The News and Record Blows It

You know, you wish and hope, do you not, that when you open up your paper on a Saturday morning (or any other morning) that what is reported by a local reporter has some connection to the truth. But after this weekend, and a phone conversation I just had with a reporter, I no longer can believe that that is the case.

I just got off the phone with a reporter from the News and Record named Ryan Seals who authored an article printed Saturday morning about a "cover up" of MRSA (that nasty staph infection going around) by the wrestling coaches at SE High school. Yes, it is true, one of the students on the wrestling team had been diagnosed with MRSA. The public needs to know that. But the rest of the story, the whole "cover up" theme, was not time sensitive and needed to be checked out first - and I mean really checked out. I tried to to make a point with Mr. Seals that he had not done due diligence in corroborating his story, especially when the integrity of multiple people was at stake, and especially still when dealing with a public health matter as serious as MRSA. He kept insisting that he had done everything he could reasonably do to fact-check for his article. He believes he did. But he didn't come close. And that is scary to me.

I am sitting here astounded, flabbergasted, flummoxed, by the sheer immaturity and naivite of this young reporter. He alluded to pressure on him to get the story out. Hmmm. I'd like to know more about that.

So, the gist is that a complaint has been made by a couple of sets of parents regarding the coaches at SE High School. There is a significant and ongoing back-story about these families and their relationship to the coaching staff at SE High which bears directly upon the charges being made.

So, highly inflammatory charges are made by a person calling the paper regarding another person and the reporter believes that calling a few people late on a Friday afternoon and leaving messages which are not returned before the deadline amounts to doing "everything that could be done" to verify the story.

Does he have any concept of the work cycle of teachers and school employees? Does he have any concept of real life? How many people to whom you send an e-mail or leave a voice mail call you back immediately? So Mr. Seals calls and leaves messages (of which some of the parties have no record) and he believes he has done due diligence? Is this the journalistic standard of the News and Record? Or do they enjoy ruining people's lives as a hobby?

The basic charge in the article is that the coaches at SE were telling students with MRSA to cover up their sores and to wrestle anyway. But this does not make any sense. Students cannot wrestle with bandages without the referee checking what's under the bandage. There is no evidence whatsoever that the coach said any such thing. It makes no sense for him to say such a thing. To do so would not only be a breach of every kind of ethics, but criminal negligence, or worse. But again, wrestling matches do not work in such a way that that is how a sore would be covered up anyway. It is totally ridiculous. If a coach wanted to fool a referee he would have his wrestler take off bandages and hope the referee did not see any blemishes.

The coach, Mr. Jim Cox, is a long standing public servant who has taught for over thirty years, and coached wrestling for the better part of his career. His son works with him at the school as well. They follow a strict guideline - if anyone has a blemish, as much as a zit - they are given a form and cannot wrestle until a doctor has seen the blemish. This is standard procedure and has been followed faithfully at SE and probably every other school in the county. There is no evidence that such procedures were set aside.

What really gets my goat is the flimsy and cavalier attitude regarding the facts in a story that could ruin a reputation and a career as well as cause widespread lack of confidence in our school system, all because of a personal grudge carried by a member of the community against another. The paper ought to have the ability to know the context of such charges before running with them.

I am further bothered because I have known and been associated one way or another with many different coaches in different sports over the course of the last several years as my daughters have been actively involved in sports at NW High School. The folks that coach sports work long hours for very little extra pay, if any, and deserve the benefit of the doubt, which means a real attempt to check facts, and not a witch hunt like this.

I know this goes out late on a Monday. In my case I have actually talked on the phone to the primary subject of this blog piece. I wouldn't think of writing a story about him without so doing - no matter what pressure I was getting.

I will write more tomorrow, after the News and Record's follow up story. I hope this won't be a N&R cover up of a bad story. Be ready reporters. I am going to be all over you on this.

Oh, and I have a new lead. I am told that students spoke as far back as last Tuesday about an article to come out in the paper. I really hope that is not true. Don't you Mr. Seals?