Topic: Media

[saherdfan]

No articles on offensive and defensive coordinators ???  No investigative reporting. 

[MUonium]

dad, are we there yet? no, son.    mom, are we there yet? no, son.   5 min later, are we.....

[W0lfman]

it appears absolutely 0 amount of investigative reporting.  they all waiting on footballscoop.com to give them a lead.

[Herdalum83]

Listen I'm not saying we have the best sports journalists in the country covering our team.

But, how do you know they aren't investigating it? You can only do so much if no one is willing to talk or doesn't have any info to give you then all you can do is speculate. Speculation is saved for Landon and his opinion pieces.

[W0lfman]

Listen I'm not saying we have the best sports journalists in the country covering our team.

But, how do you know they aren't investigating it? You can only do so much if no one is willing to talk or doesn't have any info to give you then all you can do is speculate. Speculation is saved for Landon and his opinion pieces.

it may be harsh to say this, but maybe your first sentence answers the question?

[Herdalum83]

I get it.

I think our media guys could do better too. But, our administration and athletic department are also terrible in terms of communicating with not just the media but anyone in general.

I wouldn't be totally shocked if Grant and others have reached out and attempted to get details on how the search is going for an OC and are just aren't being given enough details to go to print with.

Plus, Keith Moorehouse reported long ago that it was all but certain that the new DC would be coach Fuller.

[W0lfman]

all of that may be true.  i'd like to think our reporters have cultivated enough of a relationship with the AD and coaches where they could at least ask the question and then report the answers they've been given.  whether those answers go anywhere is irrelevant.  just the fact they are reporting is what i'd like to know and at this point we haven't even had that.  but your point is valid.

[THECHAMPISHERE]

It's pathetic. But when you combine the most secretive football administration in Marshall football History with one of the softest reporter groups in the country that's what we as fans get.

Absolutely no excuse for there not to be articles almost daily on the coaching searches.  At minimum there should be updates every 3-4 days. And the people at Marshall should actually want to give up a little info here and there...for the fans sake. Again, their communication is terrible.

[THECHAMPISHERE]

dad, are we there yet? no, son.    mom, are we there yet? no, son.   5 min later, are we.....

There's absolutely no defending it. I'm sorry. And I think it's offensive to sit here and again blame the fans like we are children who are doing something wrong. The media and the football administration needs to do their damn jobs. Part of their jobs as HC and AD are to communicate with their fanbase, not alienate them for weeks and months on end. Part of the media's job is to dig...not take no for an answer, ask tough questions. Investigate!

A halfway decent administration would give some updates and a halfway decent press would dig a little. Both are failing herd fans and the university. We should get an update at least every 3-4 days on this if not EVERY DAY...it's "the big story" right now. It gets clicks/sells papers.

[The E-Man]

It's pathetic. But when you combine the most secretive football administration in Marshall football History with one of the softest reporter groups in the country that's what we as fans get.

Absolutely no excuse for there not to be articles almost daily on the coaching searches. At minimum there should be updates every 3-4 days. And the people at Marshall should actually want to give up a little info here and there...for the fans sake. Again, their communication is terrible.

There's been no transparency what so ever at the Shewey building it shouldn't come as a surprise!

[MUther]

If there's no information then your article reads "STILL no information on the Coordinator positions at Marshall University."  And then get nastier with speculation in the article with more time that goes by.  The media needs to keep the pressure on the school, for the fans.  That's their job.

[saherdfan]

Guess What there are names out there.  A good reporter would call the possible OC/DC rumored candidates.  Would you get a lot of details?  Would you at least know that the candidate had been contacted???  Yes....  I see little effort by our reporters.  I understand that MU sucks with their communications skills.  I think Chuck has been beat down by the football coaches / administration.  I think his give a crap level on football has just fallen of the cliff.  The other reporters don't want to make any waves with Doc / Mike.  No "Coconuts" !!!  No news !!!

[saherdfan]

On another post it was asked why we dont  question the reporters.  I truly believe reporters check out this board often.  So in other words i believe i am questioning them with this Subject Post...

[Herdalum83]

Guess What there are names out there.  A good reporter would call the possible OC/DC rumored candidates.  Would you get a lot of details?  Would you at least know that the candidate had been contacted???  Yes....  I see little effort by our reporters.  I understand that MU sucks with their communications skills.  I think Chuck has been beat down by the football coaches / administration.  I think his give a crap level on football has just fallen of the cliff.  The other reporters don't want to make any waves with Doc / Mike.  No "Coconuts" !!!  No news !!!

According to multiple reports, linebacker coach Brad Fuller is all but guaranteed to get the DC job. Announcing it is just a formality that the athletic department yet to officially do. But, every reporter following the Herd (with Moorehouse being the first) say that Fuller is the guy there.

I've not even seen a list of names or rumored candidates on the OC position other than us fans on here throwing around our own ideas. At any rate, even if there is an official list of candidates getting in touch with them isn't as easy as just calling them and asking them if they've been contacted by Marshall. If they are coaching currently at another school you have to go through that school's sports information department as many places won't let you contact a coach or player without going through a SID. Then even if you manage to get in touch with that candidate he's got to give you something noteworthy enough to write an article around and then you have to pitch that to your editor to get the story approved for print. There is a lot of delicate and moving pieces here. No paper in the country is going to approve an update a day on the OC search btw for those that suggested that, even with an AD who was forthcoming with info there wouldn't be enough new information to justify that. Besides, there are other things to cover.

I know our media is soft on the Athletic Department you can tell that by the press conference questions they ask that we all get to watch. However, the fact of the matter is our local media could be very well digging and coming up empty due to the way this administration safeguards info.

I know some of you feel like if that's the case than the reporters should be writing about that too. But, 1. those kinds of pieces are saved for a columnist who get to put their opinions into pieces, not reporters. 2. You do have to maintain some kind of relationship with the school/Athletic Department. You can't get frozen out by them or you'll be out of a job. At the end of the day journalism is a fine balance between reporting what the public needs to know while keeping the trust of sources. In some instances, information is so important and the public needs to know about it so great that you have to as a journalist burn a bridge and piss off a source. Those instances in the world of sports are very few and far between. Ethically, a journalist should also try to only work with the facts. Speculation should be reserved for fans like us, columnist and pundits while reporters should avoid it at all cost. One of the biggest issues we have currently with the media both mainstream and local is trying to keep up with the ridiculousness of a 24-hour news cycle, which too often forces reporters to speculate, which leads to getting things wrong. So, I personally as a guy who holds a journalism degree do not want to see reporters writing speculative pieces, I think that kind of journalism has got us where we are now in today's media and is one of the major reasons so few trust the media. Write the facts. If you have no facts, write nothing.

Now, your columnists like Landon and Smock (Smock does reporter too) they can fire away in their columns if they want and at this point someone probably should write a column about why we have heard nothing on the OC a month after Bill Legg resigned to put a little heat on the athletic department to release some info.

But, there is no way to know for sure that the media in Huntington hasn't tried to dig and maybe they could be a little more persistent, but we just don't know behind the scenes that the reporters aren't trying or any of what is happening. All we do know is there hasn't been anyone hired.

[ed swain]

They could at least tell us they tried to get info from Doc,Hamrick and athletic dept and they were stonewalled and are frustrated.

[saherdfan]

Just a footnote that Byron has or has not been contacted about the opening is a start.  Byron would be political with his answers, but he could be reached.  No doubt about that.  I want to hear that Byron has at least been contacted.  I want them to be held accountable if they make a bad choice and did not even reach out to Byron.  I totally understand if Byron's goals are set to be an NFL coach, but if we just pass on even asking i for one would be pissed.  With the Mike D. deal we truly did not know the answers to the story until years later.  I want to know these answers now.  Other questions i would like to know.  Has anyone been consulted about this position?  Has Pruett, byron, chad been reached out to?  Did Doc reach out to his WVU buddies for advice?  An article written with some of these question answered would give a reader with knowledgeable about the MU situation an understanding about the direction that they are going in!

[W0lfman]

nice thread you started, saherdfan.  Definitely hit on valid topic with multiple great replies.

[coalherd]

83 mentioned the SID.  Years ago, the SIDs used to be pretty prominent and forthcoming with the media, generally speaking.   Remember our AD back in the mid/late 60s, Eddie Barrett?  Before coming to MU, he was a popular SID at WVU, where his dealings with the state's media was considered favorable and up front, which gained him a lot state support when he applied for the MU AD job.

Today, not even sure that MU has a SID.  If we do, perhaps he is bound by the seemingly "cloak of secrecy" apparently imposed from the top down.  Sometimes I get the feeling that the MU athletic department has adopted straight from the Nixon White House when it comes to dealing with the general public, its fan base, and the media!