Is this Fake News or the real deal?
TCU banning Steven Johnson/Star Telegram over assault reporting
- Thread starter Shorty
- Start date
ShadowFrog
Overachieving Frog Hero
What is the over/under on live tweets from the stands?
NewFrogFan
Full Member
A note, FWST has not, been part of ANY media I read for sports coverage, world events, and especially anything I spend money on, for at least 20 years now.
Mean Purple
Active Member
Reminds me of the movie "Shattered Glass".
A true story. About Stephen Glass. And his fabricated reporting.
froginmn
Fan Club
I'm genuinely interested in some additional perspective from those who think that TCU screwed up here, and I'm wondering if I'm missing any material facts. As I understand it:
Fields assaulted player B in the locker room and sent him to the hospital.
TCU kicked Fields off of the team for his actions.
An unidentified person connected to Fields contacted the Star Telegram, stating that Fields was bullied and somehow else mistreated, which potentially pointed some blame at player B. The paper ran with the story, likely approaching the school for information (TCU declined comment).
Player B separately identified himself as Ezukanma, and then received some harassment and threats.
The paper tried to reduce its blame by saying they hadn't identified player B (Personally I think this is silly because it wouldn't be difficult for people to figure out who was at practice on the day of the assault and then missing the next day).
Are any of those statements incorrect? Is there more background I'm missing?
To me, the paper made a grievous mistake by publishing ANY of the information provided by the source. SJ wrote it and at least one editor approved it. It seems crazy to publish the assailant's side at all and even worse from a second hand source. Another source, within a couple days, refuted what the first source said.
I understand someone thinking that TCU went too strong on revoking credentials but when a reporter publishes the offender's version of an assault that seems very irresponsible and potentially dangerous.
Again - would love to hear if I am missing something.
Fields assaulted player B in the locker room and sent him to the hospital.
TCU kicked Fields off of the team for his actions.
An unidentified person connected to Fields contacted the Star Telegram, stating that Fields was bullied and somehow else mistreated, which potentially pointed some blame at player B. The paper ran with the story, likely approaching the school for information (TCU declined comment).
Player B separately identified himself as Ezukanma, and then received some harassment and threats.
The paper tried to reduce its blame by saying they hadn't identified player B (Personally I think this is silly because it wouldn't be difficult for people to figure out who was at practice on the day of the assault and then missing the next day).
Are any of those statements incorrect? Is there more background I'm missing?
To me, the paper made a grievous mistake by publishing ANY of the information provided by the source. SJ wrote it and at least one editor approved it. It seems crazy to publish the assailant's side at all and even worse from a second hand source. Another source, within a couple days, refuted what the first source said.
I understand someone thinking that TCU went too strong on revoking credentials but when a reporter publishes the offender's version of an assault that seems very irresponsible and potentially dangerous.
Again - would love to hear if I am missing something.
Mean Purple
Active Member
Well, there is this part, which was out there and the Star Telegram finally reported on the 21st. Seems like there should have been better vetting in this story.
"In the wake of the former TCU safety Jacob Fields’ dismissal from the program, a source close to Fields offered a new perspective on what happened. The source, who was authorized to speak on behalf of Fields and his family, disputes some of the comments of a previous source close to Fields who told the Star-Telegram that Fields faced mistreatment from teammates in the days leading up to his dismissal after a locker room altercation with a player later identified as junior wide receiver Dozie Ezukanma."
Mean Purple
Active Member
And the Stephen Glass award goes to ... The entire staff at the Star Telegram.
BrewingFrog
Was I supposed to type something here?
I just read it for Page Six...
Spike
Full Member
Both great posts. I think we should start a poll. Huh huh, I said pole!
Spike
Full Member
CryptoMiner
Full Member
Barry Shlachter
s͏t͏S͏e͏o͏n͏p͏o͏d͏r͏8͏f͏h͏t͏t͏i͏1͏i͏5͏4͏h͏m͏0͏i͏1͏6͏0͏c͏9͏7͏t͏a͏h͏5͏4͏3͏6͏f͏f͏h͏7͏1͏8͏t͏t͏u͏1͏l͏2͏7͏1͏t͏u͏1͏5͏4͏1͏m͏l͏m͏ ·TCU TO AMON CARTER’S NEWSPAPER: THANKS FOR THE STADIUM. NOW GET OUT
WELCOME BACK TO “YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP,” TCU HORNED FROG EDITION
+Cowtown Life with a Slice of Wry+
FORT WORTH — TCU athletic director Mike Buddie has apparently enrolled in the Donald Trump School of Media Relations: If you don’t like the journalism, ban the journalists.
TCU pulled the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s athletic credentials after beat writer Steve Johnson reported on an Aug. 13 locker-room altercation that led to safety Jacob Fields being dismissed from the football team.
Buddie says the paper relied on inaccurate information and helped create a narrative that led to threats against another player and his family. The Star-Telegram says it didn’t identify that player until, get this, after he identified himself publicly on Instagram.
Fair enough. TCU has every right to dispute the reporting, demand corrections and produce evidence showing what the newspaper got wrong.
But here comes the part worthy of a sitcom.
According to the Star-Telegram, its reporter asked TCU and coach Sonny Dykes for comment before publishing. Dykes declined. University officials disputed the account but, the paper says, declined to provide their version for publication.
Buddie put on his best Kim Jong Un battle face and discovered that a press credential can double as a behavioral leash.
The problem is that journalists aren’t employees of TCU. Their job isn’t to make the athletic director happy. It’s to report, ask questions and correct errors when warranted.
Steven Johnson proved his grit, his professionalism and determination in the face of the Athletic Department's concerted stonewalling and brazen intimidation. But he got his biggest scoop since joining the paper. And it holds up.
LINK TO STORY:
https://www.star-telegram.com/.../article316971608.html
As for Buddie, he has performed that marvelous public-relations maneuver known as putting out a kitchen fire with gasoline.
A Fort Worth sports story is becoming a much bigger story about a national recognition-seeking university punishing its hometown newspaper for committing journalism in plain sight. Clearly, neither Buddie nor his TCU media handlers are ready for prime time. And it doesn't make the university as a whole look that good either. There’s a Fort Worth-sized irony here:
The football stadium from which TCU has now banished the Star-Telegram bears the name of the newspaper’s legendary publisher, Amon G. Carter.
In 1929, Carter headed the fundraising campaign for the new stadium, made an initial gift and helped sell the bonds that raised the roughly $350,000 needed to build it. The stadium opened in 1930 and was renamed for Carter in 1951. Decades later, the Amon G. Carter Foundation provided a $15 million lead gift toward its massive renovation.
No one should be surprised if Amon Carter — newspaper publisher, TCU benefactor and champion of both institutions — is doing somersaults in his Greenwood mausoleum while desperately trying to remain calm.
TCU banning Carter’s old newspaper from Amon G. Carter Stadium is rather like the Vatican banning Catholics from St. Peter’s for excessive praying.
By allowing Buddie to punish a newspaper for unwelcome reporting, TCU is teaching its students an egregious lesson just as the university works overtime to achieve national stature:
When scrutiny gets uncomfortable, suppress the scrutinizer.
Add that to County Judge Tim O’Hare’s ejections of outspoken citizens and DA Phil Sorrells’ prosecutions arising from Commissioners Court protests, and Fort Worth risks acquiring a national reputation it surely doesn’t want — as a place where free speech is treasured right up until somebody actually uses it.
DISCLAIMER: I toiled 29 years at the Star-Telegram. In addition, I've written several articles for TCU Magazine and spoken to a number of Frog journalism classes over the years. Moreover, my wee boutique press published Jim Reeve's "Remember the Alamo Bowl," about TCU walk-on QB Bram Kohlhausen's epic upset of Oregon, and "Purple Passion: TCU Football Legends" by Jeff Wilson.
SHARE IF YOU THINK “NO COMMENT" DOESN’T MEAN “NO REPORTING.”
#TCU #MikeBuddie #FortWorthStarTelegram #StarTelegram #FortWorth #TexasNews #Journalism #PressFreedom #FreePress #CollegeFootball #TCUFootball #MediaFreedom
FroggleRock
Active Member
Okay I have given TCU hell for their choice to ban the ST. But this is getting absurd from the ST. TCU was wrong for completely banning them, but the ST and SJ are equally wrong for acting ignorant as to why. SJ was using unverified secondhand information that turned out not to be true, and never corrected it. And in the process, not only outing the player who did it, but the victim too and slandering him as a bully.
The way the star telegram is acting makes me think that TCU tried to get them to correct their story and apologize, but they doubled down and said no.
The way the star telegram is acting makes me think that TCU tried to get them to correct their story and apologize, but they doubled down and said no.
AroundWorldFrog
Full Member
Well stated. A little more background. Another TCU sports forum had Dozie identified within hours of the SJ article. With all of his resources, SJ couldn't do the same thing and instead chose to go with the unsubstantiated bullship that he did. Lazy and pathetic reporting.
froginmn
Fan Club
Would you be so kind as to respond to my post above? I'd like to understand the "unwelcome reporting" comment you quote.
Barry Shlachter
s͏t͏S͏e͏o͏n͏p͏o͏d͏r͏8͏f͏h͏t͏t͏i͏1͏i͏5͏4͏h͏m͏0͏i͏1͏6͏0͏c͏9͏7͏t͏a͏h͏5͏4͏3͏6͏f͏f͏h͏7͏1͏8͏t͏t͏u͏1͏l͏2͏7͏1͏t͏u͏1͏5͏4͏1͏m͏l͏m͏ ·
TCU TO AMON CARTER’S NEWSPAPER: THANKS FOR THE STADIUM. NOW GET OUT
WELCOME BACK TO “YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP,” TCU HORNED FROG EDITION
+Cowtown Life with a Slice of Wry+
FORT WORTH — TCU athletic director Mike Buddie has apparently enrolled in the Donald Trump School of Media Relations: If you don’t like the journalism, ban the journalists.
TCU pulled the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s athletic credentials after beat writer Steve Johnson reported on an Aug. 13 locker-room altercation that led to safety Jacob Fields being dismissed from the football team.
Buddie says the paper relied on inaccurate information and helped create a narrative that led to threats against another player and his family. The Star-Telegram says it didn’t identify that player until, get this, after he identified himself publicly on Instagram.
Fair enough. TCU has every right to dispute the reporting, demand corrections and produce evidence showing what the newspaper got wrong.
But here comes the part worthy of a sitcom.
According to the Star-Telegram, its reporter asked TCU and coach Sonny Dykes for comment before publishing. Dykes declined. University officials disputed the account but, the paper says, declined to provide their version for publication.
Buddie put on his best Kim Jong Un battle face and discovered that a press credential can double as a behavioral leash.
The problem is that journalists aren’t employees of TCU. Their job isn’t to make the athletic director happy. It’s to report, ask questions and correct errors when warranted.
Steven Johnson proved his grit, his professionalism and determination in the face of the Athletic Department's concerted stonewalling and brazen intimidation. But he got his biggest scoop since joining the paper. And it holds up.
LINK TO STORY:
https://www.star-telegram.com/.../article316971608.html
As for Buddie, he has performed that marvelous public-relations maneuver known as putting out a kitchen fire with gasoline.
By allowing Buddie to punish a newspaper for unwelcome reporting, TCU is teaching its students an egregious lesson just as the university works overtime to achieve national stature:
When scrutiny gets uncomfortable, suppress the scrutinizer.
Add that to County Judge Tim O’Hare’s ejections of outspoken citizens and DA Phil Sorrells’ prosecutions arising from Commissioners Court protests, and Fort Worth risks acquiring a national reputation it surely doesn’t want — as a place where free speech is treasured right up until somebody actually uses it.
DISCLAIMER: I toiled 29 years at the Star-Telegram. In addition, I've written several articles for TCU Magazine and spoken to a number of Frog journalism classes over the years. Moreover, my wee boutique press published Jim Reeve's "Remember the Alamo Bowl," about TCU walk-on QB Bram Kohlhausen's epic upset of Oregon, and "Purple Passion: TCU Football Legends" by Jeff Wilson.
SHARE IF YOU THINK “NO COMMENT" DOESN’T MEAN “NO REPORTING.”
#TCU #MikeBuddie #FortWorthStarTelegram #StarTelegram #FortWorth #TexasNews #Journalism #PressFreedom #FreePress #CollegeFootball #TCUFootball #MediaFreedom
My own thought is that reporting on what a third party known to the assailant is saying is not something the media should take up. And the article you posted seems to think it's OK to report on the unverified (apparently incorrect, since another family member said so) story, simply because the founder of the newspaper was a benefactor.
Do you feel differently?
AroundWorldFrog
Full Member
That's the second dumbest thing I read today. The other was also a Facebook cut and paste hit piece.
Barry Shlachter
s͏t͏S͏e͏o͏n͏p͏o͏d͏r͏8͏f͏h͏t͏t͏i͏1͏i͏5͏4͏h͏m͏0͏i͏1͏6͏0͏c͏9͏7͏t͏a͏h͏5͏4͏3͏6͏f͏f͏h͏7͏1͏8͏t͏t͏u͏1͏l͏2͏7͏1͏t͏u͏1͏5͏4͏1͏m͏l͏m͏ ·
TCU TO AMON CARTER’S NEWSPAPER: THANKS FOR THE STADIUM. NOW GET OUT
WELCOME BACK TO “YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP,” TCU HORNED FROG EDITION
+Cowtown Life with a Slice of Wry+
FORT WORTH — TCU athletic director Mike Buddie has apparently enrolled in the Donald Trump School of Media Relations: If you don’t like the journalism, ban the journalists.
TCU pulled the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s athletic credentials after beat writer Steve Johnson reported on an Aug. 13 locker-room altercation that led to safety Jacob Fields being dismissed from the football team.
Buddie says the paper relied on inaccurate information and helped create a narrative that led to threats against another player and his family. The Star-Telegram says it didn’t identify that player until, get this, after he identified himself publicly on Instagram.
Fair enough. TCU has every right to dispute the reporting, demand corrections and produce evidence showing what the newspaper got wrong.
But here comes the part worthy of a sitcom.
According to the Star-Telegram, its reporter asked TCU and coach Sonny Dykes for comment before publishing. Dykes declined. University officials disputed the account but, the paper says, declined to provide their version for publication.
Buddie put on his best Kim Jong Un battle face and discovered that a press credential can double as a behavioral leash.
The problem is that journalists aren’t employees of TCU. Their job isn’t to make the athletic director happy. It’s to report, ask questions and correct errors when warranted.
Steven Johnson proved his grit, his professionalism and determination in the face of the Athletic Department's concerted stonewalling and brazen intimidation. But he got his biggest scoop since joining the paper. And it holds up.
LINK TO STORY:
https://www.star-telegram.com/.../article316971608.html
As for Buddie, he has performed that marvelous public-relations maneuver known as putting out a kitchen fire with gasoline.
A Fort Worth sports story is becoming a much bigger story about a national recognition-seeking university punishing its hometown newspaper for committing journalism in plain sight. Clearly, neither Buddie nor his TCU media handlers are ready for prime time. And it doesn't make the university as a whole look that good either. There’s a Fort Worth-sized irony here:
The football stadium from which TCU has now banished the Star-Telegram bears the name of the newspaper’s legendary publisher, Amon G. Carter.
In 1929, Carter headed the fundraising campaign for the new stadium, made an initial gift and helped sell the bonds that raised the roughly $350,000 needed to build it. The stadium opened in 1930 and was renamed for Carter in 1951. Decades later, the Amon G. Carter Foundation provided a $15 million lead gift toward its massive renovation.
No one should be surprised if Amon Carter — newspaper publisher, TCU benefactor and champion of both institutions — is doing somersaults in his Greenwood mausoleum while desperately trying to remain calm.
TCU banning Carter’s old newspaper from Amon G. Carter Stadium is rather like the Vatican banning Catholics from St. Peter’s for excessive praying.
By allowing Buddie to punish a newspaper for unwelcome reporting, TCU is teaching its students an egregious lesson just as the university works overtime to achieve national stature:
When scrutiny gets uncomfortable, suppress the scrutinizer.
Add that to County Judge Tim O’Hare’s ejections of outspoken citizens and DA Phil Sorrells’ prosecutions arising from Commissioners Court protests, and Fort Worth risks acquiring a national reputation it surely doesn’t want — as a place where free speech is treasured right up until somebody actually uses it.
DISCLAIMER: I toiled 29 years at the Star-Telegram. In addition, I've written several articles for TCU Magazine and spoken to a number of Frog journalism classes over the years. Moreover, my wee boutique press published Jim Reeve's "Remember the Alamo Bowl," about TCU walk-on QB Bram Kohlhausen's epic upset of Oregon, and "Purple Passion: TCU Football Legends" by Jeff Wilson.
SHARE IF YOU THINK “NO COMMENT" DOESN’T MEAN “NO REPORTING.”
#TCU #MikeBuddie #FortWorthStarTelegram #StarTelegram #FortWorth #TexasNews #Journalism #PressFreedom #FreePress #CollegeFootball #TCUFootball #MediaFreedom
Mean Purple
Active Member
The startle telesham and it's cya pals are delusional and dishonest on this.
Bud's piece intentionally left out the part where the ST ran with a major portion of it's story that was later contradicted by the party it was claimed to sourced from. On the 21st, the ST mildly referenced that contradiction ... then went full on con job since. Bud's piece also tries to make an issue from 15 or so years ago sound like it was not the fault of the party that didn't bother to fully investigate a major part of that story before running with it ... a that somehow, that party's fail was on TCU.
That party is the ST.
Bud's piece intentionally left out the part where the ST ran with a major portion of it's story that was later contradicted by the party it was claimed to sourced from. On the 21st, the ST mildly referenced that contradiction ... then went full on con job since. Bud's piece also tries to make an issue from 15 or so years ago sound like it was not the fault of the party that didn't bother to fully investigate a major part of that story before running with it ... a that somehow, that party's fail was on TCU.
That party is the ST.
Mean Purple
Active Member
Them: We make ink by the barrel.
TCU: Well, we have a limited number of press passes ... so EBOD.
TCU: Well, we have a limited number of press passes ... so EBOD.
froginmn
Fan Club
It's just so bizarre to me. Players, coaches, and other team personnel are frequently disciplined and you NEVER see stories like this from major media.
Heck, for our opponent tomorrow, Michael Lombardi is under investigation and Steve Belichick is on a medical leave.
I haven't seen a newspaper saying that someone close to Lombardi is blaming his accuser and says this is what happened...
I don't think I've ever seen a newspaper report on someone's dismissal (from a private or public sector job) by going to that person to see what they say. Employers can almost never comment.
Very strange IMO
I don't think you missed anything. What I see is a 3rd rate newpaper with one foot in the grave that has a history of shoddy "journalism" quoting an anonymous source who was promoting an unverified account of a players' altercation that put the victim in danger of harrassment or worse. Instead of admitting that they were guilty of unprofessional journalism the Startlegram and its crappy reporters like Bud and Barry prefer to blame others for their serious mistakes.
ShreveFrog
Full Member
The ST and SJ have failed to atone for their
mistake and unprofessionalism, while watching friends in their industry pile on TCU. At this point, I don’t care if ST ever gets its TCU credentials back. And SJ can enjoy covering FWISD because nobody else is going to hire him.
mistake and unprofessionalism, while watching friends in their industry pile on TCU. At this point, I don’t care if ST ever gets its TCU credentials back. And SJ can enjoy covering FWISD because nobody else is going to hire him.
Latest posts
-
-
TCU vs Arkansas State Red Wolves Prediction Thread- Latest: Eagle Mnt Lake Rat
-
-