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Pardon me if I do NOT send flowers or suggest a moment of silence for the passing of Mr. Claude Sitton. Mr. Sitton, the “Editor” of the N&O did substantial damage…..as folks of his thinking sometimes do…..
However, he was the leading critic of Jimmy Valvano and used his bully pulpit….without the smallest shred of ethics…..to destroy Jimmy Valvano. Sort of like the Marine that jumped into a lion’s cage in the Washington Zoo and rescued a 3 year old girl. The headline read….”Marine steals poor lion’s lunch”.
Mr. Sitton was active in the “cocktail party circles” and the “leaks or innuendos”. Much like it is done today. He openly said, on several occasions, that he was going to personally “GET” Jimmy V.
Why….I have never been able to get a handle on that and the folks that remember such say that if you had challenged him on it….you would have been lambasted and the RPD would probably show up and find “ugly” things in your bedroom sock drawer or would have witnesses that put you at the scene of a local prostitution bust….with pants down running…
There have been many articles written on how Stress has been a contributing factor to the development of many cancers or other such disorders. One has to wonder if Jimmy V’s medical issues were the result of underhanded journalism.
I read that Mr. Sitton passed peacefully and had been in hospice. Having lost a parent that way….I did not wish him any physical pain or harm. I DID once think about stopping in at his Alabama home and personally asking him IF he said what he did or how his newspaper could not understand WHY the NCAA investigator wrote Jimmy V a personal letter….and that list of vindication goes on.
Jimmy V’s legacy remains intact….and he is more revered than ever. Only a handful of people will attend Mr. Sitton’s services….and we will not see him dashing on TV or delivering the ESPY speech or the farewell in Reynolds….where he actually forgave the folks that crucified him.
I also believe that there is a master plan and those people who cause great suffering and pain. I actually believe that some of them go directly to their eternal purgatory without “pleading” their case or asking for forgiveness before the supreme maker. Mr. Sitton will get all the courtesy that he deserves and will be expedited to the head of that line….
RIP, Jimmy V….
Yellow journalism destroys so many things and people. I despise and detest those who willfully embrace and practice it. Narrative, willful bias, agendas, and ideologues have as much place in journalism as they do in academia – none.
As much as I begrudge what some of Coach K’s on-court practices have done to the current state of college basketball, I will always respect and appreciate him for what he did for Valvano in V’s final months. K was entirely correct in what he said in ‘Survive and Advance‘ – “Jimmy didn’t cheat, people fabricated things to bring him down.”
K’s words in ‘Survive and Advance‘ about how people didn’t like V and how V did things and how he had the audacity to win (read: a certain shade of blues with their blue hair power army) are so profoundly sad and accurate. It’s time to state what’s always been obvious: as good a man as Dean was there was no way his program was going to let some Italian New Yorker come down and take over the ACC at NC State. They killed State’s 1973 season out of petty jealousy, and they killed V’s program at State with the same jealousy and bitterness.
V by no means ran the smoothest of programs. It did get away from him, but it was not from a place of malice with intent to cheat and defraud. It spiraled from having hands in too many places. The Cheat cabal, with the old N&O acting as its propaganda machine, took advantage of V’s situation at State once supposed “insiders” in the State program launched their money-making story – it was like blood in the water. Now the truth is out, ‘The Carolina Way’ is no great way to do things as some great person – it became a cover for willful deceit and fraud to cover your own cheating. A sanctimonious mountain of BS under the guise of doing things “the right (only) way“. Keep winning, at any cost.
Now look where we are – Valvano is celebrated universally for his life and the way he touched and impacted others. The Cheats are being exposed for the petulant, corrupt absolute sack of f**k that they are. You may not believe in a higher power, but I’ll be damned if that isn’t cosmic if not poetic. And God Bless the USA.
/rant
Lock it down. Someone will be offended. Dean was mentioned negatively.
🙂
WNOA….
Never mentioned the D Man…..only the despicable Claude Sitton….
You boys need to really not hold back….you need to LET IT OUT….it will only fester inside you and cause you undue pain.
I really do NOT know if Mr. Sitton was a UNC fan or just of the same mindset as MANY of their more vocal supporters…..
If he were NOT the Light BLue Undies wearing kind….then he probably did have a kindred relationship with them and matriculate in their lofty and highly literate circles.
SO, if there were reporters of the UNC J school….then perhaps their warped personalities…..and Mr. Sitton’s VILE misuse of the TRUSTED POWER OF THE PRESS….was a synergistic relationship….that begat the witch hunt and crucifixion….
I am often amazed at Jimmy V. His book….”They gave me a Lifetime…..then declared me DEAD” book is quite vindictive. But, the audio version that I have is pure Jimmy V wit and prose. He appeared NOT to be able to retain the anger that came out in the book. Give him a microphone….and some talking points….and he was probably in 7th heaven.
THAT is the V man that I knew. Yes, he did lose focus…..Yes…there were probably things going on that were never investigated….but the University and St. Monteith and the ACC decided he was guilty….before they heard any evidence….
The NCAA did not really come down on him…or the school. Maybe they figured out that the local press and his “own” had already done a pretty good job of that.
YES…it is poetic justice….and every time that we see Jimmy V (and it has JUST began), the folks from CH cringe and sneer. Maybe there is a candlelight vigil going on now…..
RIP Jimmy V…..I will NOT say what my thoughts are for Mr. Sitton….suffice it to say….I outlived him….and I know what his fate will probably be and he deserves every nanosecond of it….for eternity….and then some….
I really do NOT know if Mr. Sitton was a UNC fan or just of the same mindset as MANY of their more vocal supporters…..
^That’s a fair point. I know it says something about me and not necessarily in a positive light – but I truly have no problem using people’s own fallacies against them. Whatever Sitton’s reasons, in my eyes he deserves every bit the same amount of fallacy-driven character assassination as he engendered upon others.
Something about ‘reaping what you sow’.
‘Roo, the remark ancsu87 made wasn’t directed at you. It was a tongue in cheek reference to what happened around here after the Carolina game.
Sitton said to my face that he was going to “GET Valvano.” Heard it with my own ears, and was shocked. I was naive and thought that journalists were supposed to impartial.
What galls me the most is the News and Observer saying that he would never allow anything he knew to be untrue to be printed. What BS. Anyone from that time can remember the N&O’s long articles of innuendo on the front page followed be retractions literally in the obituaries a couple of days later. Sitton engineered that and if he believed ALL of the stuff he printed was fact, then he was an absolute idiot. And he was no idiot.
I THOUGHT that I posted this here….but MAYBE NOT.
There is a long “obit” article on the N&O. It goes into the Valvano Scandal (was actually the N&O and Sitton Scandal….but why confuse folks with facts).
One of the posters made a comment…
March 10, 1946 – Rocco and Angelina Valvano celebrate the birth of James Thomas Anthony Valvano….
March 10, 2015. Claude (I’m gonna….) Sitton dies….
Irony….Destiny (heard that term before…) Coincidence….whatever…..??
Who knows….but, I have to agree with the poster and my DW….”Happy Birthday, Jimmy V.”. Now that is NOT a Christian attitude….but some folks do not deserve the treatment that they receive….and likewise….the tormentors DO deserve everything that is handed out to them….FOREVER…..in eternity.
Alpha Wolf…..thanks for your confirmation. As Goose said when asked whom he had had to “Kiss up to” to get into Top Gun….the list is long and distinguished….and growing….
Sorry if this double posts and appears later….blame WordPress….
I will still will not buy that rag and I never will.
I am also still embarrassed by the way my university treated Valvano. People like Bob Kennel jumped on the train Sitton used to railroad Jimmy V.
It was all a disgusting use of power.The yellow journalist is like the referee or the judge on the take. The most important characteristic for people in those jobs is to be objective. There is absolutely no doubt that V was targeted by the old guard Deano lovers because of his success. I’m just glad I was 1000 miles from Raleigh when this was going down.
sore spot… I absolutely hate that face of March Madness can’t be found on campus anywhere. This is my history lesson hearing that this guy was one of the orchestrators… certainly no love lost.
Him aside, when will Jimmy get the court named after him? I know its only one championship but him through his foundation’s partnership with ESPN and cancer research has made him one of if not the most recognizable name in college basketball. I bet there are students today who know the name but not that he was our coach. I figure you can name the court after him for his off the court accomplishments by now.
Writing for the third time because I did not know the word police were here:
Sitton, Friday and Monteirh were tools of the UNCCH system and Dean network. He was a drunk and cheat in the 1980’s.
I had the honor to attend and graduate NCSU during this made up scandal. Some lack of oversight and issues yes. Scandal no. Se today at UNCCH for a real scandal. Everyone seems to forget that even the NCAA investigator apologized to Valvano. The whole affair did have a relationship to his early onset of cancer.
I at least got to tell Monteith what I thought of the situation after my graduation since he was the Dean of Engineering. I tried to explain to him that Valvano’s name recognition and love of the university would do more for us than any academic professor’s individual research. The conversation ended with me telling him “good luck and take care” (Google it if you don’t understand).
I wish I could have been 1,000 miles away during that time as it forever changed my view of justice, fairness, media and the government. Then to listen to all the comments from media coaches and the POTUS about Dean Smith well excuse me while I vomit on his grave. BTW am I the only one who thinks the four corners was not a revolutionary coaching idea? It was the most boring and chicken crap (word police) way to play BB I ever saw. I remember one of my JR. High friends beating A UNCCH fan like a drum when he tried to get his team to run four corners in a pick up basketball game to 21. I guess that kid he went on to graduate from UNCCH being as stupid as he was.
I can’t make a sentence with the name Dean Smith without using two words: F%%k and HIM
‘Roo, the remark ancsu87 made wasn’t directed at you. It was a tongue in cheek reference to what happened around here after the Carolina game.
Exactly. Sorry if it seemed directed at you.
… am I the only one who thinks the four corners was not a revolutionary coaching idea? It was the most boring and chicken crap (word police) way to play BB I ever saw.
It’s interesting, three Tobacco Road ACC coaches each had a profound impact on the rules of college basketball in their own way (not to mention the ACC was the first to implement the three-point line). Each of the respective coaches took advantage of the rules of the game in order to win games, and the rules of the game were changed in each situation.
V’s actions actually used in-game strategy – fouling late even in tied games in order to control how the game ended. Smart, strategic decision making that ensured that he dictated how the game would end. After the copy cats started in, it heralded the coming of the double bonus.
K’s and Smith’s respective actions were more about taking advantage of the game as it was. Less in-game strategy and more using the rules to their advantage. Smith would have killed modern day college basketball – can you imagine Espn taking off showing Dean Smith coached 12-10 final games? Shot clock – thank God.
And K? Not physical basketball. Cheap basketball. The hand check. The arm bar. The flop. Holding the opponent away from the ball to ensure no freedom of movement. Every action designed to stop offensive basketball moves and put the onus on the referees to make every single call. It has changed college basketball forever. There have been tons of rules changes because of the way defenses have played over the last 30 years. K is at the center of that. The ‘no charge’ semi-circle is basically in place because of Duke flops. It’s sickening to me.
What galls me the most is the News and Observer saying that he would never allow anything he knew to be untrue to be printed. What BS.
This. I was at our alma mater (in some capacity) from 1982-1991, and I saw firsthand the orchestrated assassination. The statement you paraphrase from the article is sickening. A more accurate statement would be “Claude would never print something that he didn’t believe to be true or didn’t want to be true.” He never hesitated to sensationalize exaggerations, rumors and outright lies, no matter how questionable the source. He never hesitated to bury or not print at all anything even remotely positive.
The portrait painted by the staff writer is nothing more than a posthumous attempt to highlight Sitton’s conquests while ignoring the ignominy of his methods, to color the man at a higher moral or ethical level than he ever attained.
As the saying goes, I try not to speak ill of the dead, but those of us who were in Raleigh at the time and lived through this know of what we speak. There are many things that our schizophrenic fan base can over-inflate and exaggerate, and I am occasionally guilty of that myself. This is not one of them.
This man was an ethical wasteland, an ego-driven destroyer, and an elitist, filled beyond mortal capacity with self-assured righteousness. He was the worst of the worst, an absolute piece of wind-driven filth, and I don’t give a f*ck who get pissed off because I said it.
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