"TCU's news conference was, frankly, shocking"

[Deep Purple]

Hmmm, interesting and intelligent analysis. Vetter's piece was absolutely defensive self-justification. The prevailing viewpoint seems to be that something went wrong Wednesday morning, and she wants to deflect the blame away from the Star-Telegram.

By writing, "Neither TCU nor Fort Worth police has a reputation for openness. The fact that they spoke publicly indicated that this must be big," she seems to be saying that the paper ran with what TCU and the FWPD portrayed without waiting to check the facts because of the unusual nature of the press conference. The S-T has no defense for taking part in the sensationalism without checking the facts, but why would they stop to think that TCU might have overblown the situation when doing so would damage the university's reputation? It's unprecedented.

Regardless, this serves as a reminder to question what you read in the media until substantiating proof is available. This editorial and analysis may be boring to some, but the gossipy nature of the news and media manipulation are an important part of life in 2012. No fun having to question everything you read in the news, but it is unwise not to.

Good points. Obviously I wasn't suggesting that the S-T and other media outlets bear the major blame for how this story was over-hyped. But given their lack of fact-checking, they certainly bear some of the blame. Ms. Vetter suggested that they bear none at all, which is why her editorial appears defensive and self-justifying.

TCU's error was not in holding a press conference to share full disclosure on the investigation and arrests. That's simply good PR management. It denies the story any "legs." By disclosing everything up-front, once the initial flurry of reporting fades, you leave the reporters with nothing new to write about. The story dies a quicker death. But if you withhold things and selectively release information to "spin" the story, each new fact that inevitably surfaces becomes news, spurring a fresh round of reporting that keeps the story alive.

The press conference itself was not the mistake. Allowing representatives of the Fort Worth and TCU police to use the press conference as a big buildup to glamorize the investigation and arrests was the mistake. That sensationalized the story far beyond its actual merit and gave it more "legs" than it otherwise would have had. The press is now catching onto that, and some of them -- particularly the Star-Telegram -- are running for cover.

 

[TCUSA]

This piece sounds like a major defensive self-vindication by the Star-Telegram. Not saying that the FWPD and TCU didn't over-blow and sensationalize the story. But the S-T and other media outlets basically ran with the press release without waiting for any of the initial evidence that would be released within the next 24 hours. Their reason? According to Ms. Vetter, they had to go with the story or the competition would have scooped them. I'm sure every other media outlet operated from the same motive.

News outlets have always been sensitive to being scooped, but there was a time when they at least obtained some independent confirmation, such as checking a second source or at least waiting until the initial evidence was released, before setting the screaming headlines. Because of the speed of modern digital communication, that day is over. Now, if the interest in a story warrants, it can be communicated worldwide in less than 24 hours. In much less time than that, it can be digitally transmitted as far and wide as it carries any interest. You see the story republished virtually verbatim from coast to coast, as one outlet simply reproduces reports from another outlet. And if the initial reports were wrong or exaggerated? Tough cookies.

I suppose it goes with the times, but it's a shame. The news media was once the American public's watchdog, the vaunted Fourth Estate of the country's socio-political fabric. Today they are little more than the national or local gossip-monger. To her credit, Ms. Vetter acknowledges this. "Old media's role as gatekeeper is long gone," she says. She's right. But if the news media is no longer our watchdog, if it's self-acknowledged role is now merely to pass along the latest gossip rather than gather, investigate, and report the facts, why all the defensiveness about suggestions that the media was irresponsible? Who expects a gossip to be responsible?

Our celebrated alumnus Bob Schieffer has repeatedly criticized the blogosphere because bloggers (in his words) "have no editor, no responsible party who vets the information before it is reported." He has even made this criticism from the stage of Ed Landreth Auditorium during the Schieffer Symposium. It's a fair criticism, but I would ask Mr. Schieffer: Has the institutional media, with its editors and alleged information-vetting, done any better?

They certainly didn't in this case. Which is why Ms. Vetter's editorial comes across as especially defensive and self-serving. It doesn't justify the S-T's decision process, it's simply special pleading for the equivalent of a papal indulgence for media sins.

What was there to verify? TCU, TCU Campus Police, and Fort Worth PD all said the same thing. There were no inconsistencies to even hint that the allegations might be overblown or exaggerated. No news outlet with that kind of corroboration from three reliable sources is going to bother to wait to examine the arrest reports. In fact, but for the complaining here, there very well might still have been no effort to examine the truth of the matter.

 

[Deep Purple]

What was there to verify? TCU, TCU Campus Police, and Fort Worth PD all said the same thing. There were no inconsistencies to even hint that the allegations might be overblown or exaggerated. No news outlet with that kind of corroboration from three reliable sources is going to bother to wait to examine the arrest reports.

These are not independent sources. The investigation was a joint operation (no pun intended) of the FWPD and TCU. That makes the FWPD and TCU the collaborating official source. An independent source would have been one not connected with TCU or the FWPD, or the release of the initial evidence at face value, without any interpretation by an official source.

In the rush to get out the story, the press didn't bother with any of that.

 

[Bonner4Prez]

Clearly, TCU admin did not realize that we are one of the most hated programs in the country and thata ny and all media have been waiting for any little nugget to try and take us down with. Just bad on all accounts. Especially in the offseason when there is nothing else to talk about.

 

[Double D]

Exactly.

I feel sorry for Boschini. You try and get out front on these things and look at this crap.

Is the lesson from all of this to cover up the mess? Run and hide from it?

TCU can't win.

 

[Big Frog II]

After hearing so much of the "story", the one thing I am most surprised at is the fact the TCU Chief had not kept Boschini informed about what was going on. That very well could be an unforgivable sin.

As for the reaction, without the Penn State and Ohio State messes I doubt we would have had the same type of press conference and news coverage that we received.

As for the "accused", yes they are hardly the drug cartel, but what they did was illegal and certainly very, very stupid. I do hope that this is an epithany that leads all of them down the straight and narrow the rest of their lives.

 

[HFrog1999]

The media found the chink in the armor of our program.

 

[YA]

Have the presser after the release of the affidavits. What is one more hour or so? Stick to the agreed parameters of the news conference which the police on both sides did not do.

Don't blindside the administration by not informing them of an investigation on your campus or wait to the final 8 days before the arrests go down to let your employer know what is going on.

Finally, don't ask for help that involves family members on both sides of the thin blue line. Doing so leads to accusations that the motivations were to supercharge a young officer's career and boost the ego of old has beens that had to retire to a university police force because they could hack it on a city police force.

 

[Goo]

McGee never told any of his employers about him running secret "drug sting" for 6 months trying to bust students.

Then he held press conference, complete with helmets for the four TCU football players claiming these were all "known drug dealers." He even had the students (who were still not even arrested and all presumed innocent) pictures from the HS Yearbook, which happened to make the cover of the Dallas Morning News.

ANALOGY:

If one of my employees went rogue and conducted a huge operation for the company without telling anyoune

And this operation ended up losing tons of money

And the operation actually got the wrong people

And the emplyee held a press conference and called the media to attend, without telling anyone from our company

And the employee's press conference full of lies

And the employee lied about our past criminal record

Which resulted in terrible press and ruined our good repuation

And he sent yearbook pictures of myself and staff to media claimining we were guilty

And those pictures made their way onto cover of DMN

etc, etc, etc.

Any company would fire such a rogue moron immediately. This was a dumb parking cop who disliked spoiled college kids and appeared to really want to promote the football team as drug ring.

 

[Bonner4Prez]

Goo is right. There is really no other way to explain the evnts that took place.

 

[KillerFrog InD KitchenSink]

Honestly, with four current players arrested from a high profile team, this is headline news no matter how it was presented. Not sure if headlines saying, "but hey, it wasn't much" stings any less short term.

Long term this is feeling like it is going to be pretty easy to get past and even easy to spin going forward, both in recruiting and admissions. First off, reasonable people are going to realize that this stuff happens everywhere. We can say that we have been overly forthcoming, not hiding any warts. We can say that we are tackling the issue head on, not sweeping things under the rug, like some schools. And when we tell kids to be responsible or face the consequences, they are going to listen.

 

[Goo]

Wes, TCU could have won by not rushing everything and getting the facts straight before calling a news conference. They portrayed everything like it was Pablo Escobar and Avon Barksdale combined on campus. They obviously didn't know everything and they should be to blame for most of this.

Remember Boschini told me that McGee already contacted media abour new conference without telling him. Complete with TCU hemlets and HS Yearbook pictures of alleged students. CVB couldn't really do anything but react to the awful sitation parking cop made.

 

[Goo]

The press conference itself was not the mistake. Allowing representatives of the Fort Worth and TCU police to use the press conference as a big buildup to glamorize the investigation and arrests was the mistake. That sensationalized the story far beyond its actual merit and gave it more "legs" than it otherwise would have had. The press is now catching onto that, and some of them -- particularly the Star-Telegram -- are running for cover.[/size]

Agree the sensational press conference was mistake. I think everyone must now agree to that. Unfortunately, the damage is already done. If these kids are totally innocent, this will still be like Duke Lacrosse where most people just remember the sensational reports of crimes by prominent college students....despite the truth coming out later which the media didn't really cover as much.

 

[NORMLFROG]

Looks like some folks are getting a little antsy about running with bad info that could get them sued. FWPD have really jacked this up.

NF

 

[Deep Purple]

Agree the sensational press conference was mistake. I think everyone must now agree to that. Unfortunately, the damage is already done. If these kids are totally innocent, this will still be like Duke Lacrosse where most people just remember the sensational reports of crimes by prominent college students....despite the truth coming out later which the media didn't really cover as much.

You're trying very hard to ignore some obvious facts here. For one, every TCU student arrested was caught in hand-to-hand sales to undercover cops. That sort of precludes the possibility of "If these kids are totally innocent." Perhaps their crimes aren't as significant as spun, but total innocence is not an option.

I also disagree that in the Duke Lacrosse case, the exoneration of the defendants wasn't as prominently reported as the sensationalistic charges. In fact, it was even more prominently reported for two reasons: 1) The accused sued the city and the county DA for violation of civil rights and received a large out-of-court settlement; 2) The DA was jailed and disbarred for withholding DNA evidence and manufacturing false evidence in an attempt to milk the case for publicity and funding for his re-election bid. These events proved far more scandalous and were more heavily reported than the original allegation of sexual assault.

You're spinning far worse than anything we saw at the TCU press conference. Perhaps you should offer lessons.

 

[BleedNPurple]

I feel sorry for Boschini. You try and get out front on these things and look at this crap.

Is the lesson from all of this to cover up the mess? Run and hide from it?

TCU can't win.

I've seen this many times with other companies. I'm sure Boschini didnt appreciate being the last to know. Something like this will not happen again. It's like Wacker telling the press about his players being paid before notifying his boss. Over time McGee will be quietly relieved of his duties. They will give this some time to cool off then bring in his replacement.

 

[Goo]

You're trying very hard to ignore some obvious facts here. For one, every TCU student arrested was caught in hand-to-hand sales to undercover cops. That sort of precludes the possibility of "If these kids are totally innocent." Perhaps their crimes aren't as significant as spun, but total innocence is not an option.

Perhaps you should offer lessons.

You say they were all caught in hand so guilty. How do you know they were guilty? These are the same cops who told media 82 players did drugs, when it was really just 5. Heck, we already know Austin Carpenter was innocent. It is possible and even likely some of the others were not caught in hand.

Despite your diatribe on Duke, the fact remains that it was originally sensationalized by police and media. Once truth was discovered, less media attention was given and many still associate Duke lacrosse with rape. No matter what you argue, this is very similar to TCU's nnewfound reputation as drug dealers. The fact that less than 1 lb of marijuana was found is not known by those outside of TCU. I wore my TCU shirt to lunch today and three strangers asked about all the football players failing drug test. I had to explain only 5 failed.

As for lessons, I think anyone with a brain could advise:
Be sure you arrest the correct person
Don't go rogue without telling your superior employer
Don't try to smear a kids name just to get self promotion
Don't hold a press conference and release pictures of innocent kids
Don't lie
Etc
Etc

I'm sorry if this hit a nerve and I hope TCU doesn't fire the wrong people over this, but it was handled in such poor form that in my opinion those responsible should be corrected or replaced with someone more capable. Maybe the schools media dept or criminal justice could write a case study for all things that went wrong and how this should be properly managed. About the only thing done right, was confronting the problem rather than sweeping under rug like many schools.

 

[Deep Purple]

You say they were all caught in hand so guilty. How do you know they were guilty?

Uh...

"Brock handed ITEM 1 to me. I said, '$200 right?" (referring to the price), and Brock agreed. After a short conversation about the marijuana, Brock and I exchanged phone numbers, telling me to come to him from now on instead of Yendry."

You might try reading the affadavits. They all have a similar story.

These are the same cops who told media 82 players did drugs, when it was really just 5.

The cops didn't tell the media that. Tanner Brock and Ty Hardin said it to the cops. The media found out by reading the warrant affadavits. You're still spinning falsehoods, I see.

Heck, we already know Austin Carpenter was innocent. It is possible and even likely some of the others were not caught in hand.

"Possible and even likely" based on what? You don't believe the warrant affadavits, but you believe this fantasy concocted in your own head based on nothing more than TCU football loyalty? Why yes, that's entirely reasonable.

Despite your diatribe on Duke, the fact remains that it was originally sensationalized by police and media. Once truth was discovered, less media attention was given and many still associate Duke lacrosse with rape.

Wrong.

No matter what you argue, this is very similar to TCU's nnewfound reputation as drug dealers.

Double wrong.

The fact that less than 1 lb of marijuana was found is not known by those outside of TCU. I wore my TCU shirt to lunch today and three strangers asked about all the football players failing drug test. I had to explain only 5 failed.

You had to explain because this is what was reported by the media from the warrant affadavits, which cited the highly exaggerated opinion of players dealing drugs. The media is not TCU.

As for lessons, I think anyone with a brain

How would you know anything about that?

Don't lie

How would you be anywhere in the universe of knowing anything about that? Your reputation for bending the truth to fit your preferred view is too well known on this board.

I'm sorry if this hit a nerve

Judging by your overboard response to a post of mine that wasn't aimed at you, I'm apparently the one who hit a nerve.