don't buy it.
He's naive and self-righteous. He talks about hurting the "kid's" feelings, but he's the guy who benched the quarterback. Think that didn't hurt?
Another thing — frankly, he sounds like a moron.
"This was brought to me by a mother — of children," he says, in case we weren't clear what kind of mother we're thinking of.
"Three-fourths of this is inaccurate," he charges.
Carlson asked him Monday to divulge where the inaccuracies in the story lie.
"I don't have to," he answered.
Yes you do, Mike, if you want to be taken seriously.
"This article embarrasses me to be involved with athletics," he said after the game.
Why? That just doesn't make sense. Maybe he should quit his job if he's ashamed about it.
Another annoying this is his use of the word "downgrade." Apparently Carlson, downgraded Bobby with her column... No, more accurately, she denigrated him. That's the word he was looking for, but never would have found, as evidenced by the fact that he stuck with the word "downgrade" throughout the tirade and even into the next few days.
Jenni denigrated Bobby. She didn't downgrade him To downgrade someone is to "assign to a lower status." For example... Oh, I don't know, making your starting quarterback your backup quarterback.
That's downgrading someone, Mike.
Labels: Cowboys, Football, Jenni Carlson, journalism, media issues, Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
posted by BurntOrnge at 8:42 PM
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