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.

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54 Responses to Should editors make these comments?

  1. Cardiff Giant 01/16/2007 at 4:58 PM #

    What a horse’s ass. Of course, being sentenced to a third rate bumwipe like his is probably the journalistic equivalent of being chomped in Satan’s mouth, per the Inferno.

  2. BobLee 01/16/2007 at 5:33 PM #

    All the standard rival slurs aside (homos, screw farm animals, etc etc ) this issue is hardly worth such a huff n puff. The guy at the New Bern paper did a similar partisan piece a few weeks ago that was overtly partisan towards UNC. I even called him on it.

    Sports guys at these small community papers are the equivalent of one of your turfgrass grads working at a Putt Putt.

    Hopefully these kids are in their first jobs and still thrilled they once ran into Raymond Felton at Taco Bell. If they are over 30 and still at this level, they aren’t fast tracking.

    As others have said … this thread gives him more publicity than he merits. You’ve made his month.

    BobLee

  3. RedTerror29 01/16/2007 at 5:52 PM #

    The plethora of UNC and Duke gear has more to do with their success on the court than marketing bias. Outside of regional draws and special cases like Notre Dame (biggest Catholic univ. in US), the programs that win the most sell the most swag. Those “Walmart” fans are bandwagoners. I pride myself on NOT being a bandwagon fan, but I wouldn’t mind some bandwagon State fans…cause that would mean we had a bandwagon (i.e. lots of success).

    And I think Bobby Purcell would prefer we stick to our high-paying engineering and applied technology majors. 😉

  4. packpigskinfan23 01/16/2007 at 6:05 PM #

    I give the guy credit. He told the truth.

    better that then rip into us.

    and plus, he didnt rip into us at all.

    he did however give one of the most emotional and true basketball players to put on red in the past 15 or so years(until this year) a LOT of credit.

    kudos.

  5. GAWolf 01/16/2007 at 6:26 PM #

    As someone who grew up in Roanoke Rapids and constantly had my picture from a highschool sporting contest in the paper with someone else’s name under it, I wouldn’t read too far into this.

    The Herald… or “Her-old” if you’re actually from Halifax County… is a pretty terrible newspaper. It always has been, and likely always will be. Nonetheless, it’s a DAILY newspaper in a county where not enough happens on a daily basis to fill it up. For that, I appreciate what those guys do who have to make up stories or rehash the local police blotter for weeks at a time. Occasionally one of the Parton’s come through town and there’s a party and thus a story. But let’s face it, after a few weeks of daily blurbs on the Parton clan even that hot news gets a bit tired.

    So I seriously wouldn’t let this bother you. I actually read the “story” in the actual newspaper itself (as I had no clue the paper even had a website–pretty impressed with the hometown), and I didn’t think twice about it. In small towns with small town readers, opinion is often accepted as fact and facts are even sometimes deemed opinion. It’s the way of life in a small town where there isn’t constant bickering about what gets printed. I don’t think this piece, for instance, was written as a news-breaking “story” as much as it was likely intended more along the lines of an op-ed sort of piece. Regardless, no one cares…. so the guy writes what he wants. I definitely wouldn’t take it personally. As a diehard Pack fan who has often screamed of the anti-NCState-media-conspiracy, I didn’t think twice about this one.

    On a sidenote, I don’t know this Vaughn kid (and from his picture in the Her-Old he is a pretty young kid– definitely fresh out of college), but I do know that Greg Jenkins who held the Sports Editor post when I was in school is now the editor of NC Wildlife Magazine. Good for Greg… he’s a heck of a nice guy.

  6. Uncle Pack 01/16/2007 at 7:12 PM #

    OK, but who the hell cares? It’s Roanoke Rapids, for crying out loud. Nothing against the town, but even GAWolf admits it’s a terrible newspaper. As for media bias, I am an N.C. State graduate who worked in the N&O sports department for a few years last decade. When I worked there, we had more NCSU graduates then UNC grads in the departments. The best sports editor I had there – and the most fair – was a UNC grad. The worst editor was an NCSU grad. I don’t know where the current S.E. went to school, but I do know that assistant S.E. Dane Huffman is a UNC grad. Chip Alexander and Joe Giglio are N.C. State graduates. Tudor, of course, went to ECU, but his wife is a huge UNC fan. Tudor, however, in my opinion is pretty fair (not always right, now, but relatively unprejudiced). He respects the heck out of NCSU’s tradition.

    Now, Claude Sitton, who was N&O executive editor during the Valvano years, was a UNC guy who had a vendetta to get rid of Jim Valvano. Now, I am by no means a big Valvano fan, but that’s what I was told from the inside at The N&O. Sitton wanted Valvano gone. The fact The N&O went after Valvano so hard in the light of the book and the situation at NCSU under Poulton and V was, quite frankly, the right move. But for Sitton to make his contempt for V so well known at The N&O was striking to me.

  7. doatesjr 01/16/2007 at 7:22 PM #

    You guys are kidding, right? Oh wait, I forgot… everyone loves UNC and the world is out to get the Wolfpack! Thanks for reminding me (every freakin’ day)! Get a life…

  8. travelwolf 01/16/2007 at 8:11 PM #

    hey, at least he’s honest… he admits where he stands. maybe he should have been more specific – a whole university is alot to not care for. i just watched the end of an old 2006 tape i had of the NCSU vs BC Men’s basketball that went into 2x overtime. i must admit, i didn’t particularly care for our 2006 NC State basketball while watching that tape. our play now is so much more enjoyable to watch! it’s like the difference in football between a team that runs the ball all the time (boring!) and one that mixes it up. man, am i happy we got a new coach! and i’m sure alot of that thanks goes to StateFansNation for putting the heat on Herb.

  9. Sw0rdf1sh 01/16/2007 at 8:13 PM #

    ^
    No, no….everyone in the world is out to get the Fighting Camels. All this is just a ploy to annoy you. Jeez…what a jerk.

    In other news….it’s official on Archer.

  10. doatesjr 01/16/2007 at 8:49 PM #

    Right, I’m a jerk because I’m tired of all of the whining that goes on concerning the poor plight of all the little State fans out there. If you guys spent half as much time worrying about the state of your athletics dept. as you do about anti-NCSU conspiracies you might actually start getting some of the bias in your favor.

  11. redfred2 01/16/2007 at 9:42 PM #

    Somebody’s overly doted upon junior

    These are OUR little conspiracy theories, and we like em that way.

  12. redfred2 01/16/2007 at 9:48 PM #

    Go hang a banner for the 1918 National Kite Surfing Championship.

  13. doatesjr 01/16/2007 at 10:02 PM #

    Whatever, you guys are soon going to lay claim to the ‘Whine and Cheese’ crowd. Sorry to interrupt your circle jerk….

  14. NCSU4LIFE 01/16/2007 at 10:05 PM #

    Who cares. He can kiss my ass.

  15. CarnifeX 01/16/2007 at 11:19 PM #

    http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/532999.html

    Its (locally) official. Mike Archer will be the Pack’s next DC.

    The best thing “our own” (I use that with quotations and I still feel need to say that I use it loosly [especially in this thread]) paper can say about this hire’s previous team’s D is that his team had the 5th ranked turnover margin.

    Is that the best they/anyone can come up with? I think there are a few factors other than D on that stat. Does anyone have anything particularly positive to say about the guy?

  16. Sw0rdf1sh 01/16/2007 at 11:38 PM #

    I think Archer will pull it out. I understand what you are saying though CarnifeX, there are better stats…and they should have mentioned them. I don’t know a whole lot about the guy yet either, but D has been big for us the past few years and I hope it keeps up it tradition.

    I can’t believe that TOB would go a direction that he didn’t feel comfortable with, especially with the $ that I’m hearing they are dishing out. (can someone confirm salary?)

    Anyway, looks like doatesSR could have passed on some brains. Typically when someone gets annoyed at something (daily?) you tend to avoid it. Not post another idiotic comment once an hour.

    Not that SFN”s traffic would suffer. This place is blowin up!

  17. Woof Wolf 01/17/2007 at 12:21 AM #

    Vaungh admited up front that he didn’t like State and then wrote a glowing piece about “Jules from Harlem on the Way to a Last Chance in Milwaukee.”

    We haven’t had a really good basketball team since 198.. something. In the memory of a lot of these sports reporters we’ve had one pretty good football team that won the first nine games in 2002 and were in position to have a really great year. Then we lost three in a row before rallying to win the last game and THE bowl game.

    Ron Green, Sr. gritted his teeth and wrote some not too bad stuff about us in 73 and 74. He was sure were going down in the final four, but still wrote some good columns in 83.

    The press and the officials are not responsible for the marginal teams of the last few years. When we deserve respect and don’t get it, then bitch about it.

  18. shellnc 01/17/2007 at 1:22 AM #

    I’d like a public forum to air all of the things that I don’t care for:

    I don’t particularly care for uncch.
    I don’t particularly care for the Charlotte Disturber.
    I don’t particularly care for scrotum lickers, therefore
    I don’t particularly care for the Ron Green or Ron Green Junior.

    Of course I don’t have to read their stuff because I have better things to with with over $200 per year than by paper to wrap fish and line bird cages with. Too bad that these morons will never have to go out and get a real job.

  19. blpack 01/17/2007 at 7:24 AM #

    I don’t particularly care for poorly written columns. Even his compliments were back handed. At least he loved someone back in the day.

  20. choppack1 01/17/2007 at 9:00 AM #

    Sure – not too many people read this paper. It’s kind of like something you’d see in the Transylvania Times or some other small town paper. However, we should remember these things in case this guy goes to another paper. As I’ve stated earlier, this particular case isn’t earth-shattering or even damaging in itself. However, it’s a demonstration of the kind of bias some of us see on a regular basis from our own media in the North State.

    Now, as for the usual clip-cloppers who start their griping any time a media bias argument starts….
    I love the strawmen that are put up on these things.

    1) “It’s a media conspiracy against NC State/the whole world hates NC State.”
    You often see this statement after specific arguments are made about media bias against State. Rather than counter w/ specifics to refute the argument, they just say, “Oh, it’s the world against NC State, it’s a CONSPIRACY!”

    This is a fairly common debating tactic. One mentions someone’s record when voting against a string of military bills and that someone says “You’re questioning my patriotism.” You question why there’s such a discrepancy between Duke and their opponents when it comes to foul shots, and Jay Bilas replies “It’s stupid to think there’s an officiating CONSPIRACY for Duke.”

    In each of these cases above, specific questions are asked. Rather than debate these questions or offer counter points, it’s easier to just to try to jump to the most severe conclusion for the other side – and dismiss the argument as foolish.

    2) “We deserve the bad treatment we get, after all we’ve sucked for years.”

    Deserve has nothing to do with. Fair treatment in the press shouldn’t be contigent on success. If anything the more successful should be subjected to more scrutiny. At the very least, right is right and wrong is wrong. Just because we haven’t hung any meaningful banners lately, it doesn’t mean that our digressions should be highlighted, while our opponents are swept under the rug.

    3) “We need to worry more about our athletic success than what the media is saying.”

    I agree w/ this one in theory and practice – and I think most of us do this. However, most of us can certainly concentrate on more than one thing in our lives. Just because Media Bias infuriates me, it doesn’t mean that I think that’s the reason we haven’t won ACC championships in b’ball or football in 2 decades. It’s the simply identification of a wrong, that impacts my alma mater – even if it’s just minor.

    At the end of the day, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for fair media coverage.

  21. redfred2 01/17/2007 at 12:36 PM #

    chop, good job!!!

  22. dj9686 01/17/2007 at 1:10 PM #

    Man, can this be the end of this thread. That article really doesn’t deserve this kind of recognition. I still don’t get all the offense taken from it and I read it in the N&O, graduated from NCSU and for a couple years worked on the Technician and was blessed to have been there during the 1983 Championship run.

    The slight amount of personal opinion voiced in the Roanoke Rapids newspaper didn’t bother me at all. It shouldn’t bother us. It’s just some guy’s opinion which he’s got a right to voice. Sometimes I do wonder if there is some sort of prejudice against NCSU teams, especially when all we get is that little 2.5 inch column in the N&O that says has the “when & where,” and little more. It’s rare that Duke or UNC gets that little press no matter how insignificant the competition. So, let’s let this thing go with the Roanoke Rapids paper.

    PS-Why do the ACC basketball standings resemble what you would expect the ACC football standings to be?

  23. noah 01/17/2007 at 3:33 PM #

    I have to regrettably quote Mike Greenburg and something he said this morning. He was talking about LT’s reaction to the calls SD got last weekend and Greenburg said that LT was putting too much emphasis on the wrong thing.

    He talked about Jordan when the Bulls and the Knicks were going at it every year. One year, the Knicks complained that the Bulls got all the calls. Greenburg goes up to Jordan and tells him what the Knicks are saying and Jordan looks right at him and says, “Yeah…so?”

    Win the games and no one really gives a damn about all the other crap. It’s just stupid, whiny, loser CRAP. You think Dean Smith gives a damn that Steve Norton was absolutely mugged in the final minute of the game at the Smith Center during Sendek’s first year? Or that Osh Benjamin got anal raped at the end of the game the same year at Reynolds?

    Hell no. Just like we don’t care that Danny Peebles pushed off on the last play of the USC football game at Carter-Finley in 1986.

    Crapping your pants over a “media conspiracy” is what you do when your basketball team has made ONE Sweet 16 since 1989 and your football team has never had a top-10 finish in more than a century of competition.

  24. PackGirl 01/17/2007 at 5:42 PM #

    Conspiracy: a secret union for an evil purpose; a plot; joint action; concurrence.

    No one would be so ridiculous as to suggest that there is a “conspiracy” against NC State. I really don’t think the writers, TV announcers, etc. have meetings to discuss strategies for belittling us or ignoring us or whatever. Media bias, especially from UNC grads, is very plausible however.

  25. gumbydammit 01/17/2007 at 7:03 PM #

    this would bother me except it is the sports editor of a hayseed newspaper in a backwater town where the best news they’ve had in years was a new WalMart….

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