RUMOR ALERT: There is a rumor floating around the country that NC State is playing a college football game today! We promise to track it down and let you know what we learn!
We say that this is just a rumor since you would never know that the Wolfpack is playing a football game today based on the non-existent coverage of the News & Observer.
Before I get into this, please allow me to say that I have been a a pretty consistent supporter and proponent of the N&O’s Sports coverage over the last decade or so (pretty much since Mickey McCarthy and Claude Sitton left and since the Daniels family sold the paper to McClatchy). Despite vehemently criticizing the N&O in the late 1980s and early 1990s for their hatchet jobs, lazy reporting and overall bias; I had no problem changing my perspective as I saw quality changes at the paper after McClatchy took over.
After traveling all over the country over the last decade, I truly believe that the N&O’s sports section (just sports which doesn’t include the likes of Ruth Sheehan and Barry Saunders) is truly one of the best college-focused papers in America. Or should I say has been one of the best college-focused papers in America. So, this is not just some “crazy Wolfpacker” trying to complain about the mean old N&O.
We have included a “screen grab” from the N&O’s website today so that you can take a look for yourself at what is driving my comments in this entry:
* The three top stories are about Carolina football, NASCAR, and women’s tennis.
* Below the fold, you have two special multimedia items for Carolina football and then articles about every high school game below the Mason-Dixon line along with college football pieces on today’s games including East Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame and Georgia.
* Of course, the paper’s cartoon ridiculing Chuck Amato continues to be prominently featured above the fold in the secondary pane on the right hand side. This is approximately the 8th or 9th day in a row that the paper has chosen to promote this critical cartoon. Today, it is being promoted on a day that State is playing a football game and the paper doesn’t have a single article about the game.
Talk about sending a message!?!? The N&O feels that Chuck Amato and NC State are ‘important’ enough to expend countless resources to ridicule in a bullshit animation; while simultaneously the newspaper can’t muster the commitment and energy to adequately preview Amato’s & State’s actual football games? What about this message bodes well for the paper’s professionalism, commitment and credibility? Damn, that is embarassing.
(Of course, we are all still waiting on the next John Bunting cartoon that will no doubt make fun of the drug and legal problems that have been prevalent in the Carolina program since his arrival; and the un-natural player attrition in his program that has prompted many former recruits to publicly talk about Bunting’s greyshirting’ practices; and the lack of effective use of NFL talent like Willie Parker, Mike Waddell and Matt Baker; and that also makes fun of Carolina’s performance with quarterbacks not named Darian Durant and actually recruited by Bunting.)
I was in Raleigh last Saturday and was shocked to see the lack of coverage regarding college football in general in the area…let alone the lack of coverage from the Wolfpack’s perspective of our first game of the season. Today, we have another Saturday, and another Saturday without ANY NC State Football coverage!?
No game day information.
No “what can I expect from Akron“.
No nothing.
Take a look at this morning’s webrun from PackPride.com for today’s game. PP scours the internet for every article that they can find to provide Wolfpackers a central place for web surfing. Except today there are no articles from the hometown paper to run! We’d like to thank the Akron Beacon and Durham Herald Sun for caring enough about the local teams and the sport of college football to at least write one article.
Let me make sure that I make this point very clear. I am NOT suggesting that any agenda or conspiracy is at play here. Just because the paper exhibits incompetence does not mean that incompetence is a product of bias. This is why I am asking the question of “What is going on?”. With all of this as a backdrop, it is a very fair question to ask — “What has changed at the N&O recently? Is it personnel? Is it strategic direction? Is it a pruning of investment in the sports page? Just what is going on?”
Forget this site’s obvious focus and passion related to NC State for a moment. It isn’t just the Pack. Two of the Big Four play against each other today when Duke travels to Wake Forest. Although there is a Tudor-penned-piece focusing on Duke’s Ted Roof, there is nothing about the Devils-Deacs match up. What gives?
And, don’t try telling me that I am being hyper-sensitive here when I received multiple emails from unrelated people about the N&O’s coverage this morning before I woke up. Additionally, take a look at the comments provided to us by one of our regulars:
I worked at the N&O for 3 years (not in the newsroom) until 2004 and was involved in a variety of projects across departments. I know very little about the sports writers, as they have no inclination to participate in anything outside of their airtight newsroom bubble.
I do know Sherry Johnson (sports editor) casually and she is a fine woman. Orage Quarles (publisher) is also a reasonable man of great integrity and good business sense. I doubt any agenda is at work from those two or from Melanie Sill, although it is entirely possible that the strained relations b/w Amato and the beat writer(s) is manifested in the lack of coverage that we’ve seen recently.
I will say, that the lack of coverage this morning is glaring and curious. I think it is safe to say that some of my former colleagues from the department I worked in (many of whom are dedicated State folks) are concerned with these developments from a business standpoint.
