Should editors make these comments?

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Is this a joke? or am I off base? But…isn’t it a combination of odd, inappropriate, stupid, and ridiculous for a SPORTS EDITOR to pen a quasi-article that proclaims, “I don’t particularly care for (the largest public university in the state in which I cover sports”)? Seriously. Tell me if I am missing the boat here. But, isn’t it pretty ‘unique’ for a sports EDITOR to say:

I don’t particularly care for N.C. State

When was the last time that Ron Green actually admitted that he (doesn’t) particularly care for NC State?

It just doesn’t happen.

These comments / this article were written by a guy named Matt Vaughn, Sports Editor of (Roanoke Rapids) Herald.

Please don’t misconstrue my frustration – I don’t look to the Roanoke Rapids Herald for accurate news, let alone eye-popping insight. (Folks like this must HATE the internet as much as Lee Fowler). But, I do expect some common sense and decency? I also pervertedly appreciate some in ‘the media’ finally admitting their biases in public.

Vaughn penned his piece in the aftermath of Julius Hodge’s recent trade to the Milwaukee Bucks (Note: our entry on the topic recieved a lot of attention, including a link from the N&O. For the record, I’ve never seen Matt Vaughn linked from the N&O)

A few weeks ago the News & Observer took some shots at the University of North Carolina’s Athletics Department. The next week the N&O ran a full-blown response to their comments written and submitted by UNC’s Sports Information Director, Steve Kirschner. (If anyone has these links, please feel free to share them in the comments section).

Could you imagine UNC’s response if someone at the N&O had just blatantly stated, “I don’t particularly care for UNC-CH.” Hell, at NC State we will probably give Matt Vaughn better press passes in hopes to get him to like us better.

Alums General Media NC State Administration NCS Basketball

54 Responses to Should editors make these comments?

  1. camo-pack98 01/16/2007 at 1:46 PM #

    next time i drive down from the dc area to visit family i might stop in and kick his ass

  2. nycfan 01/16/2007 at 1:58 PM #

    I think you are probably being overly sensitive to a teeny publication where the sports editor is also the sports columnist and the sports writer — he is the sports department … it seemed he was saying he had never been an NC State fan, but despite that always liked Julius Hodge. Pretty harmless. Given the content of their sports page at that link, I doubt it is a primary source of sports news for anyone in Roanoke Rapids.

  3. Scratch 01/16/2007 at 2:06 PM #

    Working for the Roanoke Rapids Herald is punishment far greater than any of us could offer.

  4. highonlowe 01/16/2007 at 2:08 PM #

    you’d think an editor would understand the importance of being un-biased

  5. PackGirl 01/16/2007 at 2:20 PM #

    He’s probably a UNC grad making

  6. PackGirl 01/16/2007 at 2:22 PM #

    ^That should say..

    He’s probably a UNC grad making less than 20K per year. His only consolation is being able to publicly disparage NC State.

  7. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 01/16/2007 at 2:24 PM #

    Please point out one un-biased reporter in news, sports, business, or entertainment.

  8. beowolf 01/16/2007 at 2:24 PM #

    I guarantee you that SFN’s post here has given him at least two more columns’ worth of material.

  9. Jeff 01/16/2007 at 2:29 PM #

    Good point, beo! I think he needed two more columns’ worth of material!!

    Additionally good points by nycfan. Thanks!

  10. choppack1 01/16/2007 at 2:30 PM #

    nyc fan – Yea – on the surface it’s harmless. However, big picture is that it’s something State fans deal with every day.

    I live in Winston Salem. Several years ago, when the TarHeels got a committment in late spring, early summer for the next year’s recruiting class, the Journal’s recruiting guru – Bill Cole – noted that this was the first recruit to verbal to North Carolina ACC schools. I sent him a note advising that NC State had another committment, that was earlier than this. (Some kid named Mario Williams, perhaps you’ve heard of him.) To his credit, he printed a retraction and an update the next day.

    Give Vaughn credit – at least he admits it. You’ve got Green, the guy in Greensboro whose name I can’t remember and Ned Barnett in Raleigh.

    At NC State we fight a deeply rooted bias from many sport writers every day – sometimes they are small papers like this one, others it’s the Charlotte Observer.

  11. Rochester 01/16/2007 at 2:38 PM #

    Maybe we need to start up a journalism program. When I graduated (’93) there was a journalism minor, but no major. If we cranked out journalism grads like UNC maybe we could infiltrate a few of the papers with enlightened reporters who recognize the school in Raleigh is just as important as the others.

  12. BoKnowsNCS71 01/16/2007 at 2:57 PM #

    At least he admits publicly his bias.

    What I don’t like are the people who do hate us or who are pro-UNC, pro-Duke, etc.. who hide pretend to be objective while they write any rumor or incident they can to embarass us.

    They have to print when one of their own school’s players gets caught smoking weed or gets in bar fight but they do go out of their way to look for negative stories.

    “You ain’t paranoid if they really are out get you.”

  13. Clarksa 01/16/2007 at 3:03 PM #

    I think you should take the advice of this column and Dont’ Feed the Troll.

  14. Pack92 01/16/2007 at 3:21 PM #

    Rochester is absolutely correct. Don’t expect any sympathy in a state where the biggest journalism school is at your biggest rival. Marketing programs are the same way. Don’t think so? Go look and see the predominate color on the discount t-shirt rack at Wal-Mart. It isn’t red.

    As for the guy in Roanoke Rapids, (snort, snicker) I suspect he would gladly trade his income to have the taxes a first -year Forestry grad pays.

  15. packpigskinfan23 01/16/2007 at 3:25 PM #

    ^^ “just because your paranoid, dosnt mean their NOT after you…”

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 01/16/2007 at 3:38 PM #

    Thank Pigskin. 60’s quotes are tough. I don’t remember much from then. 😉

  17. packpigskinfan23 01/16/2007 at 3:39 PM #

    hahaha… that one wasnt quite sixties…. unless Kurt Cobain stole it. and I am sure he did.

  18. Sam92 01/16/2007 at 3:50 PM #

    i don’t particularly care for UNC’s journalism school, but someone from there might be able to give us a professional opinion

    my non-professional opinion is that since the column is under his name (“The Vaughan Intuition”) it’s appropriate for him to express his personal opinion, whatever it is

    it would also be appropriate for our friends in roanoke rapids to let their personal opinions about this turkey also be known

    we could have another conversation about whether “the Vaughan Intuition” is a teensy bit high-falutin for someone in his position

  19. #44 17 24 01/16/2007 at 3:54 PM #

    I agree that its a bit un-professional, but I dont mind him coming out and saying that he doesnt like NC State. It shows me that he is able to put aside his personal bias toward a certain program, and give credit to an outstanding basketball player. Everybody knows already that every fan of sports, whether you are a sports writer or not, has their favorites, and I think this easier than guessing whether or not a guy is bull****ing or not.

  20. LRM 01/16/2007 at 3:55 PM #

    Rochester, let Carolina have their journalism. I love to write columns occassionally for this site because it’s an outlet, a hobby. It’s fun to do.

    But State grads have more important purposes in life than writing about sports. We’re too busy solving the world’s problems that Carolina grads create.

    It reminds me of a great Bob Knight quote: “All of us learned how to write by the second grade, but most of us go on to other things.”

  21. Sw0rdf1sh 01/16/2007 at 3:56 PM #

    You know I’ve been bitching here for a while about how crappy the NCSU press is down here in Wilmington, NC….but this (and the comments above) all kind of validate why.

    Underpaid (aren’t we all) journalists have a big burden at these small town rags to wear a lot of hats. Editorials I feel should be unbiased, but I’ve been a pack fan long enough to know those boys in blue get all the love.

    Hell, if you have ever been in a mall ANYWHERE in the world there is a hat shop with tarheel gear all over it. Look for that Pack hat? Good Luck.

    2 months ago I was in San Diego and went to a sporting goods store. Yes looking for a Rivers Jersey….. Anyway, sitting right there on the rack Tarheel hat, Pirates hat (what?), no NCSU hat. That sucked.

  22. Rick 01/16/2007 at 3:58 PM #

    “I guarantee you that SFN’s post here has given him at least two more columns’ worth of material.”

    Probably his plan.
    For him, thinking up an original and interesting article is as hard as finding a straight man in Chapel Hill’s journalism school.
    So it is easier to pull a Doyle and just tick people off. He is simply lazy and dim witted.

  23. dj9686 01/16/2007 at 4:32 PM #

    I think we are taking this a bit personally and reading too much into what he’s said. I took his comments as if he had said, “Although I’m not a State fan, I do like Julius Hodge.” I’m trying to think of a time I may have said that same thing in regards to a UNC or Duke player, but I just can’t. 😉 If it really was a dig, why even give the guy any recognition about it?

    PS-State’s version of a journalism degree, at least back in the 80s was a BA in writing and editing.

  24. dj9686 01/16/2007 at 4:35 PM #

    PSS-Plus an editor’s job often is to ”editorialize” and I’d rather see something like that than Caulton Tudor’s overall constant negativity towards almost every team.

  25. redfred2 01/16/2007 at 4:53 PM #

    No false pretenses. I like it, it’s better than writing with a bias and pretending otherwise.

    I think Vaughn has a banner for the Northern North Carolina, Southern Virginia, Roanoke Rapids invitational journalism championship in 2005. Wait, there’s never, ever been a NNC/SV/Roanoke Rapids invitational journalism championship. Oh well, all of his friends and family say that if there was one, he would have been it.

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