Flashback: N & O coverage of Tracy Smith's ONE parking violation

As the document analysis continues, let’s take a quick look back at how a local media outlet chose to cover the “story” involving ONE parkingÂ violationÂ committed by Tracy Smith (that apparently didn’t even result in a ticket).Â Here is the News and Obsever story from last June.Â Check out the advice givenÂ to Smith from the N & O “troubleshooter.”

Although it is still not clear how the complaint was addressed, let me humbly offer a Troubleshooter tip for high-profile athletes – free of charge so I don’t break NCAA rules:

If you’re nearly 7 feet tall and a Division 1 basketball player, people are going to be watching you. Make sure you don’t do even the slightest thing that may raise eyebrows.

Given that it has now been discovered that 11 UNC football players racked up 395 parking tickets, I wonder if the N&O will admit that NOBODY WAS WATCHING the athletes from UNC as they obviously were the athletes from NC State. Let’s all watch to see how much coverage they get and what “tips” the N & O might offer them.

Obviously there is much more to come on the document releaseÂ topic.Â Stay in touch with breaking information on this thread in our message board area.

9 Responses to Flashback: N & O coverage of Tracy Smith’s ONE parking violation

newt 06/16/2011 at 1:36 PM #

Smith didn’t get a parking ticket did he? This is the N&O investigating an email from a fan, I think. And they called Meekings, Horning, Lee, Myers, Vaughan, and Smith.
NCSt8_05 06/16/2011 at 1:49 PM #

Per the article, “The NCAA requires all athletes to register their cars with the athletics department and show proof of ownership”

Based on this, can we assume the 28 vehicles that received parking violations on the list released by wral were registered with the UNC athletics department?
tann84 06/16/2011 at 1:51 PM #

In parking records there are 28 diff cars, but only 11 players tix requested, so some drove cars that weren’t theirs #UNC

That was a tweet from Erin E Summers of WRAL
1.21 Jigawatts 06/16/2011 at 1:59 PM #

Looking at the unx list there were several major violations:

Fire lane = 2
Handicap = 5
blpack 06/16/2011 at 2:42 PM #

Rules, what rules?
baxter 06/16/2011 at 3:30 PM #

OldMac I’m about to send you a PM over in the forums.
sholtzma 06/17/2011 at 4:30 PM #

And yet, to this day I have trouble convincing some State fans that there is a media bias in favor of UNC-CHEAT and against State. Doesn’t matter the evidence that we point to or even amass.

I get the usual strawman of “conspiracy” and the psychological dismissal of “paranoia”. Why the denial of reality, I don’t know.

What is the explanation of this discrepancy regarding coverage of the same “offense”, first by Tracy Smith and then by a large chunk of the Tarheel football team. Do the deniers HAVE an explanation? Or do such discrepancies simply not need to be explained?

It’s pathetic.
Lumpy 06/17/2011 at 10:00 PM #

I said this as soon as the N&O story on Smith broke. They went out of their way to paint a State player in a bad light. The same paper that wouldn’t even report the UNC story until the national media called them out for it. It’s the same thing as Barry Saunders accusing the RBC of chanting “I killed your grandfather” at Chris Paul which on top of being 100 percent untrue is also a terrible chant syllable wise, running articles on how well Sendek was doing in his one season at ASU NCAA tournament appearance, on and on and on.
I can’t figure it out. The common answer is that all the sports beat writers went to Chapel Hill, but I don’t think there’s a writer on staff who wen’t to Chapel Hill, is there? (Please tell me if I’m I just think it’s reflex. Since Valvano left, it’s easy to take shots at State. What are the repercussions? Some angry emails from the likes of us? Some nasty voice messages that are explained as lunatic fringe or conspiracy theorists. That’s about it. But if they go against the Heels they can lose press credentials to important events. They can lose their seat on the plane as they travel to Kentucky and the Maui Invitational. Coach K still doesn’t talk to reporters who had the nerve to bring up the FACT that Corey Maggette took money from Myron Piggie, making him inelliegible for his entire season at Duke (Yet none of the banners came down, odd ).
There are penalties for crossing the Devils and the Heels. What does NC State do to make sure the local hacks get it right and play fair? Not much as far as I can see.
howlie 06/18/2011 at 6:27 AM #

As a loyal reader (I’m being as truthful as you are, N&O) I’m looking forward to your advice for these Tarheel players….