Sorry about the continuing series on the Leach saga, but it’s a dry time for college football and the depositions are one of the few games in town worth blogging about.
Yesterday was the James family’s turn. The AP report doesn’t contain any real shockers, as it mainly consists of lawyer spin for each side, but this report from the Lubbock Fox station has one gem about Craig James:
Ted Ligget, counsel for Mike Leach, says Craig James admitted he has hired Spathe Communications Group out of Dallas, and that Spathe Communicated with Texas tech in a manner to manipulate messages to the media regarding Adam James and Mike Leach. Including actually using pseudonyms to go online and blog and try to shake the nature of the news. (Ed. note: Channel 34 – go hire an editor.)
If Craig James manages to stay employed by ESPN after all is said and done, it’ll be another sad day for sports media.
Get The Picture 
He will probably be promoted…..
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What’s the difference between “blogging for effect” and the Fox anti-Democrat “News”….it may not be good journalism, but it sure gets your point across, so RusDawg could very well be right.
“I’m just a dad.”
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And Fox is the only news outlet that’s biased or slanted?
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That’s what he said…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031102523.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
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Oh please. Tell me you’re not serious.
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Absolutely serious.
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No, you’re not. You just don’t know it.
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That was your funniest post yet DiF.
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Google makes me happy:
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/03/14/an-assault-on-fox-news-by%E2%80%94howell-raines/
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Michelle Malkin…
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/04/prweb376471.htm
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Regardless of what you think of Raines (and he’s not one of my favorites), there’s not a single statement of fact in that piece you link to which supports any of the author’s broadsides against the man.
If that’s your idea of journalism, jeez.
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Senator…finally read the link to the Raines piece…this is an opinion, I believe, therefore attribution not required.
And herein lies the problem, most folks, most readers and viewers don’t understand the subtle difference.
One of the reasons I love college football is that the final score, no matter the reasons you may give, is unalterable.
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I think the point was DiF used an opinion piece to prove other stations were not just as biased as Fox when in fact he was only attempting to prove Fox was biased. Nothing subtle about that.
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Oh…Senator no apologies needed. At some point it will become obvious there is more at stake here than El Pirato’s money.
The Jan Kemp fiasco started out about her job…athletics was never part of the issue, before the trial lawyers got involved.
Based on TTU’s lawyer’s bs about the interest in Tubberville’s kids school, it is pretty obvious TTU hired Tommy very early in the proceedings, maybe before Leach was fired.
Interesting in light of the Bobby Petrino scuffle at Tommy’s former job.
This stuff is fascinating for some weird reason.
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or the liberal spin that is MSNBC. Its all in the eye of the beholder.
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Since ESPN has been a part of Disney it has had very little credibility as far as journalistic integrity. More than that, they don’t much claim any…we’ll see, but imo, if James gets fired over this it will be a change of attitude by the WWL.
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Politics aside. Scorpio, you make a great point. Where’s the issue with what the PR firm did? Spin is spin.
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According to every player that has spoken out on that team, Leach’s behavior became even more erratic and bizarre than usual during his last season. James and his son may have done some shady stuff but Leach was fired because of Leach.
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JMart, I agree Leach was a nut. But he was a nut with a contract. TTU should have fired the guy if they wanted to, but paid his severance. That is what the case is really about. Instead, TTU fudged the facts and used the incident with the James kid as an excuse to get out of paying the buyout.
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Mr. Spradlin,
This is hardly the place to have this discussion, but Fox and Roger Ailes are in a league of their own. Fox institutionally panders to a conservative fan base, many of whom feel all media is biased in one way or another.
It’s Rupert Murdoch’s network, so if that’s what he wants it to be, fine.
Journalism, the way it should be done, it is not.
I don’t know what this has to do with Mike Leach, but probably something.
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Find for me a network or newspaper that does journalism “the way it should be done” anymore.
And how does this relate to Mike Leach? Well he’s a pirate and has been a victim of bad PR (spin). Just like Jack Sparrow.
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The world needs Lewis Grizzard….
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Sorry Scorpio, there is no shortcoming you can attribute to Fox, except maybe disagreeing with you, that isn’t equally present in numerous news organs of the opposite view. If you think Howell Raines is objective then you aren’t.
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Fox is no more biased towards the right than the other stations are toward the left. We are all fortunate that at least both sides of the story get out now, twas not always so.
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I agree with Brandon. More left wing media bias nationally than the 1 only (fox) that covers the right.
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Is this the best outlet for politics ? Even TTU, CML and the James family are less slimey.
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Howell Raines???? was up wi dat?
And you are all right, (no pun intended) this is hardly the forum for politics.
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I quit watching the broadcast media for anything other than emergencies a long time ago, so all I can say is that I hope Fox covers the news better than it did the BCS. 😉
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Well shoot, Senator. A three year old cracked out down syndrome monkey could cover the news better than Fox covers the BCS…..
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OK, I gotta say this: It is interesting we can agree Fox’s coverage of a football game was bad, but that their skill level in providing fair and balanced coverage of the news is better.
Oh…and I always thought Howell was a smart guy, Jayson Blair notwithstanding, and its good to find out he thinks like I do, unusual for a Bama guy.
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Why is it interesting? Fox doesn’t use its sportscasters to deliver news or commentary. I think NBC (Olbermann) is the only one to try that. And I know Ailes isn’t stupid enough to try to copy that train wreck.
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Scorpio, scuse me for trying to pin you down, but let me get this striaght. You think Fox news is biased on the reporting and commentary sides, but MSNBC, CNN, CBS, etc. not so much, and you think the product Howell Raines puts out on the news side at the NY Times is objective?
Do I have this right?
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In the first place, and not that it matters particularly, but Howell Raines does not work for the New York Times…anymore. Further I did not know about Raines’ current anti-Fox diatribe until somebody here linked it.
It is, for me a matter of personal perspective.
I spent a lot of years in the journalism business trying every day not to let my predjudices get in the way of telling the story. Which is how I was taught to do it beginning in Athens.
I NEVER, for instance, covered anything to do with the University of Georgia.
From my perspective, and I don’t expect anybody to have the same perspective I do, Fox has only one bias…gaining audience and making money. In that effort they pander to what they view as the conservative side of things. Which obviously works for them.
All of Rupert Murdoch’s properties do this…you should read some of the stuff they publish in England.
I have no idea what the individual bias of any of the rest of the broadcast media may or may not be.
It is interesting because we can all agree, it appears, that Fox is inept with football broadcasting, yet some of us feel they are good with other subjects, BECAUSE THEY AGREE WITH US!!!!
I believe a fair and impartial media is irrevocably tied to the success or failure of this society.
That’s the way I feel, and I don’t think Fox is contributing to that norm.
It think that is bad for you, bad for me and bad for all of us.
Again, this is hardly the place….but you asked.
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You don’t have to go to England to see the effects of the Murdoch touch. Just check out what’s happened to the Wall Street Journal’s news side since he bought that paper.
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If Fox bothers you but others don’t, that’s letting prejudices affect your judgment. They’re all business corporations, there to earn a profit for their shareholders.
Am I a Fox fan? I try not to be a fan of any broadcast news because I don’t trust what I hear. But people make me root for Fox when they say or imply: “Fox is biased and I am free from the temptations of ordinary men.”
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All I know is that rasslin’s real.
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This will be some juicy findings given that both parties gave over 10 hours of testimony…..
most noteably, that Craig James admitted to going after Leach’s job and that the young James was rather dismissive / ambivalent to his father’s malice.
Leach may be a victim of his public persona more than many folks are willing to admit, unfortunately.
Tubbs would make an interesting investigative biopic, for all his sanctimonious bible-speak, shady, back-door practices sure seem to follow him around
Also, with regards to American news, one may want to explore the rise of Capital Cities Media in the 80’s and how that spawned the current monster of 24 hour ‘news feed’ that easily fits the bill of some type of propaganda machine. The kabuki duopoly of the the Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan political parties only exacerbates this.
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Is Hogan the Democrat or the Republican? Damn, I knew rasslin’ was involved in this somehow.
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