Media mess

As both an aspiring journalist who has been to press conferences like this as well as a big-time college basketball fan, I found this video to be interesting. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and click on the big triangle in the middle of Jim Calhoun’s head. (Then scroll down for my 730-word take)




Basically this reporter, who it turns out is a UConn law school student and freelance writer, questions the merits of a basketball coach making more money than any other state employee in Connecticut. That’s more than any professor, more than any dean, even more than the senators, representatives and governor. The reporter wants to know: Is this right? Does Calhoun, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, the proud owner of two National Championship rings and the current head coach of one of the top three teams in the country, feel bad about this? In these tough times, should he be taking a pay cut?

I can’t answer those questions, but in my opinion, the writer goes about getting his story completely the wrong way and ends up looking like an idiot because of it. There’s nothing incorrect with doing a story about this topic, in fact, I think it would be very interesting. “Outside the Lines” on ESPN and “Real Sports” on HBO always seem to cover issues like this, and in the past, Sports Illustrated has written pieces doing the same. That’s fine.

The problem is when and where the interview is taking place. A post-game press conference- for those of you who don’t know (I’m not trying to sound elitist here, I just want to paint the picture clearly)- is a pretty formulaic event. Coach gets to podium, says a few words on the game, takes questions from the media (usually the writers/TV people the coach has a good relationship with) and then walks away. The writers then take the generic quotes the coach has spilled out, write up their game story and notes, e-mail their editor and then go have a beer. Not too complex.

For a story like the reporter in question is doing, an outside interview needs to take place. Now maybe this guy called the UConn basketball office and was turned down, so he figured this was his only chance. But when Calhoun says, “If you want to talk to me outside, I’d be more than happy to talk to you,” the reporter should have taken him up on the offer. Sure, he’d only get five minutes of the coach’s time, but that’s better than what ended up happening. The coach was perfectly OK in my book asking the reporter his take on the game, and when no response was given, telling him to shut up. The reporter then did himself no favors in the future by calling out the other journalists in the room who are there to cover a college basketball game, not a budget crisis.

Calhoun also comes off looking good to me because of his closing comments. A lot can be made about how much the coach makes, how it’s insane that a person who coaches basketball can make a million and a half dollars a year, plus God knows how much in endorsements (I doubt Dunkin Donuts put their logo on the sign behind the microphone because they are proud at how well the average GPA at the University of Connecticut is this semester). But the truth is, no matter what they are paying Calhoun, or any other big time coach at any other D-I school, it’s plenty worth it. It’s not fashionable for school administrators to say it, but good basketball teams that are playing deep into March every year are the best recruiting tool a school has for all students. Would anybody know anything about UConn were it not for Husky hoops? I doubt it. The coach points out that the men’s team brought in around $12 million last year to the university, and they’ll probably exceed that in 2009. I remember when I went to the University of Maryland one time for a summer program and heard a speech from an administrator there. He said that the school had their largest freshman application pool and incoming class of all-time, and it was no surprise that this was coming off of a year where the Terps went to the Orange Bowl and then won the NCAA basketball title.

The reporter who confronted Calhoun might have an interesting story to write and understandably wanted to get the coaches comment. But there is no doubt that better timing and better research were required for this guy if he wanted to prevent making a fool of himself.